A significant yet often overlooked transformation is reshaping the global financial landscape: the emergence and rapid growth of stablecoins. These digital assets, usually tied to the value of the US dollar, offer a stable alternative to highly volatile cryptocurrencies. They combine the advantages of digital tokens, including fast settlement and programmability, with a predictable valuation. This makes them increasingly attractive for payments, trading activity, and storing value across both the crypto ecosystem and a growing number of emerging markets. Simple design, large impact The core design of fiat-backed stablecoins is straightforward. They maintain their value by being fully backed by…

Private equity (PE) remains one of the most dynamic and influential forces in global capital markets. From fueling innovation in fast-growing startups to transforming legacy corporations, PE firms employ a range of investment strategies tailored to different company stages, market conditions, and risk profiles. Among these, three categories dominate the landscape: Add-On Acquisitions, Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs), and Growth Equity. Each of these investment profiles serves a distinct purpose in the private capital ecosystem. Understanding how they differ is crucial for fund managers, LPs, and entrepreneurs navigating today’s complex investment environment. Below, we explore each strategy in detail, supported by academic…

As Treasury is looking to refinance significant portion of it’s short term treasuries, investors demand will remain a question. It was mentioned multiple times over last tow years that China significantly reduced their treasury holdings. More recently we seen Japan which had largerest drop in US treasury holdings since 2022. There is also popularization of treasury futures to gain duration exposure through easier execution and more flexible accedd to leverage. This causes flattening of the cash Treasurties demand amongst fixed income funds which we see post 2020. This reduced bond managers demand for cash bonds, increase the risk of disorderly…

Investors entered the past year optimistic that micro-cap stocks would experience a significant rally, driven by expectations of economic resilience, supportive monetary policy shifts to monetary easing, and attractive valuations. However, the much-anticipated micro-cap resurgence failed to materialize, leaving investors puzzled. U.S. small-cap stocks have declined just over 6% since the March rally, remaining roughly flat over the past year. Despite rising more than 20% from their 2022-2023 lows. Several key reasons underpin this underperformance: Over the past two decades, the Russell 2000 has steadily lost its performance edge over the S&P 500, shifting from being a historically reliable outperformer…

There is the interesting return of a debate about share buybacks, as they have reached new all-time records, amounting to USD 1 trillion in 2024 and contributed to the US budget USD 7.4 billion through taxes on buybacks introduced in 2023. That’s roughly 2% of the entire US market capitalization. Last year’s buybacks where lead by Mag7, followed by large banks. Apple lead the pack with over USD 100 billion of stock buybacks. Debate is that many board of direcors do not adjust the EPS targets for the buy back policy. The EPS which is the main driver of the…