recipes for healthy food

Managing Editor's Note: The next major breakthrough in artificial intelligence is right around the corner…

This is going to be one of the biggest – if not the biggest – technological breakthroughs in history, and far more powerful than any iteration of AI that we've seen so far.

And as we approach that tipping point, Jeff's put together an event about the economic "big bang" that will follow.

When this has happened on a much smaller scale, it helped send individual stocks soaring 1,000%-plus. Now we could be looking at something orders of magnitude bigger.

Jeff's getting into all the details next Thursday, December 18, at 8 p.m. ET. You can go here to automatically sign up to attend. And if you want a breakdown of the scale of the opportunity, you can sign up for our VIP list, and we'll send you a special report Jeff has put together on his Massive 2026 Prediction.

When you sign up, we'll also send you alerts leading up to the big event. That way, you don't have to worry about missing a thing. Just go here to sign up.

Seismic Shifts Ahead

By Jeff Brown, Editor,
The Bleeding Edge

It was a big week at Brownstone Research.

As we announced with great excitement on Wednesday, we launched our new website with a new, very cool logo, which we feel better represents our company and our brand.

You can find the website right here at www.brownstoneresearch.com. Please, check it out, and if you have any feedback, we'd love to hear it.

The heavy lifting is now done. We have completely rebuilt our website from scratch, and it will be much easier to make improvements going forward. We also implemented an advanced search tool for the website, which I believe you all will find very useful. Just type in the name of a company or a technology, and in a split second, you'll get a list of issues with relevant research.

We also got together as a team for our end-of-year working sessions and planning for 2026. It is always awesome to see the team all together. The vibes were incredible. And I am incredibly grateful to have such a fantastic team at Brownstone Research.

We also took the time to celebrate the holidays on Wednesday evening. It was a spirited night after a wonderful and busy year, and my team is already geared up and ready to go for the new year. That makes me happy.

I started my newfound career as an analyst in 2015 and now have more than 10 years under my belt. Every year in November/December, I begin the planning process and research looking ahead into the next year.

All I can say is that I've never been more excited about the markets, economy, and investment potential than ever before. What's coming in the next two years is going to be just incredible.

We're going to the moon, literally and figuratively. There is going to be so much investment opportunity for everyone…

And we're going to make sure that you are well prepared for the seismic shifts that are right around the corner.

Happy Holidays,

Jeff

Let's Talk About SBLOCs

Admittedly, we all make mistakes from time to time, so here's a quick education for Ben Lily on his Bleeding Edge comments on SBLOCs. Anyone – and I do mean anyone – can easily (one signature) get an "SBLOC" at any investment firm. Simple and nothing new.
For some odd reason, you went to great lengths to make it seem like Larry Ellison has some special access to products with $10 million minimums at only Goldman and JPM, and with "stacks of compliance paperwork". Making it sound like this is some tool for the rich guys to buy islands is highly nonsensical and inaccurate.

Been in the Private Wealth advisory business for 30 years, and I promise ya' that everyday investors can easily obtain a security-based line of credit backed by their marketable securities for as little as $25K.

This does make me wonder what else in these emails (that I generally love) isn't/hasn't been accurately researched and is just "bad" information…

– Kirk R.

Hi,
I might be missing some details about what you mean by a SBLOC, but I got a securities backed loan 2 1/2 years ago from Charles Schwab with about $1m in my account at Schwab.

And it's not like I had some other wealth somewhere else that contributed to my ability to do that. I used the loan as a bridge loan when I bought a house and shortly after sold the house I had lived in up until then. The arrangement allowed me to avoid paying capital gains tax on my shares since I didn't sell them.

So, it seems SBLOC's are available for many people besides the super wealthy. Best…

– Keith A.

Hello Keith & Kirk,

Jeff's senior crypto analyst, Ben Lilly, here. I appreciate you writing in with your comments.

For readers who might have missed it, I wrote an issue on Monday titled What to Watch for in Congress Next Week. In this Bleeding Edge, I dug into the democratization of finance by looking at how financial tools typically reserved for the wealthiest of society are becoming more widely available through certain blockchain projects.

Namely, we looked at the securities-backed line of credit, or SBLOC. I called them "the ultimate tool for wealthy individuals to accumulate more wealth."

I also pointed out that, historically, these tools have been largely inaccessible to people who aren't extremely wealthy. But that's changing thanks to the changing landscape of finance, as things are moving onchain.

Now, to address your comments, you're right. SBLOCs are available for investors outside the super elite… but these tools are still far from being available to "anyone."

It's important to consider that only about 30–35% of U.S. households have a taxable brokerage account at all. And if we look at the net worths of the top 10% of households in the United States, we can see that approximately 90% of the U.S. is falling short of SBLOC requirements at the major banks.

Banks often have explicit net worth requirements to unlock these types of financial loans. So, while your brokerage account had $1 million worth of equities in it, the reality is that the average household doesn't qualify. The large majority of the population is still unable to access these tools.

Even though some niche brokerage accounts offer smaller, seemingly more approachable requirements, it's worth considering that these smaller shops usually come with strings attached. This includes variable rates, higher collateralization requirements, and limitations on use cases.

There's also the fact that borrow rates for SBLOCs are tiered. This means the more one can borrow, the closer to the secured overnight financing rate they can get. This might mean the difference between what Mr. Ellison pays and what a smaller borrower pays could cost them an extra 2.5–3% APY on the loan.

These nuances really help us understand why these digital asset solutions being described are, in fact, so incredible. Rates are not dependent upon the size of a loan, FICO score, or total net worth.

For a bank to know some of these details about a borrower indicates they've submitted a credit application and provided proof of ownership of assets.

When it comes to the solution described in the essay, this blockchain-based technology has no middleman and uses traditional payment solutions like Apple Pay.

That means that immediately, the new solutions are undercutting loan origination costs, reducing paperwork, and increasing the usability for those funds in minutes, as there's no T+3 settlement period to wait for a bank deposit to arrive. It's nearly instant.

I certainly acknowledge that accredited investors with large brokerage accounts have the ability to borrow against their equity holdings, as can high-net-worth individuals. But that is a very small percentage of the population.

At Brownstone Research, we have always been driven by helping all investors gain access to the kinds of investments and strategies that have long been reserved for accredited investors and high-net-worth individuals. For too long, investment banks and hedge funds have taken advantage of retail investors, something that we feel is deeply unfair.

We work very hard to stack the deck in favor of our subscribers so that they can get ahead of institutional capital and win rather than being taken advantage of.

That's one of the reasons why we like blockchain technology so much. It is a force for democratization of finance. It doesn't discriminate against non-accredited investors. That's why the blockchain-based SBLOC construct is so exciting. With such low minimums, they can be useful to almost the entire population.

I appreciate you both writing in with your comments, as it gave us the opportunity to dig a little deeper into the subject. My goal wasn't to mislead, but to highlight the reality of what has historically been off limits to the vast majority of the population, and how blockchain technology is being used to reverse that entirely.

The real takeaway is the democratization of finance and these exciting developments that are happening right now. And for those who might be skeptical, why not give it a shot for yourself? Experiencing it directly is the best way to gain a deeper understanding, and you'll have the added benefit of earning 5% cash back on what you spend… something no SBLOC will ever offer.

Thanks again.

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Jeff's Prediction to Glenn Beck Is Coming True

In 2019, Jeff went on Glenn Beck's video podcast and made the biggest AI prediction of his career. Now Jeff believes that prediction is about to come true and trigger an economic "big bang" in 2026. The economy… the stock market… his top picks… they could all skyrocket. The opportunity is so big that Jeff's holding an urgent briefing on December 18, at 8 p.m. ET, called: America Unleashed 2026: Five Years of Economic Growth in the Next 12 Months. Just for attending, you'll get the name of one of Jeff's top picks. Register with one click here >>>
(When you click the link, your email address will automatically be added to Jeff's guest list)

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DATs – Funds or Companies?

Hi Jeff and team,

I just read a terrifying article. A brief excerpt:

MSCI (one of the largest creators of indices in the world) floated the idea that Digital Asset Treasury companies (DATs) should be considered 'funds,' not 'companies' – and be removed from their indices as a result.

This is very concerning as this could put huge downward pressure/ sell pressure on crypto all around with MSTR, GLXY, and so many others.

Any thoughts?

– Daniel K.

Hi Daniel,

Ben here, again. Yes, the news regarding MSCI was worrisome. But there are some things to keep in mind.

First, for some context…

MSCI has proposed to exclude digital asset treasuries – or DATs – from its Global Investable Market Indexes on the grounds that these should be considered investment funds,not companies.

DATs have been growing in popularity this year. In fact, I wrote about this in a Bleeding Edge issue this summer – Why Ethereum Is Roaring.

As discussed in the issue, much of this conversation started when a company called SharpLink Gaming announced it would be launching an Ethereum-focused Treasury strategy in which the company would purchase and hold Ethereum tokens.

It ballooned from there…

It’s a common corporate finance strategy, where a company like SharpLink Gaming treats Ethereum (ETH) as a primary reserve asset on its balance sheet – similar to how traditional companies hold cash, bonds, or other stable assets in their treasury for long-term financial stability, liquidity, and value preservation.

Meanwhile, the valuation of the company will be directly tied to the value of its holdings.

[…]

BitMine Immersion Technologies joined the fun two weeks after SharpLink made its pivot in June.

The announcement came with $250 million in funds to purchase ETH, in order to become the largest publicly traded ETH holder. It wants to compete with SharpLink for the title of number one.

And it already holds more than $1 billion of ETH, which comes to more than 300,000 tokens – more than SharpLink has announced to date.

It's a mad dash to see who can acquire the most ETH in the shortest amount of time.

We've never experienced something like this, except with Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy (MSTR), a publicly traded company that's been running the same playbook with Bitcoin. Its shares are up 10x in two years and now trade at a $123 billion market cap. It holds more than 600,000 Bitcoin.

MSTR is a great way for institutions that don't want to hold the underlying asset (Bitcoin) but still want exposure, as well as some additional upside. MSTR trades at a premium to the amount of Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

We call these corporate treasury companies DATs, or digital asset treasuries.

If MSCI moves forward with this, and its proposal is pushed through, crypto-heavy firms will be blocked from listing on MSCI indices.

Strategy (MSTR) – formerly MicroStrategy – is one such digital asset treasury company, as mentioned above. The company maintains that it also has an operational business contributing revenue, but the fact of the matter is that Strategy's valuation today is almost entirely a byproduct of how much Bitcoin sits on its balance sheet.

Strategy even publishes presentations and metrics relative to how its stock is trading, relative to how much Bitcoin is on its balance sheet.

Strategy is currently listed on two MSCI indexes – the MSCI USA Index and the MSCI World Index.

The MSCI USA Index lists some 544 large- and mid-cap U.S. stocks with market caps currently between $4.9 billion and $4.5 trillion.

Then there's the MSCI World Index. This one is far larger, holding 1,320 constituents with market caps between $1.7 billion and $4.55 trillion.

Now it's important to note that these indices are not directly investable. Instead, various ETFs and mutual funds track the index themselves, such as the Invesco MSCI USA ETF.

Inclusion into the MSCI index can represent billions of dollars in buying pressure for a stock since it gets added to other investable securities. Which is to say, getting removed from the MSCI index impacts a stock's valuation.

To be fair, the claim that MSCI might remove Strategy from the index is not entirely uncalled for. Strategy is no longer a true representation of a company whose business depends upon the production of a product or the delivery of a service. And neither are digital asset treasury companies, for the most part.

But to classify all DATs as funds might be shortsighted for the time being.

DATs are still novel. They're very new. Experimentation is underway to give investors access to digital assets held in a treasury that might grow as a result of a blockchain protocol's activity changes means these "funds" can represent exposure to a productive piece of technology (i.e., some kind of blockchain-enabled service).

Then there's the other company you mentioned above, Galaxy. It isn't a business solely focused on holding assets on its balance sheet. It provides services such as OTC, lending, mining solutions, data centers, and more. To classify them as a DAT is definitely shortsighted.

Strategy, however, isn't providing these ancillary services.

We should also note that MSCI is a public company with investors such as BlackRock, State Street, and others. MSCI's backers may have competing products in the market that could directly benefit from Strategy being delisted from the indexes.

We won't know for certain whether these potential conflicts of interest are behind a possible delisting for Strategy. What we do know is that a delisting of Strategy doesn't necessarily change the amount of BTC it holds on its balance sheet.

The company may sell some spot BTC to repurchase shares so it can maintain a healthy net asset value ratio. This would likely impact short-term market prices as well.

It's a story worth monitoring as it develops. And as discussions around digital asset frameworks heat up in the coming weeks, we can expect some of the regulatory outcomes may impact the MSCI decision as well.

We are tracking this closely and of course will update our subscribers with any relevant developments.

Now, back to Jeff…

Wafer-Scale Computing

Hi Jeff,

What do you think about wafer-scale computing? Using silicon wafers 100X faster. 90% less energy. So will these replace the chips?

Thanks.

– Russ N.

Hi Russ,

This topic is an interesting one because it tends to be oversimplified by journalists and even analysts who don't understand the technology. And those who don't have experience in semiconductors most likely won't understand the differences.

It's easy to make the mistake, too. If someone takes a cursory look at a Cerebras WSE-3, which has 4 trillion transistors and compares that to an NVIDIA B200 (Blackwell architecture) with 208 billion transistors, they'd probably conclude that the WSE-3 is a better, more powerful semiconductor.

But it's not that simple…

A wafer-scale semiconductor is exactly as it sounds. The semiconductor is the size of the wafer itself. Most silicon wafers are round and of various sizes, the most common being the 300 mm wafer.

In the case of Cerebras, they use a square wafer in an effort to optimize the entire wafer with circuit design.

Below we can see a side-by-side comparison between the WSE-3 and NVIDIA's Blackwell GPU (B200). It's night and day.

Source: Cerebras

One wafer-scale semiconductor is the equivalent of about 28 NVIDIA B200s in terms of performance. But this isn't a fair comparison. A WSE-3 is a whole lot more expensive than an NVIDIA GPU. A single server with a WSE-3 semiconductor is $1 million plus.

One of the other big challenges of wafer-scale architectures is that manufacturing yield is always challenging. The smallest defect on a wafer can render large blocks of the WSE-3 unusable.

With manufacturing smaller semiconductors, you can etch 10s, 100s, or thousands of semiconductors onto a single wafer. Then the wafer is cut into individual semiconductors, and they are packaged for use on circuit boards.

So, if there is one defect on a wafer, you can just throw away one B200, and all the other B200s are perfect to use. Yields will always be better compared to a wafer-scale architecture. And lower yields impact price.

With that said, there are performance advantages with wafer-scale design. The semiconductor design can be optimized for speed due to the tight integration and interconnections. This also means that there are typically benefits in terms of power per unit of computing.

Aside from these differences, it is important to note that a wafer-scale semiconductor like the one shown above is designed specifically for inference, the running of AI applications. NVIDIA's GPUs are primarily used for the training of AI models. I often refer to GPUs as the workhorses of artificial intelligence.

So, to answer your question specifically, no, wafer-scale computing is not going to replace GPUs. They both serve different parts of the AI market, and they both have exponential growth ahead of them.

And one final point, when it comes to running AI applications, there is always going to be a tradeoff between performance and price. Just have a look at the chart below from Cerebras:

Source: Cerebras

A token is like a word – though it can also be part of a word, or even punctuation. An easy way to think of it is that for every 100 tokens, there are usually about 75 words.

Above, we can see that Cerebras has an output speed advantage and a performance advantage over the NVIDIA Blackwell chip. But its output cost per million tokens is higher than NVIDIA's. Pay for performance.

This is such a dynamic and interesting space right now. There are some really impressive companies iterating on advanced semiconductor design for inference, which in time will become an even bigger market than GPUs are today. And no one wants to compete against NVIDIA and AMD for GPUs.

The two companies are so far ahead, and they have basically 100% of the market for AI training, so the big focus is on inference and reducing the output costs per million tokens. This will be a major trend in 2026.

Hope that helps.

That's all for today's AMA. Thanks to everyone for their questions and comments. As always, you can reach the team right here.

Have a great weekend.

Jeff