The stock market saw a mixed but cautiously optimistic start on Wednesday, with the **Dow Jones Industrial Average** rising 0.1% in morning trading. This uptick followed weaker-than-expected jobs data, which indicated a slowdown in private payroll growth. The **S&P 500** edged higher, while the **Nasdaq composite** reversed early losses to gain 0.2% after the opening bell.

In the cryptocurrency space, **Bitcoin** dropped to around $91,600, reflecting ongoing volatility. However, the spotlight was on **Strategy (MSTR)**, formerly known as MicroStrategy, which jumped more than 4% premarket. This surge came after **MSCI**, a leading financial index operator, announced a new rule that does not exclude digital asset treasury firms from its indexes. While this move is seen as a positive development for Strategy, MSCI has indicated that it plans to keep crypto index weightings from growing as companies issue more shares to buy Bitcoin. Additionally, the exclusion of Strategy and similar firms remains a possibility, as MSCI needs more time to determine criteria for companies that are primarily "investment-oriented."

Key market indicators showed the **10-year Treasury yield** ticking lower to 4.14%, and **oil prices** falling near $56.65 a barrel. Among exchange-traded funds, the **Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ)** dipped slightly, while the **SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)** edged higher.

### Nasdaq 100 Highlights
In the **Nasdaq 100**, **CrowdStrike (CRWD)** and **Intel (INTC)** rallied more than 3% each, making them top performers early in the trading session. On the downside, **Western Digital (WDC)** and **Seagate Technology (STX)** sold off around 5% apiece.

### Dow Jones Movers
Within the **Dow Jones Industrial Average**, **Chevron (CVX)** and **McDonald's (MCD)** rallied 1.5% and 0.8%, respectively. In contrast, **Apple (AAPL)** and **Amazon (AMZN)** edged lower in premarket action, with Apple threatening to fall further below its 50-day moving average.

### Economic Data Insights
The **ADP employment report** for December revealed private payroll growth of 41,000, below the estimated 47,000. This data, released at 8:15 a.m. ET, contributed to the market's cautious sentiment. Later in the day, the **Institute of Supply Management's services index** and the **JOLTS report** were anticipated, with economists expecting slight dips in both metrics.

Overall, the market's response to the jobs data and MSCI's rule change highlights the interconnectedness of traditional finance and the evolving cryptocurrency landscape, with Strategy's performance serving as a key indicator of investor sentiment toward Bitcoin-related stocks.

Stock Market Today: The Dow Jones index rose Wednesday after surprise jobs data. Bitcoin stock Strategy jumped in morning trading.

Bitcoin Stock Strategy Soars as MSCI Index Rule Change Sparks Market Frenzy

The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF ($IBIT) experienced a challenging Wednesday, showing signs of weakness in its performance. Despite this setback, the ETF has demonstrated resilience with notable gains over broader timeframes.

**Key Performance Metrics:**
- Over the last 5 days, IBIT is up **3.77%**, indicating a positive short-term trend.
- Year-to-date, it has climbed **5.64%**, showcasing strong growth in 2026 so far.

According to technical analysis, the recent dip may be a temporary correction rather than a long-term bearish signal. Investors are closely watching for potential rebounds as the ETF navigates market volatility.

**Why This Matters:**
- **IBIT** is a major player in the Bitcoin ETF space, often seen as a barometer for institutional interest in cryptocurrency.
- Fluctuations in its performance can influence broader market sentiment and Bitcoin prices.

Stay tuned for updates as we monitor how IBIT responds to current market conditions and whether it can maintain its upward trajectory.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF ($IBIT) had a weak Wednesday. However, it remains up 3.77% over the last 5 days and 5.64% higher in the year-to-date. According to tec...

IBIT ETF's Rollercoaster Ride: Weak Wednesday But Strong Gains Ahead?

## Ripple's Financial Strength Fuels Private Growth Strategy

Ripple President Monica Long has made a significant announcement: **the company has no plans to pursue an initial public offering (IPO)**, emphasizing its robust financial position and preference for expanding privately through acquisitions and product development.

"Currently, we still plan to remain private," Long said in a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg. "Often the strategy driving an IPO is to get access to the investors and the liquidity of the public markets … We're in a really healthy position to continue to fund and invest in our company's growth without going public."

## Recent Funding Round and Investor Confidence

Long's comments come after Ripple raised **$500 million in November 2025 at a $40 billion valuation**. The round drew investors including Fortress Investment Group, Citadel Securities and other crypto-focused funds.

When asked about the specific terms of the fundraising — including investor protections such as the right to sell shares back to Ripple at a guaranteed price and return, as well as preferential treatment in events like bankruptcy or a company sale — Long described the deal structure as "very positive, very favorable for Ripple."

Long did not, however, elaborate on whether such protections were necessary to secure the participation of major investors or to support the reported valuation.

## Aggressive 2025 Expansion Through Acquisitions

Ripple saw significant expansion in 2025, completing **four major acquisitions** — global multi-asset prime broker Hidden Road, stablecoin payments platform Rail, treasury management system provider GTreasury and digital asset wallet and custody firm Palisade. These deals, totaling nearly $4 billion, are part of Ripple's push to position itself as a comprehensive provider of enterprise digital asset infrastructure.

As of last November, Ripple Payments had processed over **$95 billion in total volume**. Ripple Prime — built with the Hidden Road acquisition — has recently expanded into collateralized lending and institutional XRP products. Ripple's dollar stablecoin, RLUSD, sits at the core of both businesses.

"The whole strategy of our company is to create products," Long said. "So the connective tissue that traditional finance needs to make blockchain and cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, all these tokenized assets, to make them actually useful and applicable in the real world."

Ripple closed a $500 million funding round at a $40 billion valuation last November, with Fortress and Citadel among the key participants.

Ripple's Bold Strategy: Why the $40 Billion Crypto Giant Is Rejecting IPO Plans

## The Data Center Rebellion: How AI Infrastructure Sparks Political Firestorms Across America

In Sand Springs, Oklahoma, a **data center** with blinding industrial lights and smoke pouring from its roof towered menacingly over a helpless gingerbread house in the annual Christmas parade. This city bordering Tulsa has become a battleground, one of many across the country where companies seeking to build massive data centers to win the **AI race with China** are coming up against the reality of local politics.

Sand Springs leaders were besieged with community anger after annexing an 827-acre agricultural property miles outside of town and launching into secret talks with a tech giant looking to use it for a sprawling data center. Hundreds of aggrieved voters showed up at community meetings. Swarms of protest signs are taking root along the rural roads.

"It feels like these data center companies have just put a big target on our backs," said Kyle Schmidt, leader of the newly formed Protect Sand Springs Alliance. "We are all asking: Where are the people we elected who promised to protect us from these big corporations trying to steamroll us?"

From Archibald, Pennsylvania, to Page, Arizona, tech firms are seeking to plunk down data centers in locations that sometimes are not zoned for such heavy industrial uses, within communities that had not planned for them. These **supersize data centers** can use more energy than entire cities and drain local water supplies.

Anger over the perceived trampling of communities by Silicon Valley has entered the national political conversation and could affect voters of all political persuasions.

Many of the residents fighting the project in Sand Springs voted for Trump three times and also backed Gov. J. Kevin Stitt (R), who implores tech firms to build in his state.

"We know Trump wants data centers and Kevin Stitt wants data centers, but these things don't affect these people," said Brian Ingram, a Trump voter living in the shadow of the planned project. "You know, this affects us."

Ingram was standing before a homemade sign he planted on his front lawn that said, "Jesus Was Born on Ag Land."

The grassroots blowback comes from deep red states as much as from left-wing groups such as the Democratic Socialists of America, which have helped draw hundreds of residents to hearings in Arizona, Indiana and Maryland.

Even Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned data center developers that they are losing control of the narrative. "In rural America right now, where data centers are being built, everyone's already angry because their electricity prices have risen a lot," he told energy executives. "'I don't want them in my state' is a common viewpoint."

Some industry groups argue that residents' concerns are misplaced.

"Fueled by misinformation, driven by radical environmental policies, communities are missing out on the jobs, security and opportunities this technology is delivering," said an email from Brian O. Walsh, executive director of the AI Infrastructure Coalition. The group says the projects lower electricity prices, a claim that is hotly disputed.

The White House frames the data center boom as beneficial, saying in a statement that it will lead to big investments in infrastructure and boost manufacturing. But the administration is also aware some communities oppose them.

"Communities know what's best for them, and the Administration is clear that local infrastructure decisions remain with states and localities," the statement said.

Many local politicians are yielding to community pressure and rejecting data centers. Between April and June, more projects were blocked or delayed than during the previous two years combined, according to Data Center Watch, a tracking project by the nonpartisan research firm 10a Labs. Some **$98 billion in planned development was derailed** in a single quarter.

Last month, a group of Senate Democrats launched an investigation into the role data centers play in increasing electricity prices.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) last month called for a moratorium on data center construction, warning that the tech firms are draining scarce energy and water reserves and pushing the cost onto everyday Americans in pursuit of AI technologies that threaten to displace millions from the workforce.

White House AI czar David Sacks replied on X: "He would block new data centers even if states want them & they generate their own power."

But advocates say residents' concerns are legitimate.

"This data center expansion affects so many issues," said Mitch Jones, managing director of policy and litigation at Food and Water Watch. The group last month organized a letter signed by several national advocacy groups demanding a moratorium.

"It takes up farmland in rural communities. It takes up dwindling water sources in communities that need cleaner drinking water. And it is driving up electricity prices for everyone," he said. "It is drawing together people from disparate backgrounds who might not agree on other political issues. They are saying this is taking place without any forethought to communities and we must stop it."

The NAACP this month convened a two-day "Stop Dirty Data" conference in Washington that focused on the impacts of the AI build-out on minority and low-income communities. It included a bus tour of "Data Center Alley" in Northern Virginia, the world's largest collection of data centers.

Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is championing an AI "bill of rights" to enshrine local governments' power to stop data center construction and prohibit utilities from pushing AI infrastructure costs onto residents. The break between Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) and President Donald Trump was driven in part by her vocal criticism of his AI build-out push.

The industry has struggled to quell the concerns. In Chandler, Arizona, former senator Kyrsten Sinema (I), co-founder of the AI Infrastructure Coalition, implored city officials to get on board with a large proposed project or risk the federal government pushing it through without city input.

The city council rejected the project unanimously.

The vote followed the Tucson City Council's unanimous rejection of a plan that would have required annexing land in the Sonoran Desert that until June had been zoned "rural homestead." Some voters were outraged that local officials had signed a five-year nondisclosure agreement with Amazon, which did not come to light for two years. Frustration with the power company that would have provided the power has fueled a movement to drive it out in favor of a community-led nonprofit.

Amazon did not respond to questions about the controversy, saying only, "We do not have any commitments or agreements in place to develop this project." Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.

"People are understandably asking how they will benefit," said Chris Lehane, chief global affairs officer at OpenAI, which has won initial local approval for some of the country's largest data center projects. He said companies need to listen to communities and make sure they are sharing in the economic gains. "You need to be on the ground, having these conversations. It is a journey."

In some places, large tech companies have signed contracts committing to pay for new power grid infrastructure required to bring a data center online, even when the companies are not the only ones that would benefit from it.

It's a journey that some local officials are willing to go on because the projects generate construction jobs and boost revenue for schools.

"We're trying to work through this," said Mike Carter, the city manager in Sand Springs. "This would probably be one of our major employers. It would almost certainly become the dominant part of our tax base. ... When you can surpass Walmart, which is right now the biggest taxpayer in our community, there is a big incentive to look at this."

He has tried to assure residents that they will have all their questions answered — including the name of the tech firm — before the city hearing this month, where officials will consider rezoning the sprawling property from agricultural to industrial. He said the city has signed other nondisclosure agreements during negotiations with large corporations, such as Olive Garden.

The project developer, White Rose Partners, said none of the costs involved with providing electricity to the Sand Springs data center would fall on residential ratepayers. The firm says the data center would generate millions of dollars in revenue for local schools and services.

It is cold comfort to many residents of the rural community, where the data center would industrialize a landscape now defined by the ranches that drew them there.

"I don't care how much chocolate icing you put on a dog turd, it don't make it chocolate cake," said Rick Plummer, who raises elite team-roping horses next to the proposed data center. "They are trying to fluff this data center thing up and say, 'Man, eat this birthday cake.' But it isn't birthday cake."

On the other side of Tulsa, a steady stream of pickups pulled off the busy local road to sign petitions fighting a different data center proposed for the rural community of Coweta. One sign takes aim at the nondisclosure agreements, stating "NDAs BETRAY." The petitions demand the firing of a city official who signed one.

"We want to see this damn data center go away and go someplace else," said Allen Prather, who was leading the petition drive dressed as Santa. "This town deserves a better centerpiece than a data center. They keep coming to smaller and smaller towns. Leave mine alone."

Sherri Crumpacker, a retired law enforcement officer who pulled over to sign, concurred. "I moved here from California to get away from BS like this," she said.

As the buildout of AI infrastructure alarms communities, it is fast emerging as a potent electoral issue across the political divide.

Bitcoin Articles Published Today

Bitcoin Articles Published Yesterday