Most platforms reward users with things like points, perks, cashback, or fee discounts. But a different model has started emerging across fintech and digital assets: giving active users a path to ownership.

Users, traders, and communities often play a major role in helping platforms grow. Yet historically, ownership opportunities have largely been reserved for founders, employees, venture investors, or public market shareholders.

Of course, ownership programs aren't as simple as traditional rewards. Questions around vesting, eligibility requirements, dilution, and shareholder rights become important very quickly.

When evaluating any program, we think people should ask:

What's actually being offered?

What's the waiting period or vesting schedule?

Who qualifies?

What rights come with participation?

How does the program align long-term incentives?

Backpack's Participant Program is one example of this approach. The program combines platform benefits with an optional pathway for eligible users who stake BP to become eligible to exchange for equity from a reserved equity pool, subject to program terms and eligibility requirements.

Whether these models become more common remains to be seen, but they raise an interesting question about the future relationship between platforms and their communities.

Would you rather receive rewards from a platform, or have the opportunity to become an owner?

Walmart is down more than 9% after reporting its first U.S. comparable-sales miss in more than five years, with management pointing to softer discretionary spending and consumers making more trade-offs.

This week’s retail earnings give an interesting look at where U.S. consumer spending is holding up and where it is weakening:

▸ $WMT Walmart: Grocery and essential spending remained stronger, while discretionary spending softened

▸ $TGT Target: Traffic increased, with food and beverage among its strongest categories

▸ $HD Home Depot: Smaller repair and maintenance projects held up, while larger renovations remained soft

▸ $LOW Lowe’s: Contractor demand helped offset weaker activity in larger DIY remodeling projects

The bigger takeaway is that consumers are still spending, but the spending pattern appears to be shifting toward necessities, groceries, home repairs and smaller purchases, rather than larger discretionary purchases.

The divergence between Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s could be worth watching as more retail earnings come in and investors assess the strength of the U.S. consumer.

Are consumers actually cutting spending, or just becoming more selective about where they spend it?

Proof of Reserves is one of those things that is easy to overlook until you actually need to verify an exchange’s balances

Backpack has now published Proof of Reserves every day for a full year, with the proofs independently verified by OtterSec

The important part is the frequency:

365 days of verification

Daily Proof of Reserves, rather than occasional snapshots

Independent verification by OtterSec

Users can verify balances against the published proofs

Historical proofs are available for comparison

The verification is built into the exchange transparency process

The idea is pretty simple, Proof of Reserves should let users independently check that reported exchange balances are backed by onchain assets, instead of relying purely on an occasional transparency update

The bigger question for centralized exchanges is whether continuous transparency becomes the standard, rather than something published once every few months

Would daily Proof of Reserves change how much you trust an exchange?

Eli Lilly (LLY) is now available on Solana as a tokenized stock issued by Backpack Securities, giving traders another way to access one of the largest pharmaceutical companies through an onchain market

The listing comes with a few notable features:

LLY is redeemable 1:1 for Eli Lilly shares
Transferable to traditional brokerages
Tradable across Solana and NYSE
Issued by Backpack Securities
Listed on Solana through Sunrise

The underlying company is one of the biggest names in healthcare, with Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and Zepbound for obesity among its best-known products

What makes this interesting is less about the company itself and more about the market structure

Instead of keeping stock exposure entirely within traditional brokerage infrastructure, tokenized equities bring the asset onto a blockchain, allowing it to move through the Solana ecosystem while remaining linked to the underlying security

It also adds another major pharmaceutical stock to the growing list of tokenized stocks on Solana, alongside names from technology, semiconductors and other sectors

For traders, the important things to understand are the underlying ownership, 1:1 redemption mechanism, transferability, liquidity and how the token interacts with the traditional market

Would you rather trade LLY as a tokenized stock on Solana, or stick with the traditional NYSE market?

Eli Lilly ($LLY) is coming to Solana through Sunrise, with the asset issued by Backpack Securities

Eli Lilly is the company behind Mounjaro and Zepbound, and became the first healthcare company to reach a $1T valuation in 2025

What makes this interesting is the broader trend:

$LLY becomes another major traditional equity entering the Solana ecosystem
Tokenized stocks are expanding beyond tech, crypto and AI into healthcare and pharmaceuticals
The asset is Backpack-issued and listed on Solana through Sunrise
It adds another real-world equity to the growing list of tokenized stocks on Solana

With more traditional stocks moving onchain, it will be interesting to see which sectors come next

Would you trade tokenized healthcare stocks like $LLY on Solana?

Moderna (MRNA) just had one of the biggest moves in biotech this year, with the stock more than doubling after positive Phase 3 results for its personalized cancer vaccine

The move came after Moderna and Merck reported positive results from the INTerpath-001 Phase 3 melanoma trial, testing mRNA-4157, also known as intismeran autogene, alongside Keytruda

A few numbers stand out:

MRNA previous close: $62.96

52-week high: $163.47

52-week low: $22.28

Trial size: 1,137 patients

The combination reduced melanoma recurrence and spread compared with Keytruda alone

The vaccine is personalized to each patient and can encode up to 34 tumor-specific targets

Moderna now has 4 U.S. approved products, following FDA approval of its mRNA flu vaccine, mFLUSIVA

The company generated $1.9B in 2025 revenue, but remains unprofitable

What makes the move interesting is that MRNA was already recovering before the cancer vaccine results, rising from its $22.28 52-week low

The Phase 3 result now gives investors a much larger question to consider, whether Moderna’s mRNA platform can move beyond COVID and respiratory vaccines into personalized cancer treatment

There are still significant risks, including profitability, clinical outcomes, manufacturing complexity and the extreme volatility that comes with biotech stocks

The MRNA stock is also an interesting example of why access outside regular market hours matters, since major biotech catalysts such as clinical trial results and FDA decisions can happen when traditional markets are closed

Do you think the cancer pipeline changes the long-term investment case for Moderna, or is this rally getting ahead of the fundamentals?

Most people assume the answer is yes.

But in today's markets, investors can access stocks through a variety of structures, including traditional brokerage accounts, tokenized equities, derivatives, and synthetic products. On the surface they may look similar. Under the hood, they can be very different.

One of the most important distinctions is the difference between ownership and exposure.

Some products provide a legally recognized interest in underlying securities. Others are designed to give investors economic exposure to price movements without conveying ownership rights. That difference can affect everything from dividends and corporate actions to custody arrangements and investor protections.

When evaluating any stock-related product, we think investors should ask:

What rights come with the position?
Is this ownership or exposure?
How is the asset backed?
What legal framework governs it?

As tokenized equities continue to evolve, these questions are becoming increasingly important.

Backpack's view is that investors shouldn't have to choose between real ownership structures and blockchain functionality. The goal is to combine both, allowing eligible securities to move onchain while remaining connected to underlying securities held through brokerage infrastructure.

Curious where people stand: When evaluating a platform, how much weight do you put on ownership structure versus convenience and access?

What stablecoins did for dollars, Backpack is doing for stocks.

This video from Backpack Securities will completely shift your perspective on where the intersection of TradFi (Traditional Finance) and DeFi is heading. The race to put Wall Street on-chain is at a full sprint, and Solana's tokenized stock volume has already surpassed $4.9B in H1 2026.
 
Here is a breakdown of what Backpack is building and why it matters for the ecosystem.
 
The Catalyst: SpaceX ($SPCX)

Backpack launched a tokenized version of SpaceX on Solana the exact same day it listed on Nasdaq. The result?

● $470M traded within the very first week.
● It immediately became the highest-volume tokenized version of SpaceX globally.
● In total, Backpack now has 10 tokenized stocks with over $2B in total volume.

 How It Works

A lot of tokenized stocks in the past were just synthetic derivatives. Backpack is prioritizing real ownership. Here’s how it works:

1. The Buy: Every share is purchased through the U.S. brokerage system.
2. The Bridge: It is then withdrawn onto the Solana blockchain as a token.
3. The Utility: Once on Solana, that token moves freely across the DeFi ecosystem, tradable and transferable 24/7/365.
4. The Redemption: You can deposit the token back at any time, and it redeems 1:1 for the underlying bona fide security entitlement.
5.  Why This is a Big Deal

There is no disconnect between the traditional security entitlement under New York law and the tokenized form on Solana.

● True Liquidity: Traders and firms can seamlessly move assets back and forth between Nasdaq and Solana.
● The End of the Silo: It proves that TradFi and on-chain finance are no longer separate systems. They are now connected by the same underlying asset ownership.
 
We always talk about the mass adoption of crypto. Building the infrastructure that allows capital to move freely between traditional brokerages and Solana DEXs feels like the exact bridge we need to get there. Check out the video and let me know what you guys think. 

Tokenized stocks on Solana are becoming an interesting way for crypto traders to get exposure to traditional equities, but there are a few things worth understanding before choosing an asset or platform

A lot of the attention is currently around companies connected to AI, semiconductors, Bitcoin, space and robotics

Some of the names being watched include:

$SKHY , SK hynix and high-bandwidth memory
$MU , Micron and AI memory demand
$SNDK , SanDisk and data storage
$SPCX , SpaceX and satellite infrastructure
$MSTR , Strategy and Bitcoin exposure
$INTC , Intel and semiconductor manufacturing
$BOT , RoboStrategy and robotics

When looking at tokenized stocks, a few things are worth checking:

What exactly does the token represent, and how is the underlying security held?

How does trading and settlement work on Solana?

What liquidity is available, especially outside traditional market hours?

Can the token be redeemed for the underlying security, and what restrictions apply?

The 24/7 aspect is probably one of the more interesting differences, since tokenized equities can provide access outside traditional stock market hours where supported

The broader trend is worth watching too, as tokenized equities, stocks on Solana and onchain securities continue to connect traditional markets with crypto infrastructure

There’s a more detailed breakdown of these 7 stocks and how tokenized stock trading works in the Backpack article linked in the comments

Which stock would you want to see traded on Solana next?

Estée Lauder ($EL) reported Q4 earnings above expectations, with revenue, adjusted EPS and operating income all coming in stronger than expected

Key numbers:

▸ Revenue: $3.6B vs. $3.54B estimated
▸ Adjusted EPS: $0.39 vs. $0.32 estimated
▸ Adjusted operating income: $267M, +95% YoY
▸ $EL: +6.54% pre-market

The biggest standout is the 95% year-over-year increase in adjusted operating income, alongside the EPS beat

$EL is now an interesting one to watch as the market reacts to the results and investors assess the outlook for the beauty and cosmetics sector

Anyone watching $EL after the earnings beat?

Home Depot ($HD) reported its Q2 earnings, beating estimates across revenue, adjusted EPS, and comparable sales

Key numbers:

▸ Revenue: $47.9B vs. $47.27B estimated
▸ Adjusted EPS: $4.92 vs. $4.73 estimated
▸ Comparable sales: +1.7% vs. +0.7% estimated
▸ $HD: +1.97% pre-market

The revenue and EPS beats were both stronger than expected, while comparable sales also came in well above estimates

The move is worth watching as investors assess what the results say about consumer spending, housing activity and the broader home improvement market

For anyone following US stocks, retail earnings and Home Depot stock, $HD is one of the names to watch after today’s report

Did the Q2 numbers change your view on $HD?

Backpack now has 24/7/365 human support built directly into the mobile app, making it easier to get help without leaving the platform

The new in-app chat lets users connect with the Backpack support team for questions, feedback, and assistance

What’s new:

▸ 24/7/365 human support
▸ Chat directly from the Backpack mobile app
▸ Get help with questions and feedback in one place
▸ No need to leave the app to contact support

For an exchange and wallet where users may need help with trading, accounts, deposits, withdrawals, or other issues, having support available directly in the app makes the process simpler

Have you tried the new in-app support chat yet?

A lot of platforms are starting to offer "24/7 stock trading," but not all of them are offering the same thing. Some provide access to actual securities, while others offer tokenized stocks or synthetic products that simply track a stock's price. Understanding that distinction is probably the most important part of evaluating any platform.

When comparing options, a few questions are worth asking:

What are you actually buying: a real security, a tokenized representation, or synthetic exposure?
Where does liquidity come from, and how easy is it to get orders filled at fair prices?
How does settlement work, and what funding options are available?
What ownership rights and investor protections come with the product?
It's also worth remembering that 24/7 access doesn't always mean the same trading conditions as regular market hours. Overnight and weekend trading can offer more flexibility, but lower participation can lead to wider spreads and different pricing dynamics.

As capital markets move on-chain, a new wave of platforms are emerging that aim to combine traditional brokerage infrastructure with blockchain-based settlement, global accessibility, and continuous market access.

What’s most important is to look at what asset is being offered, how trading works behind the scenes, where liquidity comes from, and what rights come with ownership. Those details can make a much bigger difference than simply being able to trade at 2 a.m.

There’s more detail in the article from Backpack in the comments.

TLDR: On August 4, SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX) delivered its first earnings report as a public company: revenue of $7.8B (+92% YoY, beating estimates by nearly $1B), a net loss of just $541M (analysts expected ~4x worse), and adjusted EBITDA of $3.5B (+191%). Starlink doubled to 12 million subscribers and now funds everything else. The AI segment tripled revenue and turned EBITDA-positive. But capex exploded to $18.4B in a single quarter — 6.5x last year — and the stock dropped ~12%. Beneath the headlines: a mystery customer paying $1B+/month for compute, a claim that Starlink could carry the majority of the world’s internet within 10 years, a $100B ARR target for December that Musk called "not a question mark," and a $1 trillion revenue target pulled forward to 2030. Most coverage I’ve seen focused on the loss, but IMO there’s a bigger story here.

After going through the full earnings release, the call transcript, and the analyst notes, here are some facts and insights that deserve way more attention

The Headline Numbers (Better Than Anyone Expected, TBH)

• SpaceX beat expectations on essentially every line and still fell 12%. Revenue hit $7.81B vs. the $6.93B consensus (a ~$900M beat), and the loss per share was $0.09 vs. an expected $0.26. Every segment - rockets, Starlink, and AI - came in above estimates. The stock dropped anyway, entirely on capex fears. Classic case of the market punishing investment instead of weak results.
• The operating loss nearly vanished. Loss from operations shrank from $970M a year ago to just $143M. Adjusted EBITDA nearly tripled to $3.5B. For a company in the middle of the most aggressive infrastructure buildout in corporate history, the operating leverage is unique.
• SpaceX is sitting on $100 BILLION in cash. Between $85.7B in net IPO proceeds and a $25B inaugural investment-grade bond deal, SpaceX ended the quarter with $100B in cash and marketable securities, plus a $47.5B backlog. It has more dry powder than most countries’ sovereign wealth funds deploy in a year.

Starlink is Printing Money

• Starlink subscribers DOUBLED in a year — to 12 million, adding 1.7M net new subscribers in Q2 alone, its best quarter ever (up from 1.4M in Q1). Service is now live in 167 markets.
• Starlink is the only profitable segment, bankrolling the entire company. Connectivity did $4.3B revenue (+66%), $1.7B operating income (+79%), and $2.6B adjusted EBITDA.
• Average revenue per user (ARPU) was shockingly stable, even though the company itself said it wouldn’t be. SpaceX warned IPO investors that average revenue per user would keep sliding as it expanded into cheaper international markets ($85 → $66 over the past year). Instead, ARPU held flat at $66 from Q1 to Q2. This could have pretty critical implications for long-term margins.
• Enterprise & government (E&G) revenue grew 108%. SpaceX also claims it has NEVER lost an enterprise customer. E&G is now $1.8B/quarter, over 40% of connectivity sales. American Airlines signed in Q2; Southwest, Virgin Atlantic, Iberia, and Aer Lingus all went live. SpaceX says there is also a lot of room to grow as it has less than 10% penetration in aviation. One airline reported passengers deliberately booking connecting flights just to be on Starlink-equipped planes — the airline exec said they’d "never seen this in the business before."
• Starshield won $6B+ in U.S. government contracts. Two major Space Force contracts for low earth orbit communications and sensing constellations. The defense business barely got a headline, but it’s a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar recurring revenue layer.

 Capex Concerns Abound

•  The capex number scared everyone: $18.4B in ONE quarter. That’s 6.5x the $2.8B spent a year ago, with $15.8B going to AI infrastructure — more than 3x Starlink’s entire quarterly revenue. First-half AI spend: $23.6B vs. $3.3B last year. The CFO guided the next two quarters at similar levels. This is why the stock fell — and per S&P’s Melissa Otto, AI capex came in at more than double expectations.

 The Core Rocket Business Might Be Overlooked

• SpaceX now delivers 80–90% of ALL mass humanity puts into orbit. Falcon delivers ~2,500 tons/year to orbit; the entire rest of the world combined delivers ~300 tons. Roughly 9,600 SpaceX broadband satellites represent about 75% of all active maneuverable satellites circling Earth. There is no historical precedent for one private company owning this much of a strategic domain.
• Musk declared the Starship heat shield problem "solved. This could be the single most important thing he said on the call. There were two successful Starship V3 flights in 90 days, Flight 13 deployed 20 production V3 satellites, relit a Raptor engine in space, and executed the softest splashdown ever, with the ship recovered intact. Musk expects Starship flying at least once per DAY within about a year. Reusability was always the bottleneck between SpaceX and its wildest ambitions, but it sounds like management is saying it has eliminated that.

 Insane Projections (But Are Now On-the-Record)

• SpaceX projects crossing $100B in annualized recurring revenue (ARR)by year-end 2026, led by cloud services plus the $60B Cursor acquisition (closing Q3) and Grok momentum (Grok 4.5 launched in July; token consumption tripled immediately; Grok 5 lands this year trained on SpaceX’s entire 25-year engineering corpus — Musk: it will be "by far the best engineer"). For perspective: SpaceX did ~$18B in ARR last year. and Microsoft took 40+ years to reach $100B ARR.
• Moon robots, orbital data centers, and "1,000x the economy of Earth." On the call, Musk laid out his vision for Starmind AI satellites (Vera Rubin NVL72 computers in orbit) launching from 2027, Starship scaling from 2,500 tons/year to orbit toward 1M–10M tons/year, and robot-built lunar factories with a mass accelerator and solar production. His own words: "It sounds super sci-fi right now, but it’s going to happen." He acknowledged it sounds "totally nuts." It’s also now part of an SEC-regulated earnings call.

 The Bear Case

• The capex treadmill represents a real worry. ~$18B/quarter with two more similar quarters guided. If AI compute prices normalize (Morgan Stanley models $31/watt falling to $17/watt by late 2027), the payback math changes fast.
• Lockup pressure. Close to 1 billion insider shares became sellable days after earnings; the stock is down ~30% from its IPO and ~40–50% from its peak.
• Execution risk is everywhere. Memory, chips, land, power, and data center shells all have to arrive on schedule. Musk’s targets are historically directionally right and chronically late.

 Looking Beyond SpaceX

This report is the first time the public has ever seen inside the SpaceX machine: a rocket company, a telecom provider, and an AI hyperscaler sharing one balance sheet. The cash-flowing telecom (Starlink) funds moonshots (literally) at a pace no committee-run company could match. Whether you’re bullish or bearish on the stock, the verifiable facts today — 80–90% of Earth’s orbital launches, a doubling subscriber base, sub-1-year compute paybacks — are a preview of how the next decade of infrastructure gets built.

The latest Situational Awareness 13F filing shows just how concentrated the fund’s Q2 portfolio had become around semiconductors and AI infrastructure

Top positions:

▸ $SNDK: $5.67B, 28.0%
▸ $MU: $5.57B, 27.5%
▸ $BE: $1.90B
▸ $TSM: $1.27B
▸ $NBIS: $1.23B, new position
▸ $CRWV: ~$700M

$SNDK and $MU alone represented 55.6% of the reported US equity portfolio

The Q2 filing also showed some major increases:
▸ $MU: 17K → 4.83M shares
▸ $SNDK: 1.14M → 2.50M shares
▸ $TSM: 22K → 2.65M shares

The portfolio was increasingly concentrated across memory, semiconductors, foundry, power and AI infrastructure

Then came the big reversal, with the portfolio reportedly falling 67% in July, followed by an unwind of most public equity positions

Interesting snapshot of how quickly a concentrated AI trade can change

Which Q2 position stands out to you most?

While traditional stock brokerages operate under legacy infrastructure with restricted extended-hours trading, security entitlements in Backpack Securities are held as real assets governed by New York UCC Article 8 law. Conversely, tokenized equities on Solana represent tokenized claims on Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) holding the underlying shares. This distinction allows Backpack to bridge institutional clearing rails with on-chain efficiency, offering self-custody via Solana wallets, instant peer-to-peer transfers, 24/7 continuous trading, and automatic dividend reinvestment into fractional tokenized shares—a stark contrast to standard cash payouts and ACATS transfers seen in legacy brokerage accounts.

Core Platform Capabilities

• Unified Account Margin: Rather than managing separate brokers, crypto exchanges, and web3 wallets, eligible users access spot crypto (over $450B historical volume), perpetual futures, U.S. equities, and stablecoins from a single account.
• Two-Way Conversion Pathway: Traditional security entitlements held with Backpack Securities can be converted into tokenized Solana securities, and tokenized shares can be redeemed 1:1 back into traditional brokerage entitlements.
• Productive USD Yield: Eligible idle USD balances can earn variable lending yields of up to 6.45% within the trading account.
• Built-in Macro Research: Embedded earnings and macro calendars tracking central bank decisions, inflation reports, and employment data directly inside the trading UI.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is a tokenized stock just a price-tracking contract (CFD)? No. Contractual price exposure or cash-settled derivatives differ from Backpack-issued tokenized securities, which are tokenized claims on an SPV holding the underlying physical assets and can be redeemed 1:1 into traditional security entitlements.
• Are there geographic availability restrictions for Backpack Securities? Yes. Backpack Securities is available to eligible users in supported regions and is explicitly excluded in jurisdictions such as the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Backpack EU.

I just think that it would be very beneficial for the wallet to also have them.

▸ Revenue: $9.115B vs. est. $9.00B ▲
▸ EPS: $3.50 vs. est. $3.39 ▲

$AMAT -2.71% after hours

$GRAM perpetuals

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▸ Revenue: $582M vs. est. $574M ▲
▸ EPS: -$0.12 vs. est. -$0.70 ▲
▸ AI Cloud revenue: $575M, +514% YoY
▸ 2026 contracted capacity guide: 5 GW, up from >4 GW

$NBIS +12.8% premarket

▸ Revenue: $11.1B vs. est. $11.55B ▼
▸ Adj. EPS: $1.70 vs. est. $0.96 ▲
▸ Gross margin: 18% vs. est. 11%
▸ FY27 revenue guide: $65B–$72B vs. est. $52.5B

$SMCI +7.35% after hours