Latest developments: Kalshi’s launch of CFTC-regulated crypto perpetuals has reignited a long-running debate over financial market definitions.
John Lothian and Kalshi’s Udesh Jha joined The Policy Protocol to debate this topic.
John Lothian, publisher of John Lothian News, argued that perpetual contracts resemble swaps because they involve recurring bilateral cash-flow payments through funding-rate mechanisms.
Udesh Jha, Kalshi’s head of exchange analytics, countered that perpetuals function like futures because they are exchange-traded, centrally cleared and designed to track underlying spot markets.
The debate follows the recent approval and launch of crypto perpetuals on Kalshi under CFTC oversight.
The disagreement: Both sides view the same product through different regulatory lenses.
Lothian said perpetuals differ from traditional futures because funding-rate payments create ongoing cash flows between market participants, a feature he associates with swaps.
Jha argued that funding rates merely make financing costs explicit rather than embedding them in futures prices, making perpetuals a more efficient version of existing futures markets.
According to Jha, perpetuals also eliminate the need for traders to roll positions into new contract months, reducing friction and costs.
Why it matters: The classification could determine who can access the products and under what rules.
Newmont Corporation (NYSE:NEM ) stock was last seen up 2.4% to trade at $95.01, poised to snap its four day losing streak. The 260-day moving average rushed in as support, keeping losses in check.
NEM
This trendline has yielded bullish returns in the past. According to Schaeffer’s Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White, NEM is trading within 0.75 times the 260-day moving average’s 20-day average true range (ATR), after spending at least 80% of the previous two weeks and 80% of the prior 42 trading sessions above that trendline. This setup has appeared 11 times during the last decade, after which the stock was higher one month later 55% of the time, averaging a 6% gain. A comparable rally from current levels would place Newmont stock at $100.71.
The stock also sports a lofty Schaeffer’s Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 80 out of 100, suggesting the equity has consistently realized higher-than-expected volatility as of late.
On a chilly winter day, Julius Mondragon stepped into a half-empty car on the Metra train line in Chicago.
“Computah, activate hyperspeed typing,” he commanded a random woman typing away on her laptop. “Computah, make these two guys friends forever,” he said to two men sitting together, as they looked up, smiling.
“Computah, make sure this man feels confident and sexy at all times of the day,” he instructed. “Computah, make sure this woman has a wonderful day.”
Before opening the door between cars, heading off in his Meta Ray-Ban glasses to find the next group of unsuspecting commuters, he announces: “You’ve been programmed!”
Mondragon has been “programming” people all over Chicago — and beyond. The 26-year-old has gone viral on TikTok while summoning his weirdly accented “Computah” character, wearing Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses and recording people’s reactions to his bot-like commands.
I think it’s the best use of Meta’s Ray-Bans that I’ve seen, so I asked to meet up when he was in New York this week so I could see the “Computah guy” in action.
Meeting ‘Computah’ in real life
I met up with Mondragon in a Harlem café near the hotel where he was staying. Unlike the bizarre persona in his videos, he’s genial and soft-spoken. (The voice he does in his videos is a fake accent based on an imitation of a character in “The Sopranos” dreamed up by him and his roommates.)
This is where the Meta Ray-Bans come in: Mondragon got a pair this past Christmas. He started posting videos recorded by the glasses to TikTok in January. The “Computah” idea initially came from an Eric André sketch where André, wearing a black leotard with electronic parts glued to it, pretends to be Google as he approaches strangers on the street.
“When I got the Metas, I was coming up with ideas,” Mondragon told me. “What if I’m Meta and I’m pretending I’m just an AI and I can transform anything in my surroundings?”
That’s where “Computah” came from.
Mondragon grew up in the Chicago suburbs and currently lives on the South Side of Chicago. For the last few years, he’s been a music producer — something he still pursues — while working a day job in retail. He has recently been able to quit his day job at Foot Locker thanks to the money he’s earned through social media. He told me that Cameo, where he charges $40 to send a personalized message to fans, has also been particularly helpful in getting him to a financial position where he can pursue “Computah” full-time.
Along the way, he’s become something of a Chicago star. He was profiled in the Chicago Tribune and appeared on the local TV news. In his videos, it’s clear people are recognizing him, leading to funny interactions where they mimic his catchphrases and tactics, like saying “Firewall up!” to block his “programming.”
The Meta Ray-Bans are something of a reverse Clark Kent for Mondragon — people only recognize him when he puts on the glasses.
Meta Ray-Ban glasses make the surveillance state funny
Since then, Meta’s glasses have sold decently. In 2025, Meta said it sold more than 7 million pairs — triple the amount it sold in 2024.
Presumably, people use them for private photos and videos, but some of the footage that gets posted onto social media tends to fall into two buckets: trolls who make videos harassing service workers, and men making videos of themselves trying to pick up women on the street. Neither is a particularly positive outcome for the technology.
“My feed is mostly Meta [videos]. It’s just mainly pickup artists and people trying to ragebait people,” Mondragon said. “I knew when I started, I didn’t want to do that. Obviously, I’m looking to get a reaction, but I’m not looking to mess up this person’s day. I didn’t want it to be like, this person leaves this interaction feeling shitty about themselves or anything.”
When asked about “Computah’s” popularity, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told Business Insider: “Local hero wears Ray-Ban Metas is a great story!”
And “Computah” is funny.
It’s hard to explain why something is funny other than just pointing out, “This is funny.” I mean, you all get the joke. But I’ll try to explain what I think makes it work so well: Doesn’t it feel like we’re all being “programmed” somehow by some unseen computer? That our worldview and the trajectory of our days, and even our bodies, are being shaped by some unfeeling algorithm? Sure it does!
Mordragon sees a deeper meaning to it beyond just being funny. “It’s like a pattern interruption,” he said. “That’s really what I’m trying to go for.”
Mondragon (right) “programs” a fan who recognized him in Washington Square Park in New York City.
Katie Notopoulos/Business Insider
‘Computah’ has one weird catch phrase that’s caught on
A particular “Computah” phrase has become a meme in its own right.
One of Mondragon’s catch phrases has been a lighthearted command: “Computah, make these guys super gay and horny!” (He made sure to tell me he means this in the spirit of fun, not as something antigay.)
Mondragon told me he wasn’t really sure why that particular phrase has caught on so much, or why girls seem to have latched onto it. Personally, I think it hits something in the gender and sexuality zeitgeist that simply just works in 2026.
On the day we met this week, the comedian and YouTuber Druski announced a rally for the New York Knicks in Washington Square Park.
Mondragon and I took the subway downtown together from Harlem. Just before our final stop on the train, he donned his Meta Ray-Bans and started to program the people in the car. As you might expect from typical New Yorkers, they didn’t react much to the man speaking loudly and saying strange things on the subway.
When we reached the rally, where a few hundred young men had gathered to chant various permutations of “Knicks in four,” we hung on the outskirts of the crowd.
Suddenly, someone recognized him: “Hey, it’s Computah!” and excitedly shook his hand.
A young couple visiting from Florida, Amanda Rivera and her boyfriend, Diego Casanova, approached “Computah” and asked him to program them. Casanova told me that he was inspired by Mondragon to buy his own pair of Meta glasses. (He was wearing the frames with clear lenses while I chatted to him. I didn’t even realize he was wearing them until he mentioned it. His recording light was on, but he didn’t seem to realize he’d been recording our interaction.)
Mondragon started programming the Florida visitors, and heads turned.
More cheers erupted as people recognized him, and a crowd formed. The people who showed up to a spontaneous gathering for a social media comedian were the perfect chronically online cohort who had also all seen Mondragon’s antics on TikTok and Reels.
While he might slip by on city streets unnoticed, in this crowd, he was a star.
A major traditional finance product is moving to Solana with a planned $250 million commitment.
Securitize, the tokenization platform with more than $4 billion in assets under management, has expanded its Securitize Tokenized AAA CLO Fund, known as STAC, to Solana.
Ethena Labs, the creator of the USDe stablecoin, plans to allocate $250 million to the fund, marking one of the largest single commitments to tokenized structured credit on the Solana ecosystem to date.
A collateralized loan obligation, or CLO, is a financial product that pools together corporate loans and packages them into different risk tiers for investors.
STAC specifically invests in AAA-rated CLO tranches, the safest tier, sourced from both primary and secondary markets. The strategy uses no leverage and targets floating-rate exposure, meaning returns adjust with interest rates rather than being locked in.
The global CLO market exceeds $1.3 trillion, making it one of the largest and most established segments of institutional credit. Until now, accessing it required significant capital and operational infrastructure. Tokenization aims to change that.
STAC was developed in collaboration with BNY, which serves as custodian for the fund’s underlying assets and sub-adviser through BNY Investments.
Eligible investors can subscribe through Securitize’s regulated platform, with shares issued as digital securities and backed by integrated KYC, AML and investor accreditation checks.
“Tokenization is most powerful when it combines quality assets with the speed, efficiency and accessibility of blockchain infrastructure,” said Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize.
“Expanding STAC to Solana brings one of the largest fixed-income markets in the world onto one of the most active blockchain ecosystems.”
Trending on TheStreet Roundtable:
Why Solana
As per a report from Messari, published in May, Solana’s RWA market capitalization climbed 43% quarter-over-quarter to $2.01 billion during Q1 2026.
Tokenized asset trading volume on the network hit a record $1.3 billion in the same quarter, and for the first time, Solana surpassed Ethereum to become the leading blockchain for RWA lending deposits, a category that surged 115% in three months to reach $1.23 billion, according to Blockworks Advisory.
“Solana is the premier destination for institutional capital moving onchain,” said Nick Ducoff, Head of Institutional Growth at Solana Foundation.
“The launch of STAC on Solana highlights the growing convergence between traditional financial assets and blockchain-based markets.”
Ethena’s conviction
For Ethena Labs, the $250 million planned allocation reflects a broader thesis about where onchain finance is heading.
The protocol, backed by Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Dragonfly, Binance Labs, Bybit and OKX, has built USDe into the fastest-growing USD-denominated crypto asset in history.
“As onchain finance evolves, we believe tokenized real-world assets will play an increasingly important role in supporting scalable, capital-efficient financial systems,” said Guy Young, founder of Ethena.
“Our planned allocation to STAC reflects our conviction that institutional-grade credit products can become foundational components of the onchain economy.”
STAC joins a growing list of tokenized institutional products issued by Securitize across public blockchains, sitting alongside funds from Apollo, BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, KKR and VanEck.
SpaceX shares opened at $150 on Friday before rising to $162, marking a strong start to one of the most closely watched stock market debuts in recent years.
The aerospace and satellite internet company priced its initial public offering at $135 per share on Thursday. SpaceX sold 555.6 million shares, raising $75 billion in what stands as the largest IPO ever.
Bitcoin BTC$63,501.22 was roughly flat at $63,400, while AI-related crypto stocks saw modest gains.
Trading under the ticker SPCX on Nasdaq, the company had been valued at roughly $1.8 trillion based on the IPO price.
The debut gives public investors their first chance to own shares in a company that has reshaped the commercial space industry through reusable rockets and built one of the world’s largest satellite networks through Starlink. The satellite internet business has become a major source of growth, serving customers in remote areas where traditional broadband can be difficult to access.
SpaceX generated about $19 billion in revenue last year from launch services, government contracts and Starlink operations.
Silver (SI=F) July futures opened at just $63.52 per ounce on Thursday, June 11, 2026, down 1.9% compared to Wednesday’s closing price of $64.74. The silver price is moving up slightly this morning, reaching $64.06 as of 7:00 a.m. ET.
Additional U.S. airstrikes against Iran yesterday evening sent silver and gold prices to their lowest opening levels since the end of 2025, as market observers generally expect the Strait of Hormuz to remain closed for the foreseeable future, further escalating inflationary pressures here in the U.S. and around the world.
The latest military actions only compound the negative CPI report released yesterday that confirmed what all analysts already knew: the energy shock caused by the war in Iran continues to drive consumer prices higher in the U.S.
With the Fed on tap to meet next week, you can bet rate increases will be a center point of discussions. A rate increase will only put more downward pressure on silver prices.
Current price of silver
The opening price of silver futures on Thursday was down 1.9% compared to Wednesday’s closing figure. Here’s how the opening silver price has changed versus last week, month, and year:
For context, silver’s year-over-year growth was 173.3% on May 14, 2026.
Want to learn more about the current top-performing companies in the silver industry? Explore a list of the top-performing companies in the silver industry using the Yahoo Finance Screener. You can create your own screeners with over 150 different screening criteria.
Looking for a gold alternative? How to invest in silver, platinum, and palladium.
Precious metals are in high demand. Although gold has historically been the headlining investment metal, silver, platinum, and palladium are quickly becoming popular portfolio diversifiers. Here are three easy, action-oriented steps to help you start investing in these precious metals:
Whether you’re tracking the price of silver since last month or last year, the price-of-silver chart below shows the precious metal’s value journey so far this year.
