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Coinbase ( COIN 4.28% ) was founded in June 2012 with the sole purpose of facilitating the buying and selling of Bitcoin . But over the next 12 years, the digital asset brokerage and exchange operator has expanded into a broader business by offering more services. After a disappointing 2022, shares have been on an absolute tear, soaring 697% in the past two years. As of this writing on Dec. 19, the company's market cap sits at $70 billion. But can Coinbase continue its upward trajectory, increase 14-fold in value, and become the first trillion-dollar cryptocurrency stock by 2040? Betting on the entire crypto industry Thanks to its first-mover advantage, powerful network effects , and expanding financial ecosystem, Bitcoin deservedly gets a lot of the attention among investors. Smaller blockchain projects, like Ethereum , XRP , and Solana , are also potentially on the radars of those looking to put money to work in this industry. Here's where Coinbase provides a unique opportunity. I view the business as essentially being a bet on the growth of the entire cryptocurrency market because of the different ways it's exposed to the industry. Most people are familiar with the brokerage and exchange segment that lets individuals and institutions buy and sell hundreds of different cryptocurrencies. This activity represented 51% of net revenue in Q3 (ended Sept. 30), down from a much higher 88% share in the same period three years ago. In recent years, the leadership team has focused more on diversifying the business model to depend less on volatile trading volume and lean more into predictable subscriptions and services. This segment includes things like stablecoin revenue, staking rewards, and custody solutions. The hope is that as cryptocurrencies evolve from a tool mainly used for financial speculation to something that has day-to-day utility for people, Coinbase can rely less on volatile trading revenue. Coinbase also makes direct investments into new companies or technologies in the crypto space. As of Sept. 30, these strategic investments were valued at $359 million. While up-and-coming crypto start-ups could possibly be viewed as a threat to Coinbase's competitive position, the fact that this company has equity ownership in many of these businesses gives it financial upside should they succeed. Crypto over the long term Coinbase's ascent over the past decade is admirable. But its ultimate success rests not only on the cryptocurrency industry thriving over the long term, but on the company's ability to capture this opportunity. If the total crypto market continues rising in value and in number of blockchain projects, then it's not hard to believe that Coinbase could benefit. It has unrivaled exposure to the entire asset class. When crypto prices go up, there's generally more interest among the investment community to trade these digital assets. This can result in a growing user and revenue base for the business. What's more, this provides Coinbase with the resources to continue innovating. Recent developments with the Base Layer-2 solution or the USDC stablecoin demonstrate the company's ability to keep finding new areas for expansion. Temper expectations The cryptocurrency market is once again winning over investors thanks to rising asset prices and a risk-on mentality. However, I don't think anyone has any idea how the industry will look a decade or two from now. I believe the vast majority of tokens will end up worthless, as they solve no real-world problems and provide no utility. Consequently, I'm not as confident in the overall industry's long-term potential as crypto bulls might be. Major regulatory and technical hurdles still need to be cleared. Plus, cryptocurrencies need to be significantly better than the current financial system, in terms of costs, speed, security, and convenience, for example, for most people to want to make the switch. I'm not sure this will ever be the case. I don't believe Coinbase will ever get to the trillion-dollar mark.jili shot 。

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An online spat between factions of Donald Trump's supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in his political movement into public display, previewing the fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House. The rift laid bare the tensions between the newest flank of Trump's movement — wealthy members of the tech world including billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more highly skilled workers in their industry — and people in Trump's Make America Great Again base who championed his hardline immigration policies. The debate touched off this week when Laura Loomer , a right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the U.S. Loomer declared the stance to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves. Much of the debate played out on the social media network X, which Musk owns. Loomer's comments sparked a back-and-forth with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks , whom Trump has tapped to be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar." Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with finding ways to cut the federal government , weighed in, defending the tech industry's need to bring in foreign workers. It bloomed into a larger debate with more figures from the hard-right weighing in about the need to hire U.S. workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Trump's world and what his political movement stands for. Trump has not yet weighed in on the rift, and his presidential transition team did not respond to a message seeking comment. Musk, the world's richest man who has grown remarkably close to the president-elect , was a central figure in the debate, not only for his stature in Trump's movement but his stance on the tech industry's hiring of foreign workers. Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded. Born in South Africa, Musk was once on an a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry's need to bring in foreign workers. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent," he said in a post. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Trump's own positions over the years have reflected the divide in his movement. His tough immigration policies, including his pledge for a mass deportation, were central to his winning presidential campaign. He has focused on immigrants who come into the U.S. illegally but he has also sought curbs on legal immigration , including family-based visas. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. After he became president, Trump in 2017 issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order , which directed Cabinet members to suggest changes to ensure H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers. Trump's businesses, however, have hired foreign workers, including waiters and cooks at his Mar-a-Lago club , and his social media company behind his Truth Social app has used the the H-1B program for highly skilled workers. During his 2024 campaign for president, as he made immigration his signature issue, Trump said immigrants in the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country" and promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. But in a sharp departure from his usual alarmist message around immigration generally, Trump told a podcast this year that he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges. “I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country," he told the “All-In" podcast with people from the venture capital and technology world. Those comments came on the cusp of Trump's budding alliance with tech industry figures, but he did not make the idea a regular part of his campaign message or detail any plans to pursue such changes.Jimmy Butler remains behind amid conjecture as Heat move on to Atlanta

DENVER (AP) — Travis Hunter made a pair of proclamations Thursday: He’s for sure entering the NFL draft after this season, but not until he sees Colorado all the way through the College Football Playoff — if the Buffaloes make it there. The first was already a given for the draft-eligible junior who plays both receiver and cornerback. The second is a risk-reward play for a projected high first-round pick who averages around 120 snaps a game. In years past, it took two extra postseason wins to capture a national title. Now, it could take up to four additional contests. That’s more of a chance to shine, but also more chance for an injury. “I don’t think nobody will opt out because you’re showing NFL teams that you’re more focused on something else, other than the team goal,” Hunter said of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. “So I don’t think players are going to opt out of the playoffs.” Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders chatted Thursday in a set of Zoom calls about turning around the program at Colorado (from 4-8 last season to bowl eligibility), chasing a Big 12 title, turning pro — Hunter acknowledged he will “for sure” — and, of course, the Heisman race, where Hunter is currently the odds-on favorite in an award each wants to see the other win. “He’s deserving of it, and if it’s between me and him, I want him to get it,” said Sanders, whose 16th-ranked Buffaloes (8-2, 6-1 Big 12, No. 16 CFP ) travel to Arrowhead Stadium to face Kansas (4-6, 3-4) this weekend. “He does a lot of amazing things that have never been done before.” Countered Hunter: “I know he wants me to win it, but I also want him to win as bad as I want to win it.” Hunter is a generational talent shining on both sides of the ball. As a receiver, he has 74 catches for 911 yards and nine touchdowns. On defense, he has picked off three passes, even though teams are reluctant to throw his direction. Like he did in high school and now in college, he believes he can do both on the next level. But he understands the trepidation of the NFL team that picks him. “They don’t want their top pick to go down too early," Hunter said. “I like when people tell me I can’t do it, because they just motivate me to continue to do what I want to do.” Sanders is turning in a stellar season as well with 27 touchdown passes, one away from tying Sefo Liufau for the most in a single season in program history. He's projected to be one of the first QBs off the draft board. The future certainly looks bright at Colorado thanks to the legacies Sanders and Hunter under coach Deion Sanders. But that's a point to ponder later. “I can’t think too much forward past Saturday,” Shedeur Sanders cracked. “The main thing is winning the Big 12 championship. That’s the main thing we’re focused on." Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Fort Worth, TX (Fort Worth Report) While the realization of a Texas A&M Fort Worth campus is years away, the university's virtual production studio space is closer to reality. A movie screen, LED walls and more than 20 motion capture cameras will create what college officials call "an immersive movie set" -- all in the center of downtown Fort Worth. "You have these LED panels that can form a wall, can form a volume that wraps around you, can form a ceiling as well -- all like monitors. You're putting up an entire environment on this wall," said David Parrish, the director of the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts at Texas A&M Fort Worth. Parrish was standing inside a room at Winfield Place, a building in downtown that was originally designed as a parking garage. Texas A&M Fort Worth is renting space in this building, where the room will be transformed into a virtual production studio with a black curtain and a screen about 30 feet long and 11 feet tall. The Texas A&M studios, at Winfield Place and another larger stage at Red Productions in the Near Southside, are expected to be complete by January 2025. Computer-generated images and scenes will be projected onto the screen and live action can happen in front of the screen. Instead of adding a background in post-production, the scene is set as it's being filmed. "Instead of acting or performing in front of a green screen, you're acting or performing within the environment as it will look on camera," Parrish said, who has worked nearly three decades in visual effects, including on productions such as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and "The Polar Express." The stage will be a space not just for film and television production, but for video game designers along with workforce training and simulation for first responders, health care workers, military members and architectural designers. Companies can rent out the space, and students can work on operating it. "That's part of the experience that we want our students to get is that they can actually create content, learn the technology and be creative with it, in addition to understanding the technology," said Parrish, who grew up in Garland and graduated from Texas A&M University's flagship campus in College Station with a degree in architecture. "It's the marriage of art and science." Upper division students in Texas A&M's visualization programs in College Station can take the classes at the Fort Worth studio. Students are already taking classes in Fort Worth, and at the beginning of next semester, they'll learn out of the studio. The Texas A&M studio is just one way that Fort Worth and area colleges are training students for careers in the city's expanding creative economy. "When productions are looking for a film location, one of the first things they ask about is our local workforce," said Taylor Hardy, film commissioner and director of video content at Visit Fort Worth. "When they have these locals that are highly trained in these specialized fields, they're able to come in and get to work right away, rather than bringing people from out of state." Since the Fort Worth Film Commission was launched in 2015, it has worked with over 1,000 projects, driven $700 million in economic impact and supported over 30,000 jobs, Hardy said. The projects, she said, range from filming high-profile productions like the "12 Mighty Orphans" film and Taylor Sheridan's upcoming "Landman" series to music videos and commercial photo shoots. The demand to fill jobs on those productions has been "huge," she said. To fill the workforce gap, the film commision has partnered with Tarrant County College and 101 Studios to create the Fort Worth Film Collaborative, a fast-track certificate program to train local talent for film industry jobs. The program launched last fall, and more than 200 students have benefited from the program so far, with certificates in grip and lighting, hair and makeup, and light commercial set construction. Because of demand, additional certificates will be offered next year in the camera, sound, art and costume departments. All certificates can be completed in three months. Sean Fousheé, the Fort Worth Film Collaborative program director at Tarrant County College, says that 100% of the students who have gone through the program and applied for jobs have been hired. He says there's a growing need for production jobs in construction and transportation. "They're paying rates that are similar to what they would pay a union worker in LA for somebody to build sets here in Texas," said Fousheé. "It's a very good rate, but there's just not enough people to go around." Students from a range of backgrounds are enrolling, including everyone from professionals who are making a career pivot to students who took film classes elsewhere and are looking to gain more skills to jump-start their project to recent high school graduates, Fousheé said. "The whole idea behind this isn't just to turn Texas into Hollywood 2.0. Nobody's trying to do that," said Fousheé. "Our goal is to train up Texans to be the leaders and help grow a Texas-centric film industry." He said one of the draws of the Lone Star State -- if outsiders broaden their perspective of cowboys and flat land -- is its diverse geography. It's a great place to shoot, and it's also a great place to attract, train and retain talent. Disclaimer: The Fort Worth Film Commission is a department within Visit Fort Worth. Visit Fort Worth COO Mitch Whitten sits on the board of directors of the Fort Worth Report. Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org . At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here. This story is provided as a service of the Institute for Nonprofit News’ On the Ground news wire. The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a network of more than 475 independent, nonprofit newsrooms serving communities throughout the US, Canada, and globally. On the Ground is a service of INN, which aggregates the best of its members’ elections and political content, and provides it free for republication. Read more about INN here: https://inn.org/ . Please coordinate with john.greer@fortworthreport.org should you want to publish photos for this piece. This content cannot be modified, apart from rewriting the headline. To view the original version, visit: http://fortworthreport.org/2024/11/10/new-texas-am-studio-builds-on-fort-worths-ambitions-to-become-film-center-of-texas/LETTER: It's time to hold Congress accountable for national debt

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