Jeremy Szafron joins Kitco News as an anchor and producer from Kitco’s Vancouver bureau.  Jeremy is a seasoned journalist with a diverse background covering entertainment, current affairs and finance. Jeremy began his career in 2006 as a Journalist at CTV (Canada’s largest network), initially engaging audiences as an entertainment reporter before pivoting to business reporting focusing on mining and small-caps. His macro-financial and market trends analysis made him a sought-after commentator on CTV Mornin ...

Core Insights - Both IonQ and Rigetti Computing are significant players in the quantum computing sector, developing advanced technologies but facing substantial cash burn [1] Company Overview - IonQ utilizes a trapped-ion system for its quantum computing technology, while Rigetti employs superconducting qubits, with both targeting industries such as AI, finance, defense, cybersecurity, and manufacturing [2] - IonQ has a market capitalization of $16 billion, while Rigetti's market cap is approximately $7.4 billion [2][6] Financial Performance - IonQ's latest quarterly report showed positive results, exceeding revenue expectations and raising its full-year revenue guidance to $110 million, despite operating costs of $473 million for the first nine months of the year [4] - Rigetti reported revenue of $5.2 million for the first nine months of 2025, with operating losses of $63.4 million during the same period [7] Capital and Valuation - IonQ completed a $2 billion capital raise through new share sales, which diluted existing shareholders but was necessary for continued progress [5] - Rigetti's technology shows scalability potential, but IonQ's current valuation is considered more attractive than Rigetti's [8] Competitive Landscape - It remains uncertain which company will emerge as the leader in the quantum computing space, with IonQ being more established and having significant partnerships, while Rigetti presents a higher-risk, higher-reward investment opportunity [10]

Industry Focus - Onchain Finance & Privacy - The industry emphasizes that privacy is a critical feature for the advancement of global finance onchain [1]

RT X Freeze (@XFreeze)xAI just launched the Grok Collections APIA built-in RAG system that lets you upload and search entire datasets - from PDFs and Excel sheets to codebases, without building your own indexing systemWhy it’s huge:• Easy file uploads & updates with auto reindexing• Powerful search for finance, legal & code data• Free first week of indexing & storage, then $2.50 / 1K searchesIn head-to-head tests, Grok Collections outperformed Gemini 3 Pro and GPT-5.1 on key retrieval tasks pulling more acc ...

Performance Highlights - Grok 4.1 demonstrates superior RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) performance, especially with lengthy and intricate documents where precision is crucial [1] - Grok 4.1 either matches or surpasses industry leaders in certain tasks [1] Benchmark Results - Grok 4.1 achieved a coding score of 86, the best overall [2] - Grok 4.1 achieved a finance score of 93.0, demonstrating a clear lead [2] - Grok 4.1 is competitive with leading models in lawful tasks [2]

Industry Focus - Blockchain & Cryptocurrency - a16z crypto highlights privacy as a critical feature for the advancement of finance onchain [1]

Inflation Trends - Japan's inflation surpasses U S inflation, a situation unseen since 1979 [1]

Event Overview - Bloomberg House roundtables at WEF26 bring together influential leaders for candid conversations [1] - Discussions focus on shaping business, finance, and policy [1] Participation - Curated groups participate in forward-looking discussions [1]

Industry Outlook - The report suggests Ethereum is the future of finance [1] Company Focus - SharpLink (SBET) is mentioned, indicating a focus on this specific entity [1]

Product Releases & Features - Coinbase releases a new suite of APIs focused on Custody, Trading, and Stablecoins [1] - Embedded Custodial Wallet is available for easy integration into apps [1] - Fiat and Stablecoin transfers, payments, and direct fiat to stablecoin transfers are supported [1] - One-Click checkout for stablecoins is launched, integrated with wallets like Shopify [1] - Buy, Sell, Hold crypto functionality can be seamlessly integrated into apps, interfaces, and trading platforms, already launched with PNC, WeBull, and eToro [1] - Stablecoin payment requests (x402) are enabled in web transactions, allowing AI agents to transact with stablecoins [1] Strategic Implications - Coinbase is targeting the entire finance stack, from user to business [2] - Invoicing directly from Coinbase business accounts is now available [2] - Easy payment options via stablecoins are provided [2]