In today’s newsletter I discuss if crypto winter is over (spoiler alert: YES!). Then I talk about how we're getting another 'World War Z' movie, AMD just hit a $1 trillion dollar market cap, more people are retiring earlier thanks to the AI boom, Mexican drug cartels are mining crypto, Elon Musk’s The Boring Company just got a $3 billion dollar investment from the United Arab Emirates, NASA just awarded SpaceX a $950 million dollar contract extension to fly 3 new crewed missions to the International Space Station, and Nike debuted a custom racing suit for Olympic runner Keely Hodgkinson and WoW does it look slick!

Let’s get into it!

The price of Bitcoin has soared in the last few months, bouncing off its low of $57,718 in June 2026 during the latest cycle, to its current price around $84,500 dollars as of the writing of this article. So I’m asking the question: Is the crypto winter over? Let’s get into it.

First off, let’s level set and talk about what exactly “crypto winter” is before we get into why I think it might be over. Crypto winter describes the prolonged period of depressed cryptocurrency prices, and the lack of excitement about crypto in general. In short, IFKYK about crypto then it’s been a rough couple of years, but I think that’s about to change.

Bitcoin reached an all time high of $126,198 dollars on October 6, 2025 giving the cryptocurrency market a valuation of around $4.3 trillion dollars. Then things got spicy. Nearly every cryptocurrency began a sharp dive as investor enthusiasm took a break. The market dropped overnight. Companies laid off thousands of workers. NFTs, which were already waning in popularity, practically dropped off a cliff in value. Trading volumes on the major crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Binance dried up as retail investors lost interest when they saw their portfolio values plummet, and then institutions who just a day earlier were championing cryptocurrency and predicting Bitcoin would hit $1 million dollars started ghosting crypto and began reallocating their money to the now booming AI industry.

The entire crypto industry as an asset class lost over $1 trillion dollars in total value since October 2025 and today. The price of Bitcoin fell all the way down the chart to a low of $57,748 on July 1, 2026 from its high of $126,198 dollars set on October 6, 2025. Crypto market analysts falsely declared the digital asset experiment dead. Prominent crypto pundits walked back their $1 million dollar Bitcoin predictions. No one, and I literally mean no one, was buying crypto. Then things started to change.

I can’t put my finger on exactly when things began to change, or why, but during the Summer of 2026 there was a shift in the force…I mean the crypto industry. Maybe it was something to do with the seemingly never ending War in Iran, or the growing inflation situation we all find ourselves in, or maybe it was the slim hope against all odds that the Clarity Act might actually pass this year (good luck with that!). For whatever reason, crypto investors found their religion again, and the price of Bitcoin began to lead a comeback. Today Bitcoin trades at around $84,500, and the cryptocurrency market is valued at $2.89 trillion dollars.

Today the crypto industry is beginning to show signs of life, for real this time. Don’t believe me? Well:

And now a who’s who of crypto pundits have found their courage again and are back predicting Bitcoin will reach $1 million dollars per coin, including:

When the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act recently failed in the Senate on September 15, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) both said “Hold my beer.”, and stepped into the regulatory void to bring their own rules to the crypto markets. Paul Atkins at the SEC issued a 5 year exemption that will allow for tokenized public stocks to trade on blockchain pools without registering with national stock exchanges. This will allow startups to raise money through token issuance without full public disclosures. Can you say “slippery slope”? Then Michael Selig at the CFTC implemented its "Plan B" and began a regulatory push to set the standards for cryptocurrency exchanges and spot transactions, while issuing a legal brief protecting decentralized software providers from being targeted as registered futures intermediaries. This decisive action by the SEC and the CFTC has renewed the cryptocurrency market’s optimism that legal and regulatory clarity could give the industry exactly what they’ve been asking for and need in order for the United States to remain the leader of the cryptocurrency industry.

So if you ask me, crypto winter is over… for now at least, and there’s renewed optimism that with regulatory clarity the industry will grow, and everyone will prosper. Well, maybe not everyone. Most of my family still doesn’t think crypto is a real thing, but at least they know what Bitcoin is now, and that’s a start.

AMD just hit a market valuation of $1 trillion dollars for the first time. AMD reported a massive second quarter revenue of $11.54 billion dollars, with their data center division accounting for $6.7 billion dollars of that. In other words, the AI boom continues.

Paramount Pictures just greenlit a sequel to the ‘World War Z’ zombie movie, and they’re bringing back Brad Pitt. The sequel will be directed by Edward Berger, who’ll be taking over from director Marc Forster.

The original ‘World War Z’ was a huge global box office success, making $540 million dollars worldwide at the box office. Dennis Kelly is writing the new script based on the bestselling book by author Max Brooks, and the movie will be produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment production company. No word yet on when the sequel to ‘World War Z’ will come out, but if you ask me the answer is not soon enough!

One of my favorite TV shows, 'MobLand' on Paramount+ was just renewed for a season 3, and before you even wonder YES Tom Hardy is returning as Harry Da Souza for the Irish-led Harrigan crime family.

The recent bull market, thanks in large part to the AI boom, is creating a wealth effect that is giving workers nearing retirement age the financial confidence to quit their jobs and retire early. The labor force participation rate for workers age 55 and older just dropped to 37.2% from 38.6% in August 2024. The total net worth of households grew by $12.8 trillion dollars to reach $195.9 trillion dollars during the second quarter of 2026. According to a federal survey data shows workers nearing retirement age between 55-64 hold an average account balance of $537,560 dollars. That number shocked me as being way too small to retire on, but apparently I’m living the lavish life of a content creator these days. So I dug into the numbers, and found that less than 10% of households in that age bracket actually have retirement accounts over $1 million dollars. So either people nearing retirement age know more than I do about being thrifty, or the survey didn’t take into account other assets they may have like real estate or savings outside of their retirement accounts. Or I’m just going about saving for retirement all wrong!

Mexican drug cartels are building secret cryptocurrency mining facilities in remote mountain ranges to launder money and fund their illegal operations. You can’t even make this stuff up. During a recent police raid on a hidden compound in the mountains of Puebla, about 80 miles southeast of Mexico City, they found a huge cryptocurrencying mining setup that was stealing electricity from a nearby hydroelectric dam. The cryptocurrencying mine was running 300 GPUs, 80 medium voltage terminals, and 8 satellite antennas. The electricity they were stealing was being used to power the computers and keep everything cool so the mining rigs don’t literally melt from the insane heat the cryptocurrencying mining generates. It’s estimated that illegal cryptocurrency transactions have doubled between 2024 and 2025, from $59 billion dollars in 2024 to $154 billion dollars in 2025. It’s gotten to the point where drug cartels can make as much money from cryptocurrencying mining as they do from trafficking drugs, begging the question why don’t they just go legit and IPO on the Nasdaq like every other crypto company these days? (sarcasm)

Elon Musk’s The Boring Company just got a $3 billion dollar investment from the United Arab Emirates for them to expand operations in the Middle East. The funding round valued The Boring Company at $23 billion dollars, and will be used to build 93 miles of new underground tunnels expanding the Dubai Loop project. Elon Musk owns 90% of The Boring Company, so his net worth just jumped by around $20.7 billion dollars. It must be good to be Elon Musk!

The new trailer for the movie ‘Masterclass’, starring Stanley Tucci, Simona Tabasco, and Victor Belmondo, just dropped and I’m a sucker for a good heist movie. Stanley Tucci plays a legendary art thief whose final heist is to steal the Mona Lisa with his long-lost children.

The movie drops on October 16 on Amazon Prime.

NASA just awarded SpaceX a $950 million dollar contract extension to fly 3 new crewed missions to the International Space Station. Elon Musk and his engineering team will provide Crew Dragons for the upcoming Crew 15, Crew 16, and Crew 17 missions. For those keeping score at home this brings the total number of Crew Dragon missions to 17 missions to the ISS. This new funding brings the value of SpaceX’s total crew missions for NASA to $5.92 billion dollars, and helped lift SpaceX’s stock price when the news was reported.

Nike debuted a custom racing suit for Olympic runner Keely Hodgkinson during the 800 meter race at the Athlos meet in London. Nike spent the last year developing the black hooded outfit to reduce wind resistance, and features 3D printed vortex generators to cut drag. Yes, apparently that’s a real thing. Never one to shun style, Keely Hodgkinson disregarded Nike’s advice and ran with her hair in a ponytail sticking out the back of the skintight suit, and WoW did she ever look fabulous winning the race in 1 minute and 56.40 seconds and taking home $65,000 dollars in winnings.

You’ve got to see Nike’s new racing suit in action!

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The Business Behind The News is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.