News and analysis

To everyone's astonishment on Wall Street, Verizon Communications (VZ) suddenly added more than 5% to its market value already in the first trading hours this week. That's an unusually large gain in the telecom industry, even if we talk about a business with triple-digit market caps in billions of U.S. Dollars. The reason for the upside leap on July 21 lies not so much in the fact that both the company's Q2 core profit and revenue just topped consensus estimates by nearly 2.5%. What was perhaps more important was that it has bravely lifted its own inner estimates for the lower end of adjusted earnings for the full year of 2025.

Verizon said it may get an income higher by 1% to 3% from a prior range of 0% to 3%, because of rising demand for higher-tier plans. Its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) is seen rising by 2.5% to 3.5%, versus 2% to 3.5% in the company's previous projections. Now it improves customer retention via promotions to beat rivals like AT&T, T-Mobile and Comcast in the U.S., so that Verizon's broadband net additions came in at 293,000 for the last three months. Considering that the group-wide operating sales edged up by 5.2% YoY to $34.5 billion, compared to $32.8 billion in Q2 2024, these are not all trivial numbers.

In recent years, telecoms have generally not had very high profit margins, inferior to many technology companies that offer much more extensive innovation programs. They can't make money like cloud services or at least as manufacturers of gadgets with most advanced AI options. These are simple men of labour to provide 5G and 4G LTE networks for mobile phone and home internet plus information and entertainment products including streaming services as well as some business, consumer solutions. That's why the financial results look so impressive. When waiting for the fibre-optic internet provider Frontier deal for $20 billion, Verizon's CEO Hans Vestberg noted his firm has "momentum and a clear path forward".

A relative proximity of the $40 per share technical and psychological support area is also encouraging investors. The stock dipped below $40 only for a short period of one month and a half, starting before Christmas and ending in late January, then resurfacing to as high as $47.35. The further recovery scenario, back above $45, with possible attempts to climb some higher, looks widely expected, therefore. The company's attractiveness for conservative investors is also given because Verizon pays dividends of $2.71 per share (as much as 6.6% in current price levels).

Citigroup has even reiterated its Buy rating with $48.00 as a near-term price target, citing Verizon's consumer postpaid phone gross adds by 19% YoY among other drivers and the slight financial beat against cautious investor sentiment. Morgan Stanley resumed its Equalweight coverage with a $47.00 price target, while Bank of America Securities kept a Neutral rating with a $45.00 price target, which is also 4.8% above this Monday's highs.

Bitcoin (BTC) is adding 1.0% to $119,070 this week, outperforming Ethereum (ETH), which rose by just 0.3% to $3,781. However, taking a broader view, Ethereum has surged 51% in July, significantly outpacing Bitcoin’s 11% monthly gain, a clear sign that altcoins are catching up in the rally.

Bitcoin has already updated its 2021 highs by 80%, while Ethereum is still working toward the same milestone. The leading altcoin remains 28% below its all-time high at $4,864, suggesting room for further upside if momentum persists.

BTC is now approaching the key resistance at $125,000. A breakout above this level in the coming weeks could trigger a fresh leg higher, with the next major target in the $150,000 zone. As altcoins continue to narrow the performance gap, market sentiment remains broadly bullish.

Cardano (ADA) is rising by 16.8% to $0.8550 this week, clearly outperforming Bitcoin (BTC), which is flat at $118,650. ADA broke through the key resistance level at $0.8000 on Thursday and surged to an intraday high of $0.8954. The token now appears poised to target the next major resistance at $1.0000, though a short-term pullback to retest the $0.8000 level is likely before any further advance.

Cardano continues to attract attention as a project of interest, with trading volumes on the rise — a strong sign of growing investor confidence. This momentum suggests that a sustained rally remains possible, especially if the broader crypto market maintains its current stability.

As I told you two months ago, Ripple was going to greatly outperform Bitcoin dynamics, remaining a reliable investment option. The short-term benefits from Ripple are amazing, as the third most important crypto token first "took the Bastille" of $3.00 on July 14, and then hit a $3.5444 new historical high only three days later, when it gained about 16% within just twenty-four hours. The growth continues even as I write this text.

Trump's World Liberty Financial crypto fund is accelerating like lamps seen from an express train, representing billions and billions of dollars on paper. The project will provide enormous inflows into most usable tokens. Bitcoin scaled a record peaking price above $123,000, which is 14% above the post-election peaks of December 2024, but it has added less than 10% since mid-May, but Ripple is now up over 50% from the prices where I was actively buying it only 8,5 weeks ago. Someone can grab their profits here if they want. As for me, I will wait at least until a $5.50 target by Standard Chartered bank for the rest of 2025, which also mentioned a possible reach of as high as $8.00 in 2026. It is to double the capital even from current prices, it turns out, if one believes these estimates.

Trump and his close circle urged congressmen to make regulatory rules in favour of the crypto industry. There is a rising promise that the so-called stablecoin bills, which are the GENIUS Act and the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, will be passed before the weekend. The legislation initially failed in a House vote this Tuesday but is now expected to advance very soon. House Financial Services Committee chair French Hill told CNBC in an interview they have the necessary votes, so that there is strong bipartisan support for the bill. Again, there is the third bill to block the federal government from creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC) through the Federal Reserve unless it’s done with a specific authorization through Congress.

The crypto environment, and especially some selected coins, could simply thrive under such conditions, being replenished not only by exchange-traded funds, but also for the purpose of creating national reserves. If this is done in the US, then soon some other jurisdictions will follow, it is only a matter of time. If the world has recently cast aside all doubts about Bitcoin, then now confidence in some other altcoins will grow as well. It’s high time to switch to other solid and popular altcoins after such a strong bullish run in Bitcoin and Ethereum, and Ripple could be the best idea.