Even Visa Can’t Stop Themselves from Buying NFTs

Hey Rippers fam 👋

If you care about stocks, just opened a Robinhood account, or are new to the world of investing — the Bullish Rippers Newsletter is for you! Every week, we're covering the biggest stocks dominating the conversation from Wall Street to FinTwit. Think of us as your go-to-guide to the stocks and crypto that are ripping.... and dipping. Ultimately, our goal is to help you try and identify opportunities and actions in the marketplace. 

This week, we're giving you a quick rundown of what stocks are making headlines and why you should keep an eye on them. Keep scrolling for more on:

• Visa ($V)

• Apple ($AAPL)

• Gamestop ($GME)

• AMC ($AMC)

👾 Visa Joins the NFT Craze

We all know Visa the credit card company, but do you know Visa the NFT collector? Visa has been in the news recently after buying into the NFT project CryptoPunks with a $150,000 purchase (49.5ETH) of CryptoPunk #7610.

If you’re sitting there thinking: “$150,000 for a JPEG? That’s ridiculous!” Well, go take a look at the trading history for CryptoPunks. As of August 24, every CryptoPunk being sold is well over the 49.5ETH. Visa paid with the cheapest of the last six going for 74.69ETH (currently worth $246.6K).

So why did Visa make this move, and was it a good one? Visa said their official reasoning for buying the NFT was to learn more about the space they think “will play an important role in the future of retail, social media, entertainment, and commerce.”

Visa also said they wanted to signal their support to those diving into the NFT space and to collect an NFT that “symbolizes the excitement and opportunity of this particular cultural moment.”

Now that’s their official reason, but we at Bullish Rippers think this move could really be explained in one word — marketing!

Visa got everyone talking about their company for just $150,000. That number may sound like a lot, but $150,000 is nothing given how much Visa spends on advertising.

Our take ➡️ This was a masterclass from the advertising team at Visa. Even if you think CryptoPunk’s are worthless, the attention generated from the buy made it worth way more than the money spent.

It’s still the early days for NFTs, and the very early days for Visa’s role in the space.  But watch what Visa does in this space going forward. Although we don’t necessarily expect Visa to make another move like buying a CrytoPunk, the banking company will be active.

🗣 Visa's Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffield said in an official statement: “NFTs have the potential to become a powerful accelerator for the creator economy and lower the barrier to entry for individual creatives to earn a living through digital commerce.” 

It wouldn’t be surprising for Visa to put their money where their mouth is... and not just buy NFTs, but help build out the underlying space they say they believe in.

🍎 Everyone Say "Thanks, Tim Cook!" 

As of August 24, Tim Cook has now been CEO of Apple for 10 years. There aren’t many shoes that would be larger to fill than that of Steve Jobs, but Cook has done as good as humanly possible.

People love to say that "Apple doesn’t innovate anymore," but the fact of the matter is beloved Apple products such as AirPods, Apple Watch and Apple Music didn’t even exist yet when Cook took over as CEO. Under his tutelage, Apple has seen its revenue go from $28.57 billion in Cook’s first quarter as CEO to $81.4 billion in its most recent quarter. Investors in Apple have been significantly rewarded as well.

You don’t become the largest company in the world without a top-class CEO at the helm. Although there was a lot of momentum when he took over, Cook has not only maintained that momentum, but added to and grown it. 

Cook is rightfully getting paid for his efforts. He is receiving the last of his 10 award payments for being CEO, worth $750 million in Apple stock. 

💬 Apple is my personal largest holding, and I would love to see Tim Cook as CEO of Apple for another 10 years! 

🍿 Meme Stocks... Again

Are we at the start of another rally in the reddit stocks? GameStop ($GME) and AMC Entertainment ($AMC) were both up big on August 24, heading toward their best days since June. GameStop opened on August 24 at $166.29, and would go on to close the day at $210.29 — up 26.5% on the day. Meanwhile, AMC opened the day at $37.19 and closed the day at $44.26 — up 19% on the day.

These moves seemingly came out of nowhere, with no major news coming out about either stock. In response to the impressive moves, social chatter has picked up significantly with the names reclaiming their spots as the most talked about stocks on StockTwits and WallStreetBets.

My stance on these companies hasn’t changed: I see them as trading vehicles only. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s something that's important to realize.

The names have dislocated from their fundamentals, resulting in extreme volatility (among other things). This volatility creates opportunities for experienced traders, but also a lot of risks for those who don’t know what they’re doing. Those experienced traders are the ones who win in stocks like these, and if you don’t want to put in the work and time it takes to get to that level — you’re probably best off leaving these names alone.

🔥 Rippers Honorable Mention

There are a lot of people that benefited from Visa's NFT move beyond just the banking company. There aren’t many companies that would benefit more from this than OpenSea.

OpenSea was the first — and currently is the largest — marketplace for NFTs. If you ever hear someone talking about buying or selling an NFT, this platform is where they almost certainly did it. OpenSea has seen some impressive growth recently.

Over the 30 days, they had 153.34K users make a trade up 199.87% from the month prior. Those users made 1.74 million transactions — up 183.59% from the month prior. They won't keep that percentage growth up forever, but this is definitely a company to watch with massive growth potential still ahead of it.

That's all for Bullish Rippers this week! Make sure to stay up-to-date on all the stocks ripping and dipping over on our Twitter. Stay bullish and we'll see you all in the next one 🔥