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Two Top-Rated Digital-Asset Infrastructure Plays
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The digital-asset revolution is quietly moving past its speculative phase. While retail traders chase volatile tokens and short-term price swings, the real value is being built in the underlying architecture—the digital-asset infrastructure that allows capital to move globally, securely, and instantaneously. As digital assets integrate into the global financial system, the focus has shifted from speculative trading to the plumbing that makes it all work.
This is where the conversation shifts from hype to infrastructure—and where Wall Street is quietly placing its biggest bets. Instead of guessing which speculative asset will rise next, institutional capital is flowing into the highly rated, cash-generating businesses that power the ecosystem.
👉 One company is a premier vertically integrated operator building the massive utility-scale data centers that secure and power the decentralized blockchain ecosystem.
👉 The other is a digital-first transaction and payment processing leader disrupting traditional remittance networks to move billions of dollars across borders seamlessly.
👉 Both companies command strong buy ratings from analysts, representing highly rated, fundamentally sound infrastructure plays positioned to compound as digital asset adoption accelerates.
In this edition, we break down why Riot Platforms, Inc. (RIOT) and Remitly Global, Inc. (RELY) sit at the absolute core of the digital-asset infrastructure boom—and why their top-rated status makes them compelling additions to a long-term portfolio today.
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Riot Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT) operates as a premier vertically integrated Bitcoin mining and digital infrastructure company, focusing on building, hosting, and operating utility-scale data centers that power the decentralized blockchain ecosystem. Classified under the Financial Exchanges & Data sub-industry within the broader Financials sector, the company has evolved from a pure-play cryptocurrency miner into a sophisticated infrastructure giant. Riot leverages massive energy assets, proprietary data centers, and advanced engineering capabilities to secure the Bitcoin network while dynamically managing its power consumption. By operating large-scale facilities, primarily in Texas, Riot positions itself at the critical intersection of digital asset creation, high-performance computing infrastructure, and grid-level energy management.
Business Model and Revenue Streams 📦
Riot Platforms operates a diversified business model centered around three primary revenue segments: self-mining, hosting services, and engineering operations. The self-mining division is the company’s primary growth engine, where Riot deploys its own fleet of highly efficient application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners to solve complex cryptographic puzzles and earn block rewards directly in Bitcoin. This segment’s revenue is highly sensitive to the market price of Bitcoin and the overall network hashrate. The hosting segment provides colocation services for institutional-scale miners, offering them secure data center space, electricity, and maintenance services in exchange for steady, fiat-based recurring fees. Lastly, Riot's engineering segment designs and manufactures electrical equipment and distribution infrastructure, providing critical hardware not only for its own facilities but also for third-party industrial customers, which helps diversify the company's revenue away from pure cryptocurrency price dependency.
The macroeconomic environment plays a pivotal role in shaping Riot’s operational efficiency and financial performance. Monetary policy, particularly the trajectory of interest rates set by the Federal Reserve, directly impacts the company's capital expenditure plans. Because building utility-scale data centers and purchasing next-generation ASIC miners require substantial capital, high interest rates increase the cost of financing, forcing miners to rely more heavily on equity dilution or cash reserves. Furthermore, inflation affects the cost of steel, copper, and electrical components needed to expand data center footprints. On the demand side, macroeconomic liquidity cycles heavily influence the price action of digital assets; periods of loose monetary policy generally drive capital into high-beta assets like Bitcoin, boosting Riot’s mining profitability, whereas tight monetary policy can compress margins across the entire digital asset infrastructure sector.
Energy policy and grid regulation represent another critical macroeconomic variable for Riot, particularly in Texas where the company concentrates its operations. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid has experienced heightened volatility due to extreme weather and surging demand from artificial intelligence data centers and industrial facilities. Recently, the Texas grid flagged significant risks as several large data centers and crypto sites failed key voltage stability and reliability tests ahead of peak summer demand. This regulatory and operational scrutiny highlights the challenges of scaling mega-watt facilities. However, Riot mitigates this risk through a sophisticated power strategy. By utilizing long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) and participating in ERCOT’s demand-response programs, Riot can curtail its power consumption during periods of grid stress, selling electricity back to the grid at peak prices. This unique mechanism effectively transforms Riot's data centers into virtual power plants, generating high-margin power credits that offset mining costs during periods of high energy prices.
Finally, the structural economics of the Bitcoin network, specifically the halving cycles and network difficulty adjustments, dictate Riot's long-term viability. The Bitcoin halving, which occurs approximately every four years, cuts the block reward in half, immediately doubling the marginal cost of production for miners who fail to upgrade their fleets. To counter this, Riot must continuously invest in more efficient mining hardware to lower its energy consumption per terahash. As network difficulty adjusts upward in response to rising global hashrate, only the most vertically integrated, low-cost operators can survive. Riot’s ability to control its entire infrastructure chain—from electrical engineering to physical data center space—gives it a structural advantage over asset-light competitors that rely entirely on third-party hosting.
Recent Performance and Corporate Developments 📈
Q1 2026 Financial Highlights: 💰
- Total Revenue: $167,219,000 for the three months ending March 31, 2026, representing a modest year-over-year growth of 3.61% compared to the prior year's quarter.
- Net Income/Loss: A net loss of -$500,477,000, reflecting substantial bottom-line pressure driven by non-cash depreciation of mining assets, changes in the fair value of digital assets, and elevated operational costs.
- Diluted Earnings Per Share (EPS): -$1.44 per share, down significantly due to the net loss and an increased share count from capital raising activities.
- Operating Margins and Segment Growth: Specific segment margins and exact hosting versus self-mining growth percentages were not detailed in the latest financial packet, but the overall results indicate severe margin compression following recent changes in network difficulty and halving economics.
Strategic Initiatives and Mergers: 🤝
Riot Platforms has actively pursued strategic partnerships to secure its long-term energy pipeline and position itself for the next phase of digital infrastructure growth. In May 2026, the company announced a landmark partnership with nuclear reactor developer Terrestrial Energy. Under the terms of this agreement, the two companies plan to co-locate molten salt reactors near Riot's massive data centers in Texas. This initiative is designed to provide Riot with a dedicated, zero-emission, and highly reliable source of baseload power, insulating its operations from the volatility of the public ERCOT grid and addressing the voltage stability issues that have plagued other large-scale data centers in the state. This partnership fueled a dramatic 57% gain in Riot's stock price during the month of May, as investors embraced the narrative of the nuclear energy renaissance powering high-density computing. There are no other major mergers or acquisitions reported for the current period, as the company remains focused on organic data center expansion and integrating its nuclear energy initiatives.
Profitability and Fair Value 🎯
Riot Platforms is currently navigating a capital-intensive expansion phase, which is reflected in its profitability metrics and valuation ratios. The company's trailing twelve-month (TTM) P/E ratio stands at -9.82, indicating that the company is currently unprofitable on a GAAP basis. This negative earnings profile is common among industrial-scale Bitcoin miners, who face heavy non-cash depreciation charges on their rapidly aging mining fleets, alongside fluctuations in the value of the Bitcoin held on their balance sheets. The company's enterprise value to EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio is also highly negative at -99.67, highlighting the current mismatch between Riot's massive infrastructure investments and its near-term operational cash flow.
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, Riot trades at a TTM ratio of 14.18 (with some calculations placing it at 13.94). A P/S ratio of this magnitude indicates that the market is pricing in substantial premium growth, valuing Riot more like a high-growth technology infrastructure provider than a traditional financial services or utility company. This premium valuation is supported by a remarkably low Price/Earnings-to-Growth (PEG) ratio of 0.0058, which suggests that if Riot can successfully transition to profitability and realize its projected long-term growth rates, the current share price could represent an attractive entry point relative to its ultimate growth potential.
However, conservative valuation models suggest caution. As of June 1, 2026, the GF Value for Riot Platforms was estimated at $13.31 per share, compared to a market price that reached as high as $28.25 before pulling back to the $24.49 to $24.66 range. This indicates that the stock is trading at a significant premium to its estimated long-term fair value. This premium is largely driven by speculative enthusiasm surrounding the company's nuclear energy partnership, its massive hashrate capacity, and its role as a liquid proxy for Bitcoin exposure. Investors must decide whether Riot's strategic positioning in the clean energy and high-performance computing space justifies this premium, or if the stock is vulnerable to further corrections if Bitcoin prices experience a sustained downturn.
Analyst Estimates and Ratings 📊
Riot Platforms enjoys exceptionally strong backing from Wall Street analysts, reflecting high institutional confidence in the company's long-term infrastructure strategy. The stock currently screens as a highly rated asset within the digital infrastructure space, attracting significant buy-side attention due to its scale and unique energy mitigation strategies.
Consensus Rating: Buy
Price Target: Not specified in the current research packet, but the stock has maintained strong support across major brokerage firms.
Over the last six months, the analyst consensus has remained remarkably stable and overwhelmingly bullish:
The most recent street action continues to flag a "Buy" rating, with no downgrades or hold ratings recorded in the last 90 days. This unanimous bullish outlook among the seven reporting firms highlights the market's belief that Riot is well-positioned to navigate the post-halving landscape. Brokerage reports from early June 2026 suggest that analysts view the recent price pullbacks as attractive buying opportunities, pointing to the company's robust balance sheet, its strategic nuclear power initiatives, and its massive average daily trading volume of over 10.8 million shares as key indicators of institutional liquidity and support.
Investor-Focused Takeaway: Is RIOT Right for Your Portfolio?
What to Watch in the Near Term: 📈
- Mid-2026 Bitcoin Network Difficulty & Halving Economics Update (June 15, 2026): This upcoming release will provide critical data on how the latest network difficulty adjustments are impacting Riot’s marginal cost to mine a single Bitcoin, offering a clear view of its operational efficiency.
- Riot Data Center & Hosting Expansion Milestone (July 10, 2026): Investors should watch for updates on Riot's physical infrastructure build-out, particularly regarding whether the company is meeting its hashrate capacity targets and expanding its third-party hosting revenue.
- Q2 2026 Earnings Release & Hashrate Update (July 29, 2026): This financial update will reveal whether Riot has been able to narrow its net losses, manage its capital expenditures, and improve its top-line revenue growth trajectory.
- Texas Grid Performance and Regulatory Compliance: Monitoring how Riot's facilities perform under peak summer demand in Texas, and whether the company faces any operational halts or penalties related to ERCOT's voltage stability tests.
Recommendation:
Riot Platforms, Inc. offers a high-beta, infrastructure-focused play on the growth of the digital asset economy. The company's strategic pivot toward nuclear energy colocation with Terrestrial Energy represents a forward-thinking solution to the energy constraints plaguing both crypto mining and artificial intelligence data centers, potentially unlocking a massive competitive advantage. However, the company's current financial profile—marked by a substantial net loss of -$500,477,000 in its most recent quarter and a valuation that sits well above its estimated GF Value of $13.31—demands a measured approach. For aggressive growth investors looking for a liquid, institutional-grade proxy for digital assets with unique energy-related upside, RIOT represents a compelling buy on major pullbacks. Conversely, conservative, value-oriented investors may want to wait for the company to demonstrate a clearer path toward GAAP profitability and stable operating margins before establishing a position.
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Remitly Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: RELY) is a leading digital-first cross-border remittance provider dedicated to offering migrant communities a fast, reliable, and cost-effective way to send money home to their families. Operating within the Transaction and Payment Processing Services sub-industry under the broader Financials sector, the company has established itself as a premier disruptor of traditional, expensive brick-and-mortar money transfer networks. By leveraging a mobile-centric platform and modern digital payment rails, Remitly eliminates the friction, high costs, and security concerns historically associated with legacy international money transfers. As global migration patterns continue to expand, the company serves as a vital financial bridge, connecting senders in developed economies with recipients in over a hundred receiving countries across the globe.
Business Model and Revenue Streams 📦
Remitly’s business model is built on a digital-to-digital and digital-to-cash network that prioritizes convenience, speed, and transparency. Unlike legacy remittance giants that rely on vast, expensive networks of physical agent locations, Remitly operates almost entirely through its mobile application and web portal. Senders in developed nations can fund transfers using bank accounts, credit cards, or debit cards, while recipients in developing nations can receive the funds through various channels, including bank deposits, mobile wallets, cash pickup at partner locations, or home delivery. This hybrid distribution model allows Remitly to capture a massive addressable market of both banked and unbanked individuals globally.
The company generates revenue through two primary streams: transaction fees and foreign exchange (FX) spreads. Transaction fees are charged to the sender and vary based on the destination country, the funding source, and the speed of the transfer. For instance, "Express" transfers funded by debit cards typically carry higher fees but deliver funds almost instantly, whereas "Economy" transfers funded by bank accounts are cheaper but take several business days to settle. The second, and often more lucrative, revenue stream is the foreign exchange spread. Remitly purchases foreign currencies at wholesale rates and sells them to retail customers at a slightly higher rate, capturing the spread as revenue. By utilizing sophisticated algorithm-driven pricing, the company can dynamically adjust these spreads to remain highly competitive while maximizing its transaction margins.
From a macroeconomic perspective, Remitly operates at the intersection of global migration, labor dynamics, and monetary policy. The demand for remittances is remarkably resilient, often acting as a non-discretionary expense for migrants who prioritize supporting their families back home regardless of economic downturns. However, macroeconomic policies in sending countries—such as interest rate decisions, labor market regulations, and inflation—directly influence the disposable income and wage growth of migrant workers. High interest rates can cool down economic activity in host nations, potentially impacting employment levels in sectors like construction, hospitality, and agriculture, which employ a significant number of migrant workers. Conversely, inflation in receiving countries often drives migrants to send larger sums of money home to cover the rising cost of basic goods and services, boosting Remitly’s transaction volumes.
Furthermore, the regulatory landscape plays a pivotal role in Remitly’s operational costs and compliance requirements. Because cross-border transactions are highly scrutinized to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, Remitly must invest heavily in proprietary compliance infrastructure, including automated Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) systems. These regulatory burdens act as a high barrier to entry for smaller competitors but require ongoing capital expenditure. Additionally, the company is classified in some investment circles alongside top crypto infrastructure stocks. While Remitly currently operates primarily on fiat rails, its highly scalable digital ledger systems and robust API integrations are designed to easily adapt to stablecoin settlements and blockchain-based cross-border payments, positioning the firm to capitalize on future shifts in global monetary infrastructure.
Recent Performance and Corporate Developments 📈
Q1 2026 Financial Highlights: 💰
- Total Revenue: $452,802,000, representing an impressive year-over-year growth rate of 25.21% compared to the same period in the prior year.
- Net Income: $49,053,000, showcasing a substantial turnaround and solidifying the company's clear path to consistent profitability.
- Diluted Earnings Per Share (EPS): $0.23 per share, beating internal targets and reflecting strong operational leverage.
- Profitability Drivers: Margins were significantly boosted by strategic AI upgrades, which optimized customer service automation, improved fraud detection algorithms, and lowered customer acquisition costs.
- Trading Volume: The stock maintained excellent liquidity with an average daily trading volume of 12,434,016 shares, ensuring smooth execution for institutional and retail investors alike.
Strategic Initiatives and Mergers: 🤝
While Remitly has reported no major corporate mergers or acquisitions in the most recent quarter, the company has been highly active in expanding its product ecosystem and geographic footprint. On May 12, 2026, the company announced the full Canadian launch of "Remitly Business," a specialized cross-border payments application tailored specifically for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). This launch marks a critical strategic expansion beyond peer-to-peer (P2P) consumer remittances, allowing Remitly to capture a share of the highly lucrative B2B payment market. By offering SMBs competitive exchange rates, low transaction fees, and rapid settlement times, Remitly is positioning itself to disrupt the traditional commercial banking channels that currently dominate small-business international trade.
In addition to product expansion, Remitly is navigating a broader industry trend of fintech consolidation. In June 2026, industry reports highlighted that scaled payments, banking, and brokerage players are increasingly hunting for vertical specialists with highly profitable unit economics. Because of Remitly's robust infrastructure, rapid user growth, and newly unlocked profitability, the company has faced growing takeover pressure, making it a potential acquisition target for larger financial institutions looking to instantly acquire market share in the cross-border digital payment space. On the leadership front, the company is preparing for its upcoming Analyst Day on June 16, 2026, where a new CEO is scheduled to present a refreshed strategic vision for the company's next phase of growth. This leadership transition comes alongside normal-course insider transactions, including a recent sale of $1.2 million in company shares by the Chief Financial Officer in early June 2026. While insider sales can sometimes raise questions, analysts note this transaction occurred against a backdrop of steady operational performance and does not detract from the company's underlying fundamental strength.
Profitability and Fair Value 🎯
For several years following its public debut, Remitly was characterized as a high-growth but deeply unprofitable fintech play. The company spent aggressively on marketing to build its global brand and acquire a critical mass of users. However, recent quarterly results demonstrate that Remitly's path to profitability is now fully established. The company's profits are soaring, driven by a combination of compounding user growth, scale-driven cost efficiencies, and targeted artificial intelligence upgrades. By implementing AI to automate customer onboarding, risk assessment, and customer support, Remitly has successfully bent its cost curve, allowing a larger percentage of incremental revenue to flow directly to the bottom line. This operating leverage is transforming the company from a speculative growth stock into a highly efficient compounding machine.
Evaluating Remitly's valuation requires a balanced look at its growth-adjusted metrics. At a current share price of approximately $24.04, the stock trades at a trailing twelve-month (TTM) Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio of 48.03. While a P/E near 50 might appear elevated at first glance, the company's forward-looking metrics paint a much more attractive picture. According to financial data, the company's forward-looking P/E ratio sits at approximately 36.04, while its Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio is a highly reasonable 2.93 (with some forward estimates placing the P/S as low as 2.20). Most notably, Remitly boasts an Enterprise Value to EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio of 21.59 and an extraordinary Price/Earnings-to-Growth (PEG) ratio of just 0.01. A PEG ratio so far below the standard benchmark of 1.0 strongly indicates that the market is severely underpricing Remitly's earnings growth potential relative to its current valuation.
When compared to legacy remittance competitors like Western Union, which trade at lower earnings multiples but suffer from stagnant or declining revenue growth, Remitly commands a premium that is fully justified by its 25.21% year-over-year revenue expansion. Conversely, compared to high-flying digital payment peers, Remitly's P/S ratio of under 3.0x represents a significant discount. The current market price seems to reflect a cautious discount due to potential regulatory headwinds, creating what appears to be a highly favorable risk-reward entry point for long-term investors. Given its accelerating margins and robust top-line growth, the current share price looks highly fair, if not outright undervalued, for a company of this caliber.
Analyst Estimates and Ratings 📊
Consensus Rating: Buy
Price Target Upside: 28.17%
Recent Upgrades (90 days): 0
Latest Street Action: Overweight
Wall Street analysts have maintained a highly constructive outlook on Remitly, with a unanimous consensus of 5 Buy ratings and 0 Hold or Sell ratings from the major research firms tracking the stock over the past six months. This newsletter screens for stocks with strong recent buy-side action, and Remitly fits the profile perfectly, characterized by steady institutional accumulation and an "Overweight" designation from leading investment banks. Market analysts point to the company's superior digital user experience, high customer retention rates, and expanding margins as the key catalysts for future share appreciation. The mean price target from Wall Street analysts implies a 28.17% upside from the current price of $24.04, which would place the stock's fair value target at approximately $30.81 per share.
Investor-Focused Takeaway: Is RELY Right for Your Portfolio?
What to Watch in the Near Term: 📈
- The June 16, 2026 Analyst Day & New CEO Strategic Vision: Investors must closely monitor the strategic roadmap laid out by the incoming leadership team, particularly regarding B2B expansion via Remitly Business and potential integrations of digital asset infrastructure.
- The July 28, 2026 Trump Administration Remittance Tax Policy Risk: This represents a critical regulatory catalyst. Any concrete legislative proposals to tax outbound remittances could impact transaction volumes and require strategic shifts in pricing.
- The August 5, 2026 Q2 2026 Earnings Report: This print will reveal whether Remitly can maintain its 25%+ year-over-year revenue growth trajectory and continue to expand its net income margins.
- Fintech Consolidation and M&A Activity: Given the ongoing wave of payments sector consolidation, any rumors or formal approaches regarding a takeover of Remitly could trigger rapid price action.
Recommendation:
Remitly Global, Inc. presents a compelling opportunity for growth-oriented investors looking to gain exposure to the digital payments and international remittance space. The company has successfully transitioned from an unprofitable market-share grabber to a highly efficient, profitable business with strong unit economics and a clear competitive moat. Its recent Q1 2026 results, highlighted by over $452 million in revenue and $49 million in net income, prove that its digital-first model can scale profitably. While the stock is not without risks—most notably the upcoming policy discussions surrounding remittance taxes in late July—its exceptionally low PEG ratio of 0.01 suggests that much of this regulatory risk is already priced into the stock. For investors with a medium-to-long-term horizon who can tolerate policy-driven volatility, RELY offers a highly attractive blend of secular growth, rising profitability, and potential upside from industry consolidation.
Final Take: The Mining Muscle and the Digital Rails Powering Modern Finance
The evolution of digital finance isn't just about token prices or speculative trading—it's about the underlying infrastructure that secures networks and moves capital across borders.
This requires two foundational pillars: massive computational power to secure decentralized assets, and highly efficient digital rails to move value globally in real-time.
That's where Riot Platforms (RIOT) and Remitly Global (RELY) stand apart.
⛏️ Riot Platforms (RIOT) — The Heavy Infrastructure of the Blockchain
✔ Vertically integrated scale with massive, low-cost energy assets and proprietary data centers
✔ Advanced engineering capabilities that allow dynamic grid-level power management in Texas
✔ A fortress balance sheet with zero long-term debt and substantial liquid reserves to weather market cycles
➤ Best for: Investors seeking direct, institutional-grade exposure to physical blockchain infrastructure and high-performance computing power.
💸 Remitly Global (RELY) — The Digital Highway for Global Capital
✔ Mobile-centric payment rails disrupting legacy, high-cost brick-and-mortar remittance networks
✔ Scalable proprietary technology connecting senders in developed markets to recipients in over 100 countries
✔ Strong customer acquisition economics driving consistent revenue expansion and operating leverage
➤ Best for: Investors looking for a high-growth fintech compounder capturing the structural shift from physical cash to digital-first cross-border payments.
Investor Insight
🧩 Want pure computational infrastructure and direct exposure to decentralized asset creation? → RIOT
⚙️ Want high-velocity digital payment rails with massive transaction volume and global scale? → RELY
Bottom Line:
Modern money doesn't move on legacy systems—it moves on high-performance computing and frictionless digital networks.
Riot Platforms provides the raw computational power to secure the decentralized frontier, while Remitly builds the digital highways that connect global economies. As the world shifts permanently away from slow, physical financial networks, RIOT and RELY are building the indispensable infrastructure for the future of value.
Not investment advice. Do your own research.
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Important: This newsletter does not provide investment advice. The stocks mentioned should not be taken as recommendations. Your investments are solely your decisions.
Disclosure: We hold no positions in any companies mentioned, either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. We wrote this article ourself, and it expresses our own opinions. We have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. |
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