This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) has been on an amazing run this year, becoming the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market cap and recently surpassing older, more established blockchains like Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) and Ripple (CRYPTO: XRP).

Moving forward, Solana could have even more runway ahead of it as momentum for the blockchain continues to build. Here are three reasons why Solana could just be getting started. 

Lightning fast transaction speed (at a fraction of the cost!)

The Solana network processes a remarkable 50,000 to 65,000 transactions per second, compared to just 15-30 transactions per second for Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), or 250 for Cardano. This throughput also compares favorably to traditional financial networks like Visa (NYSE: V), which processes about 24,000 transactions per second. Furthermore, Solana does this for a low fee of $0.00001 to $0.00025 cents per transaction, which is much cheaper than the current cost of transacting on the Ethereum blockchain. Transactions on the Ethereum blockchain cost anywhere from $4 to $20 per transaction in ‘gas fees,’ making it impractical for smaller transactions. While these fees are coming down after Ethereum’s move to proof of stake, Solana still has a distinct advantage here. 

Amazing projects are coming to the Solana blockchain

The advent of decentralized applications (dApps) like CryptoPunks, Crypto Kitties, and NBA Top Shot on the Ethereum blockchain helped turn Ethereum into a $500 billion asset. Developers flocked to the Ethereum blockchain to build new projects while artists minted NFTs, adding value and excitement in the process. 

Solana is developing a dynamic ecosystem of its own. One interesting project is Audius, a decentralized, blockchain-based music streaming service whose AUDIO token utilizes the Solana blockchain. The service has 5 million listeners as of 2021. 

There’s also Solend, a lending platform built on the Solana blockchain that will allow users to lend out tokens and generate yield.

Additionally, there is a burgeoning array of NFTs sprouting up on Solana, like the Degenerate Ape Academy, which has generated over $100 million in secondary sales since August.  As more users and developers take advantage of the Solana blockchain, its value will continue to rise. 

Hitting exit velocity 

We could be at the point where Solana has reached ‘exit velocity.’ 

Last year, a run from $10,000 to $20,000 seemed to make Bitcoin more risky based on valuation. However, this strong performance and larger market cap put it on the radar of institutional investors and hedge funds. This institutional interest helped propel Bitcoin from $20,000 to $60,000. While seemingly counterintuitive, growing to this larger market cap helped ‘derisk’ Bitcoin in the eyes of larger investors and made institutions and corporations feel safe dabbling in the asset. 

Now that Solana is approaching a $70 billion market cap, we are at a point where hedge funds, institutions, and other large investors and corporations may be comfortable investing in Solana, and propel it to the next level.

Looking ahead 

With unparalleled transaction speed for a fraction of a cent, a flurry of development and interesting projects being built on its blockchain, and the potential for growing institutional interest as it reaches exit velocity, Solana is here to stay. 

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The post 3 reasons why Solana could just be getting started appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

Stocks rebounded sharply on Monday, taking heart from more-upbeat comments following Friday’s steep declines. Despite ongoing concerns about how virulent the new omicron COVID-19 variant might be, investors nevertheless took a more positive view of the potential impact, especially in light of favorable comments from vaccine makers promising new weapons in the fight against the pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) didn’t claw back all of their losses, but they still put in a good day overall.

Index	Daily Percentage Change	Daily Point Change
Dow	+0.68%	+237
S&P 500	+1.32%	+61
Nasdaq	+1.88%	+291

Data source: Yahoo! Finance.

Monday gave investors another example of how selling on down days can lead to poor outcomes. In many ways, those who are more susceptible to panic-selling under pressure would have been better served having simply taken a long weekend to ignore what the markets did on Friday.

A different look at the markets

Sometimes, getting a different perspective on investing just requires expanding your time horizon by the smallest amount. Consider how the markets have performed when you combine Friday’s losses and Monday’s gains:

• The Dow has done by far the worst, falling almost 670 points, or just under 2%.
• The S&P has fallen by about 46 points, or less than 1%.
• The Nasdaq’s losses amounted to just 62 points, or less than 0.5%.

Moves of that size aren’t unusual, and they don’t establish anything close to a reversal of a prevailing trend. Rather, you can expect to see many moves in either direction over the course of several days in the stock market. Those moves can happen whether investors are in a bull market, bear market, or some sort of transition between the two.

Remember how far we’ve come

Another way to put declines in perspective is to think about how long it took to achieve a given milestone. For instance, the declines in the Nasdaq and S&P on Friday were significant, but they only took the indexes to levels that they first reached less than a month before. In other words, most investors would’ve been overjoyed if you’d told them a year ago that the S&P and Nasdaq would be where they were on Friday.

For the Dow, admittedly, it’s a little bit trickier. The average’s declines on Friday took it back to levels it first reached in May. Yet in the life of a long-term investor, even six months isn’t a huge span of time compared to your eventual time horizon.

Stay the course

Many investors saw Friday as potentially the first day of a huge downward move. That’s still possible, even though Monday provided at least a short respite. There’s always a chance that stocks will end up making a correction or entering a bear market, and in the long run, it’s inevitable.

If you try to anticipate those events with the goal of avoiding them, however, you’ll likely find that it ends up hurting you more than it helps you. In the long run, there are simply too many head-fakes from market volatility. The best way to reap the market’s long-term rewards is to stick with a consistent strategy and see it through. 

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The post Monday showed why a long-term investing strategy is more important than ever appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Dan Caplinger has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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The two ASX shares in this article could be leading ideas to think about as long-term ideas because of their plans that involve international growth.

Not every business is planning to expand geographically, but companies that do can materially increase their addressable market.

With that in mind, here are two ASX growth shares with major plans:

Baby Bunting Group Ltd (ASX: BBN)

Baby Bunting is an ASX retailer that sells a wide variety of baby and toddler products including prams, toys, clothes, furniture and so on.

The company has various plans to deliver profit growth and market share growth.

It’s investing in digital to deliver the best possible customer experience across channels. Baby Bunting is planning to invest to grow its market share from its core business. Baby Bunting wants to achieve growth from ‘new markets’ and aim for profit margin improvement.

New Zealand is an important part of Baby Bunting’s longer-term growth plans. It is aiming to open its first two stores in the country before the end of the financial year. Over time, Baby Bunting sees a network there of at least ten stores. In FY22 it’s also planning to open between six to eight new Australian stores.

Another area of growth for the ASX share is the amount of private label and exclusive products sold. In FY22 to its AGM date, 44.3% sales were from this source. The long-term goal is for these products to make up 50% of sales. This is helping the gross profit margin continue to rise.

In FY21, total sales increased 15.6% and pro forma net profit jumped 34.8% to $26 million. FY22 sales had increased by another 1.5% despite more than half of its stores being subject to lockdowns. Online sales were up 37.7% in the year to date.

The ASX growth share is rated as a buy by the broker Morgan Stanley with a price target of $6.90.

Redbubble Ltd (ASX: RBL)

Redbubble describes itself as the operator of two leading global online marketplaces – Redbubble.com and TeePublic.com. It enables artists to sell “uncommon designs on high-quality, everyday products such as apparel, stationery, housewares, bags, wall art and so on. It is steadily adding more product categories.

The ASX growth share generates its marketplace revenue from all over the world, though North America represented 69% of its FY22 first quarter sales. The EU (13%), the UK (9%) and ANZ (8%) represented the other major markets.

Excluding masks, Redbubble is expecting marketplace revenue in FY22 to be slightly above underlying FY21 marketplace revenue of $497 million.

In the next few years, it’s aiming to reach $1.25 billion of marketplace revenue.

Redbubble is planning to invest in multiple areas to grow the business in the medium-term, which likely means the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin will be in the mid-single digits.

However, the ASX share said in its recent trading update:

The business remains confident and excited about the medium-to-longer-term opportunity to grow strongly its online marketplaces for consumers and extend Redbubble’s global market leadership as the largest platform for independent artists.

Morgan Stanley currently rates Redbubble as a buy, with a price target of $6.50.

The post 2 buy-rated ASX shares with big growth plans appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Baby Bunting. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Today was a pretty decent day for most ASX investors. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) ended up finishing this Tuesday’s trading at 7,256 points, up 0.22% for the day. But this positive energy didn’t flow through to one ASX company that made its debut on the ASX boards today. That would be the Biome Australia (ASX: BIO) share price.

Yes, Biome shares undertook an initial public offering (IPO) this morning, floating on the ASX boards for the first time. Biome is a healthcare company that’s in the business of providing probiotics, nutritional supplements and complementary medicines.

This morning, its pre-float announcement told the markets that its IPO had been successfully completed (oversubscribed in fact), and that it had raised $8 million through pricing its shares at 20 cents each. That gave Biome Australia a total market capitalisation of $40 million.

But unfortunately for these investors, Biome’s ASX IPO didn’t exactly go as well as the company might have hoped for. Upon its first few minutes of public life, BIO shares opened at around 13 cents each (down 35% from its IPO price). When the markets closed today, Biome shares finished up at just 12 cents each, a nasty fall of 40% from the 20 cents a share price that investors oversubscribed the company’s IPO at.

It could have been worse. At one point during the trading day, Biome shares hit 11 cents each, which represented a fall of 45% from the IPO price.

Investors will no doubt be hoping for a better trading day tomorrow.

At this closing price, Biome Australia has an estimated market capitalisation of approximately $24 million.

The post The Biome Australia (ASX: BIO) share price just flopped on IPO appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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