9 Best Stocks To Buy Now For August 2026

Businessman sits at the table and working on computers to check investment performance. The best stocks to buy now focus on large- and mid-cap companies with impressive earnings outlooks.  getty  The S&P 500 gained nearly 8% in the first half of 2026, despite geopolitical tensions, lingering inflation and an energy supply shock. Investors have looked past the negatives to the focus on the one positive that can consistently move markets: earnings.  According to Factset, S&P 500 companies have beat consensus estimates by an average 9.2% over the past four quarters. Stock market outlooks from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab have noted the strong earnings trend and expect it to continue, pushing the S&P 500 even higher by year end. For that reason, the best stocks to buy now focus on large- and mid-cap companies with impressive earnings outlooks.  9 Top Stocks To Buy Now For August 2026  To identify investable companies expected to deliver solid earnings growth, I screened U.S.-traded stocks on:Expected 2026 EPS growth of 30% or more. EPS growth for this year is the primary qualifier for this list.Expected EPS growth over the next three years of 20% or more.Adding a lengthier EPS growth outlook threshold helps screen out companies that

07-21Industry

‘Pointless’: Dogecoin Co-Founder Slams Ending Merge Mining

Amid the ongoing merge mining debate in the Dogecoin community, co-founder Billy Markus offers a non-partisan take on the subject. Merge mining, or Auxiliary Proof of Work (AuxPoW), allows users to mine two or more coins, including Dogecoin, with the same hashpower and proof-of-work without splitting.  Markus, who goes by “Shibetoshi Nakamoto” on X, believes removing merge mining is pointless and should not be done.  Markus shares this point of view as a non-developer who has no investment in any scrypt altcoins. It should be noted that Markus has been out of development work on Dogecoin since 2014.  Dogecoin was launched in late 2013 by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. Palmer created the Dogecoin.com website while Markus worked as a solo developer on the first four releases. In 2014, both Palmer and Markus left the development efforts, while a Dogecoin Core Development team was formed, which has been maintaining and developing Dogecoin since then.  Scrypt altcoins, in the context of what the Dogecoin developer wrote, refer to coins that support merge mining, including Dogecoin, Litecoin, Namecoin, and several others. Litecoin and Dogecoin remain the largest and most profitable combination.  You Might Also Like  Markus once revealed selling all of his crypto in “one clip”; this included

07-21Industry

SEC sues Mining Automatic and founder over alleged $22M crypto mining scheme

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued crypto mining investment business Mining Automatic and its founder, Zan Shaikh, alleging they raised $22 million from investors while spending only about 13% of the funds on mining operations.  Mining Automatic was operated by Massachusetts-based Bright Vision Distribution LLC, which the SEC said raised the money from more than 380 investors between June 2023 and May 2025.  The company allegedly promised guaranteed monthly returns from crypto asset mining despite operating a business that could not generate the advertised payouts. The SEC said investor money was instead used for marketing, personal expenses and unrelated ventures.  According to the complaint, the operation generated about $1.1 million from mining while paying investors roughly $1.8 million in purported returns. The SEC alleged the shortfall meant some payments were funded with money from other investors, giving the scheme “some of the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme.”  Mining Automatic also allegedly spent about $7 million on advertising to attract new investors, while Shaikh used investor funds for real estate, vehicles, entertainment and transfers to his personal bank accounts.  Related: White House says it received no Democratic response related to SEC, CFTC vacancies  Mining Automatic stopped paying investors by March 2025, and the SEC

07-21Industry

Tokenized Stocks Market Hits $2.2 Billion Milestone

Two numbers published by Token Terminalon July 21 tell a story that traditional finance watchers are struggling to ignore: the tokenized stocks markethas hit an all-time high of $2.2 billionin market cap, while tokenized U.S. Treasuries on BNB Chain have surged to $4.6 billion. Together, they represent a combined benchmark that would have seemed speculative just a year ago.  Key takeawaysToken Terminal reports the tokenized stocks market cap has reached an all-time high of $2.2 billion.Tokenized U.S. Treasuries on BNB Chain have hit a $4.6 billion market cap, driven by partnerships with Circle and Securitize.Robinhood is actively exploring integration of tokenized assets to boost monetization and retail engagement.Base founder Jesse Pollak acknowledged Robinhood Chain moved faster on tokenized equities, and said Base is close to launching 1:1-backed tokenized stocks with Coinbase.The regulatory environment for tokenized financial instruments is evolving toward greater clarity and institutional acceptance.  Tokenized Stocks Market Hits $2.2 Billion  The tokenized stocks marketreaching $2.2 billion is not just a round number — it signals a structural shift in how equity exposure is being packaged and distributed across blockchain infrastructure. According to Token Terminal, the analytical platform that bridges traditional finance and on-chain data, this milestone reflects genuine adoption spread across multiple

07-21Industry

Grayscale files for a Worldcoin ETF as WLD jumps 8% – Whats next?

As the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have rebounded from the eight-week-long outflow streak, Grayscale has taken the opportunity to strengthen its foothold in altcoin ETFs.  In its S‑1 filing on the 20th of July 2026, the asset manager proposed launching a Worldcoin [WLD] ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  The Trust, established as a Delaware statutory trust on the 10th of July 2026, is designed solely to hold WLD tokens. However, it also gives investors exposure to WLDs price without requiring them to purchase or manage the cryptocurrency directly.  Source: Sec.govMore details of the Worldcoin ETF filing  That said, Grayscale intends to list the fund on the Nasdaq with the ticker “GWLD.” This would allow the launch to happen more quickly, as per the generic listing standards.  Additionally, the filing also emphasizes that this is not a regulated commodity pool or registered investment company. Simply put, investors do not have the same protections as with conventional mutual funds or CFTC-regulated products.  In a corporate sense, the Sponsor (Grayscale Investments Sponsors, LLC) is part of a chain of Grayscale entities that are all ultimately owned by Digital Currency Group (DCG). In fact, the actual WLD and its private keys will be held by BitGo Bank

07-21Industry

Crypto Markets Add $70B Daily as Bitcoins Price Hits Monthly High: Market Watch

Cardanos ADA is among the top performers in the past 24 hours.  Bitcoins price rebounded swiftly after the Monday morning dip below $64,000 and has gained over two grand since then, climbing to a monthly peak of over $66,000.  The altcoin space has turned green as well. ETH is inching closer to $1,950, XRP is testing the $1.13 resistance, while ADA has stolen the show from the larger caps.  BTC Sees Monthly Peak  The previous business week began on a familiar note, as BTC priced in the weekend attacks in the Middle East and dropped below $62,000 from over $64,000. The bulls stepped up after the favorable CPI data for June, pushing the asset to $65,500 for the first time in three weeks.  However, its progress stalled there, and bitcoin dipped to $62,500 by Friday. Nevertheless, the bulls were more persistent once again and initiated an immediate recovery right before and during the weekend, in which the cryptocurrency climbed back to $64,000.  It tried to take down $65,000 on Sunday, but it was stopped and dropped once again on Monday morning. This time, it was a lot less painful, and it quickly rebounded from the daily low of $63,750.  It jumped past $65,500 earlier today before another

07-21Industry

CLARITY Act ‘clears key hurdle’ – White House agrees to crypto ethics deal

President Donald Trump has reportedly backed an ethics deal, effectively clearing the final obstacle to the crypto market structure bill, the CLARITY Act.  According to reports, the ethics language arrangement was reached by the White House and Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno.  Although the text was expected to be made public soon, the details of the deal remained unknown. Besides, Democrats had yet to see the text, at least as of writing.  The ethics provision came back to light after Trump made over $1.4B from his crypto ventures. Democrats, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, insisted that there was no need for the CLARITY Act if it does not rein in Trump‘s ’corruption in the industry.  For the bill to pass the Senate floor vote, Republicans will need about 7-10 Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold. It remains to be seen whether Democrats will back the reported ethics provision.  According to crypto platform SoSoValue, however, this could unlock Democratic support.  The CLARITY Act has cleared a key hurdle, with Trump agreeing to include crypto ethics provisions in the bill, removing the last major political obstacle to securing Democratic support and advancing it to a Senate vote.  Global crypto race heats up as CLARITY Act delays  Separately, White

07-21Industry

Inside Cardano's 'Van Rossum' hard fork, and what it means for users

It adds new capabilities to Plutus, the platform developers use to write Cardanos smart contracts, unifying the built-in functions available across the platforms three versions so older applications gain newer features.  The upgrade also tightens several of the ledgers validation rules, including one guaranteeing that no two stake pools can reuse the same cryptographic identity key.  “As well as Plutus improvements and Plutus Cost Model enhancements, this upgrade lays the foundation for the next upgrade, the Dijkstra era hard fork, which will introduce Ouroboros Leios to Cardano,” Input Output wrote in a development report on Friday.  Ouroboros Leios is a scaling proposal for the proof-of-stake consensus model that Cardano runs. It is expected later in 2026 and aimed at sharply increasing transactions per second without weakening the protocols security guarantees.  Van Rossem is the procedural groundwork for Ouroboros, both in the ledger changes it ships and in the precedent it sets: that Cardano can now upgrade itself by vote.  The hard fork is named for Max van Rossem, a Cardano governance contributor who helped shape the networks constitution and died in October 2025.  What the hard fork means for a Cardano user  There are no visible changes for someone casually holding or spending ADA. Transactions work the

07-21Industry

Vermont Passes Chatbot Mental Health Law That Raises Questions About Therapists Rubber-Stamping AI Advice

New AI mental health law by Vermont raises the question of therapists possibly rubber-stamping AI.  getty  In today‘s column, I examine a new law in Vermont regarding the use of AI for mental health advisement. Overall, the law is generally on par with many other states that have enacted similar laws. There aren’t any especially unusual conditions or extraordinary requirements.  That being said, the Vermont law is a handy vehicle for considering a frequent and potentially challenging stipulation in these budding state-level laws about the oversight of AI for mental health. The key indication in most of these laws is that a therapist or mental health professional must be somewhere “in the loop” and serve as a reviewer and potential approver of any mental health recommendations or similar outputs from the AI.  On the face of things, this makes sense. A professional therapist will presumably catch the AI in providing untoward or misguided mental health advice to users. One worry is that therapists performing this oversight role will potentially fall into a classic trap, namely, they will begin rubber-stamping whatever the AI says. This is quite possible and usually due to the therapist being lulled into believing that the AI is always right, plus

07-21Industry

Bitcoin Market Absorbs Record $1.5 Billion Anthropic Copyright Ruling

Crypto News  A US federal judge granted final approval to Anthropics $1.5 billion settlement with authors this week, finalizing the largest known payout in an American copyright case and sending a costly signal across the AI and crypto sectors. Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin signed the order on Monday, overruling objections that the figure was too low. The decision matters for a market where AI-themed tokens and the broader altcoin complex increasingly track the fortunes of large language-model developers. Bitcoin (BTC) held near $66,000 as the ruling landed, with trader sentiment stuck in extreme fear and capital rotating cautiously between technology equities and digital assets.  The dispute began in 2024, when a group of authors sued Anthropic, alleging the company used pirated copies of their books to train Claude, the large language model that powers its chatbot and increasingly its coding tools. The complaint placed Anthropic among a widening cohort of AI developers — builders of everything from consumer chatbots to AI trading bots — facing legal exposure over the data used to train their systems. Anthropic argued that ingesting published books to build a model constituted fair use, a defense that would later shape both the litigation and the settlement framework the court

07-21Industry
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