Gold, silver and the need to take profits

Precious metals were front and center throughout VRIC.

The price of gold crossed the US$5,200 per ounce mark during the show, and silver’s incredible run peaked at US$116 per ounce, gaining more than 250 percent since January 2025.

Over the past couple of years, gold’s shine has been brought about by significant central bank buying. Considered the ultimate buy-and-hold participants, these entities have been acquiring large quantities of gold for several reasons, including runaway global debt and concerns over the weaponization of the US dollar.

Central bank purchases, along with geopolitical and financial uncertainty, have helped to revive a beleaguered retail segment, effectively pouring gasoline onto the fire.

For silver, structural shortages that have developed over the past several years came into focus and were exacerbated by a surge of investors seeking a cheaper physical asset alternative to gold.

Flashpoints in the Middle East, a simmering trade war driven by tariff threats, disrupted supply lines and currency devaluation have also helped bring the monetary aspects of gold and silver to the forefront.

In the 2026 ‘Gold Forecast’ panel at VRIC, Gold Royalty (NYSEAMERICAN:GROY) Chair and CEO David Garofalo explained why precious metals were one of the best-performing asset classes last year.

“Gold has been a one-way trade for 50 years … the purchasing power of our dollars has gone down 99 percent over that period of time. The negative correlation between the gold price and the purchasing power of our underlying currencies is undeniable,” he said, adding that “gold can only go in one direction.”

Garofalo added that the debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 350 percent in 2025 from 100 percent in the 1970s, creating a “ticking time bomb” that leaves central banks with no wiggle room to raise interest rates. “Gold can only go in one direction in that market because there is a limited supply of gold. Gold can’t be printed,” Garofalo said.

With those circumstances in mind, how high can gold and silver prices go? There were differing perspectives throughout the conference on whether precious metals are in a bull market or a bubble.

At the ‘This Isn’t Our First Bull Market’ panel, Ross Beaty, Equinox Gold (TSX:EQX,NYSEAMERICAN:EQX) chair and Canadian Mining Hall of Famer, was one of those who suggested the market is in a bubble.

He also compared the state of the market to the late 1970s and early 1980s, and spoke about how gold went above US$700 per ounce before crashing to US$250 an ounce in a matter of months. “You only know you’re at the top after the fact. From my standpoint today, it is. It’s a bubble, it’s a frothy market,” Beaty said.

Fellow panelist Rick Rule, proprietor at Rule Investment Media, didn’t go so far as to say the market is in a bubble, but did point out that even in a strong bull market, there are risks.

He pointed out that in 1975, as the gold bull market was running, the gold price fell by half.

Both speakers suggested there is still upside in the market, but acknowledged that now is a good time for investors to take some profits. For his part, Beaty was blunt in his advice.

“It is time to take some money off the table. I think probably not all, because I think we have more room to run, but we’re not in the early innings of this game, we’re in the late innings,” he said.

Rule’s approach was more one of preparation, especially for less experienced investors.

“If you aren’t financially and psychologically prepared to deal with 30 or 35 percent declines, or 50 percent declines, you really have to get some money in the bank now, because you’re going to experience that,” Rule said.

During VRIC, Rule also spoke about how he recently sold off 25 percent of his junior mining portfolio, noting, “I sold off 25 percent of my upside, and I eliminated 100 percent of my downside.”

Copper, uranium and the AI bubble

If industry stalwarts like Beaty, Rule and Garofalo are suggesting it’s time to take some money off the table, were there any suggestions where to look next?

On the gold panel, Incrementum AG Managing Partner and Fund Manager, Ronald-Peter Stöferle gave insight that his fund had cycled funds from precious metals into other areas of the resource sector.

“We reallocated some capital, took some profits, because the risk has been too dominant and reallocated into oil, into copper, into uranium,” he said.

What’s become more apparent over recent years is the growing need to add gigawatts to the electrical grid. To meet growing demand, electricity must be generated, and uranium is increasingly used as a fuel. However, delivering it requires infrastructure, and copper remains one of the best ways to do so.

However, both copper and uranium have demand exceeding supply.

While copper has been in balance over the last couple of years, incidents at Freeport-McMoRan’s (NYSE:FCX) Grasberg mine and Ivanhoe’s (TSX:IVN,OTCQX:IVPAF) Kamoa-Kakula mines tipped the market into supply deficits in 2025, and it’s likely to stay there for some time.

Both copper and uranium have been increasingly tied to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.

At the ‘Copper Forecast’ panel, Independent Speculator Editor Lobo Tiggre noted the connection but pointed out that underlying fundamentals beyond AI continue to make the case for investing in copper and uranium. He noted that the release of Chinese AI DeepSeek affected Western equities tied to the AI boom.

“If you think it (AI) is a bubble, remember what happened in the DeepSeek moment. Copper wobbled, uranium wobbled … The good news, in my view, is that means that whenever the next wobble comes, there’s potentially a buying opportunity, given the fundamentals we’re talking,” he said.

The fundamentals are that AI and data centres are just additional demand. Through several of his appearances, Rick Rule noted that there are a billion people on the planet who don’t have access to reliable electricity.

Additionally, global infrastructure needs to be upgraded as more people rely on electricity for a wider range of uses, including EVs. However, there are only a few new mines on the horizon, and not enough to meet baseline demand.

Ivan Bebek, CEO and chair of Coppernico Metals (TSX:COPR,OTCQB:CPPMF), said on the copper panel that all the easy copper deposits have been found.

“Copper mines are hidden behind geopolitical boundaries, social issues or undercover. They’re mined, and all the easy ones have been found. Look at the chart I presented earlier, and it shows the decline basically falls off a cliff in 2015. There hasn’t been any major copper discovery of consequence since then,” he said.

It’s not just a lack of discovery; copper mines require significant capital investment and can take decades to complete permitting.

Likewise, uranium is in a similar boat. Although it’s far from its US$140 per pound high in 2007, uranium has solid supply and demand fundamentals and has significant upside potential.

In his fireside chat, Uranium Energy (NYSEAMERICAN:UEC) CEO Amir Adnani said that he expects uranium prices to continue to increase.

“The uranium price has no business hanging around under US$100 per pound. The uranium price should be doing what silver and gold are doing. It will do that, in my opinion, because it is fundamentally in a structural deficit,” he said.

Adnani pointed to a cumulative shortage of 379 to 840 million pounds over the next 10 to 15 years, and stated it should be at least US$1,000 per pound. He noted that both China and the US have designated uranium a critical mineral, with the US even establishing a strategic reserve.

Investors are faced with choices

With consensus at the conference that AI is a bubble that’s ready to burst, the overall fundamentals for copper and uranium remain strong even without it.

As for precious metals, given the strain on global financial systems in recent years, and uncertainty when it comes to US debt loads and a weakening US dollar, they should still hold a place in an investor’s portfolio.

However, as many at the conference suggested, the time to take profits is before the peak, not after investors look back on it.

Though some suggest cycling that money into other equities to take advantage of copper and uranium, there was also the suggestion that holding cash can be a good thing, remaining liquid and ready to take advantage of pullbacks and corrections in the market.

Bitcoin and Ether price update

Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$83,812.01, down by 0.4 percent over 24 hours.

Bitcoin price performance, January 30, 2025.

Chart via TradingView.

“From my personal perspective, the market is currently undergoing a necessary rebalancing phase. The previous strong rally had, to some extent, run ahead of prevailing monetary conditions, making a corrective phase necessary to realign prices with the broader macroeconomic backdrop. This process is healthy, as it helps flush out excessive leverage and FOMO-driven behavior—factors that often destabilize long-term trends.

“Over the medium to long term, I believe BTC will continue to benefit from a gradual shift in confidence away from traditional monetary systems and from the growing need for asset diversification in an increasingly uncertain macroeconomic environment. Corrections like the current one should therefore be viewed as an inherent part of market dynamics, rather than as a signal that the broader trend has come to an end.”

Ether (ETH) was priced at US$2,688.63, down by 4.3 percent over the last 24 hours.

Altcoin price update

• XRP (XRP) was priced at US$1.74, down by 3.4 percent over 24 hours.

• Solana (SOL) was trading at US$116.99, trading flat over 24 hours.

Today’s crypto news to know

US Senate panel advances crypto market structure bill

A US Senate committee pushed the crypto market structure bill forward this week, marking the furthest the industry’s flagship policy effort has ever advanced in the chamber.

The legislation cleared the Senate Agriculture Committee on a narrow 12–11 vote, split strictly along party lines after Republicans chose to move ahead without Democratic backing.

Committee Chair John Boozman said months of negotiations had produced “significant progress,” arguing the bill was ready for its next stage despite unresolved disputes. Democrats opposed the markup as a bloc, warning the current text falls short on ethics safeguards and consumer protections.

Despite the progress, Ranking Democrat Amy Klobuchar said negotiations are not over and signaled openness to further talks as the bill advances. One of the sharpest flashpoints remains restrictions on senior government officials profiting from crypto ventures, an issue Democrats want written directly into the law.

The bill must still clear the Senate Banking Committee, where disagreements over stablecoin yield and regulatory scope have already delayed progress. Any final version would also need to reconcile differences with the House-passed bill before heading to the Senate floor.

SEC, CFTC launch joint push to unify crypto oversight

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently unveiled a joint initiative aimed at aligning rules for digital asset markets.

Speaking at CFTC headquarters, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said fragmented regulation has created confusion rather than protection for investors.

The effort, dubbed Project Crypto, is intended to reduce uncertainty over whether digital assets fall under securities or commodities law.

CFTC Chair Michael Selig said unclear jurisdiction has pushed innovation offshore, leading to firms exhibiting reluctance in US investment without regulatory clarity.

Binance converst US$1 billion SAFU to BTC

Binance announced it will convert the US$1 billion in stablecoin reserves held in its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) entirely into BTC over the next 30 days.

The decision, outlined in a letter published Friday, aims to support the crypto industry and reflects Binance’s belief in bitcoin’s long-term value. SAFU was established to protect users from unexpected losses.

To manage BTC’s potential volatility, Binance will conduct regular audits and rebalance the fund. Specifically, if the fund’s market value drops below US$800 million due to BTC price fluctuations, Binance will restore its value to US$1 billion.

Kraken‑backed SPAC raises US$345 million in upsized Nasdaq IPO

KRAKacquisition Units, a Kraken-backed SPAC, raised US$345 million in an upsized Nasdaq IPO, selling 34.5 million units at US$10 each.

Each unit includes one common stock share and a quarter-warrant exercisable at US$11.50. Sponsored by Kraken, Tribe Capital and Natural Capital, the SPAC will target digital-asset economy infrastructure businesses, such as payment rails, tokenization platforms, blockchain infrastructure and compliance services.

Santander US Capital Markets led the deal, signaling a reopening of the US crypto-linked IPO market. This SPAC is a capital-raising and strategic move for Kraken, which confidentially filed for its own standalone IPO last year.

Nubank wins conditional US approval to form national bank

Nu Holdings received conditional approval from the US OCC to form a new national bank, Nubank, N.A., advancing its US expansion. The conditional charter allows Nubank to offer deposit accounts, credit cards, lending, and digital-asset custody services under a federal banking framework, pending full approvals.

Nu is now in the “bank organization” phase, needing to meet OCC conditions and gain approval from the FDIC and Federal Reserve, committing to full capitalization within 12 months and operations starting within 18 months.

Nu co-founder Cristina Junqueira will lead US operations, with former Central Bank of Brazil president Roberto Campos Neto as board chair.

This week’s tech sector performance

Equity markets traded in a narrow band this week as investors pivoted between unchanged central bank guidance in the US and Canada and a packed calendar of mega‑cap tech earnings.

Technology and semiconductor companies outperformed throughout the week, with factors linked to artificial intelligence (AI) underpinning gains even as rate‑sensitive and cyclical stocks lagged, underscoring that tech earnings quality and AI‑related CAPEX were the dominant themes for market direction rather than macro alone.

Leading into midweek, the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) pushed to nearly record levels, while the Nasdaq-100 (INDEXNASDAQ:NDX) strung together multiple gains as optimism around AI‑related earnings and resilient corporate profits offset softer‑than‑hoped consumer‑confidence readings.

By Thursday (January 29), however, the mood had turned choppy.

The Nasdaq briefly shed more than 2 percent before paring losses to a roughly 0.7 percent decline, and the S&P 500 closed slightly lower after an intraday drop of over 1 percent as investors digested a mixed bag of earnings from Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).

Friday (January 30) saw global markets mixed again after US President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair, pushing the Volatility Index (INDEXCBOE:VIX) back above 18 and weighing on Wall Street futures; meanwhile, the S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) followed commodities lower.

Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) record‑breaking quarter helped quell downside in mega‑cap tech stocks and provided a floor for the broader market heading into the weekend.

3 tech stocks moving markets this week

1. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU)

Micron Technology marked a record closing level above US$435 on Wednesday (January 28) after HSBC Global Research upgraded it to a “strong buy” and raised its price target from US$350 to US$500.

HSBC analysts predict the company’s earnings could jump by over 440 percent this year due to surging demand for AI‑driven memory. Shares are up 9.04 percent for the week.

2. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms jumped on quarterly sales that exceeded expectations and a positive forecast for annual operating income. The company is also projecting higher annual capital expenditures than the previous year. Although Meta gave back some of Thursday’s gains on Friday, it still closed the week 12.08 percent higher.

3. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple posted record revenue that beat Wall Street estimates, driven by the strongest‑ever iPhone performance and record services revenue, with gross margin improving despite higher R&D spending and increased AI‑related investment.

Its share price posted a gain of 4.13 percent this week.

Apple, Meta Platforms and Micron Technology performance, January 26 to 30, 2025.

Chart via Google Finance.

Other earnings this week

Top tech news of the week

Tech ETF performance

Tech exchange-traded funds (ETFs) track baskets of major tech stocks, meaning their performance helps investors gauge the overall performance of the niches they cover.

This week, the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) advanced by 0.88 percent, while the Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXQ) advanced by 0.91 percent.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) also decreased by 1.19 percent.

Tech news to watch next week

Next week is relatively light on US data releases, with mid‑tier indicators like ISM manufacturing and services surveys, factory‑orders‑adjacent print potentially nudging sentiment. Markets will also be listening for central bank rhetoric, especially any follow‑up commentary from Fed officials after Kevin Warsh’s nomination.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) will report its Q4 earnings on February 4 after the close. Investors are watching AI‑related ad‑tech and cloud growth, plus CAPEX guidance. Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT), a bellwether for how much chipmakers are still willing to spend on tools for AI‑driven memory and logic chips, will also report. Investors will look for confirmation signals that the AI CAPEX cycle is healthy and not peaking

Amazon will report its Q4 earnings on February 5. Investors will be searching for proof that AI-driven advertising and logistics efficiency are significantly boosting earnings.

Markets and commodities react

Canadian equity markets were in retreat to end the week.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) lost 3.4 percent over the week to close Friday at 31,923.52, while the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) fared worse, shedding 8.15 percent to 1,051.08. The CSE Composite Index (CSE:CSECOMP) dropped 9.54 percent to 169.92.

The gold price saw significant declines from mid-week highs, losing 9.76 percent during Friday’s trading day. However, it fell just 1.76 percent from the week’s start to close at US$4,840.76 per ounce on Friday at 4:00 p.m. EST.

The silver price fared even worse, plummeting 28.17 percent on Friday, and closing the week 13.62 percent lower overall at US$83.43 on Friday.

In base metals, the Comex copper price recorded a 1.32 percent drop this week to US$5.98.

On the other hand, the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodities Index (INDEXSP:SPGSCI) was up 4.24 percent to end Friday at 598.20.

Top Canadian mining stocks this week

How did mining stocks perform against this backdrop?

Take a look at this week’s five best-performing Canadian mining stocks below.

Stocks data for this article was retrieved at 2:00 p.m. EST on Friday using TradingView’s stock screener. Only companies trading on the TSX, TSXV and CSE with market caps greater than C$10 million are included. Mineral companies within the non-energy minerals, energy minerals, process industry and producer manufacturing sectors were considered.

1. Vanguard Mining (CSE:UUU)

Weekly gain: 141.18 percent
Market cap: C$29.82 million
Share price: C$0.41

Vanguard Mining is an exploration company working to advance a portfolio of uranium, copper and nickel assets in Canada and Paraguay. Its flagship project is the Yuty Prometeo uranium project in Paraguay.

Among its properties is the Redonda copper and molybdenum project near Campbell River, British Columbia. The site consists of nine mineral claims covering 2,746 hectares and hosts porphyry-style mineralization.

On Tuesday (January 27), Vanguard announced plans for its phase 2 drill program at Redonda, comprising up to 7 holes totaling 2,800 meters, targeting areas in the southeast portion of the property between historic drill holes.

The company also said it would conduct detailed mapping and prospecting in the northern and western portions of Redonda to identify additional priority drill targets and would use phase 1 results to refine targeting.

The program is being advanced quickly to build on drilling results that “confirmed a significantly expanded copper-molybdenum mineralized system at Redonda,” the company said.

2. San Lorenzo Gold (TSXV:SLG)

Weekly gain: 85.6 percent
Market cap: C$185.63 million
Share price: C$2.32

San Lorenzo Gold is an exploration company working to advance its Salvadora project in the Chañaral province of Chile.

The property consists of 25 exploration and nine exploitation concessions covering an area of 8,796 hectares. It hosts a large copper and gold porphyry system with several significant targets. According to the project page, the site geology resembles that of the nearby Codelco-owned Salvador copper mine, which has operated since the early 1950s and is expected to continue until the mid-2060s following an expansion.

On January 26, San Lorenzo provided assay results from the first hole of a drilling program at the Cerro Blanco target at Salvadora. The hole was drilled to a depth of 472 meters, of which it encountered 222.4 meters of mineralization across five sections. The widest interval graded 1.09 grams per metric ton (g/t) gold over 132.2 meters from a depth of 201.5 meters.

The company said it believes the mineralization represents the upper level of a porphyry system and that it suggests a continuation of the system encountered during drilling at the site in 2025.

3. Ameriwest Critical Metals (CSE:AWCM)

Weekly gain: 75.76 percent
Market cap: C$14.69 million
Share price: C$0.58

Ameriwest Critical Minerals is an exploration company with a portfolio of assets in British Columbia, Canada, as well as the US states of Nevada, Oregon and Arizona.

The company announced in August that it was changing its name from Ameriwest Lithium to better reflect a portfolio diversifying into copper and rare earth minerals.

In October 2025, Ameriwest entered into a definitive agreement for the option and potential purchase of the Xeno RAR rare earth mineral claims in British Columbia. Under the terms of the deal, Ameriwest will pay C$55,000 in cash considerations, C$125,000 in exploration expenses over 18 months, a 2 percent net smelter return royalty and 2 million shares.

Then, in November, the company completed the acquisition of 34 unpatented mineral claims in Oregon that form the Bornite copper project in exchange for US$100,000 and a 2 percent net smelter return royalty.

Previous exploration of the Bornite property by Plexus in the 1990s identified a historic resource of 138.5 million pounds of copper, 54,000 ounces of gold and 1.7 million ounces of silver from 3.2 million metric tons of ore. Ameriwest’s current CEO was part of the Plexus team who explored Bornite.

In addition to its recently acquired properties, Ameriwest also owns the Thompson Valley lithium project in Arizona and the Railroad Valley lithium project in Nevada.

The most recent news from the company came on January 20, when it upsized a non-brokered private placement from C$2 million to C$3 million. The company said proceeds would be used to accelerate exploration efforts at its Bornite project.

In the release, Ameriwest says its long-term goal at the project, if results, financing and permitting are successful, is “evaluating the development of an approximately 1,000-tonne-per-day underground copper mining operation.”

4. Tectonic Metals (TSXV:TECT)

Weekly gain: 61.78 percent
Market cap: C$217.87 million
Share price: C$2.54

Tectonic Metals is a gold exploration company working to advance the Flat project in Alaska, US.

The project covers 98,840 acres in Western Alaska and hosts a reduced intrusion-related gold system and six district-scale targets. According to Tectonic, the mineralization is analogous to Kinross Gold’s (TSX:K,NYSE:KGC) Fort Knox mine in Eastern Alaska.

Among the targets is the Chicken Mountain intrusion, where exploration has identified 3 kilometers of mineral strike that remains open in all directions. Each of the 87 holes drilled at Chicken Mountain have intercepted gold.

The most recent update from the Flat project came on Thursday, when Tectonic announced results from 20 drill holes across four target areas.

Most significantly, its first drilling at the Black Creek intrusion, located 6 kilometers north of Chicken Mountain, discovered a new gold zone. The discovery hole, which started from surface, returned grades of 4.5 g/t gold over 48.77 meters. This included a core interval of 7.79 g/t over 24.38 meters, inside of which was a 6.1 meter interval grading 15.19 g/t.

The company said drilling has now confirmed gold mineralization across five intrusion targets: Chicken Mountain, Alpha Bowl, Golden Apex, Black Creek and Jam. It also said that results from 14 other holes are still pending.

5. Golden Lake Exploration (CSE:GLM)

Weekly gain: 60 percent
Market cap: C$12.48 million
Share price: C$0.12

Golden Lake Exploration is a gold exploration company that owns the Jewel Ridge gold project in Nevada, United States.

The project sits along the prolific Battle Mountain–Eureka Gold trend, which has produced more than 40 million ounces to date and hosts operations from McEwen Mining (TSX:MUX,NYSE:MUX) and North Peak Resources.

More than 700 meters of strike have been identified on the property across three primary targets: Eureka Tunnel, Jewel Ridge and Hamburg.

On Wednesday, Golden Lake announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be wholly acquired by McEwen Mining and become its subsidiary. Among the highlights of the deal is the ability for Jewel Ridge to be integrated into McEwen’s neighboring Gold Bar mine complex, providing access to infrastructure and funding.

FAQs for Canadian mining stocks

How much does it cost to list on the TSXV?

There are a variety of different fees that companies must pay to list on the TSXV, and according to the exchange, they can vary based on the transaction’s nature and complexity. The listing fee alone will most likely cost between C$10,000 to C$70,000. Accounting and auditing fees could rack up between C$25,000 and C$100,000, while legal fees are expected to be over C$75,000 and an underwriters’ commission may hit up to 12 percent.

The exchange lists a handful of other fees and expenses companies can expect, including but not limited to security commission and transfer agency fees, investor relations costs and director and officer liability insurance.

These are all just for the initial listing, of course. There are ongoing expenses once companies are trading, such as sustaining fees and additional listing fees, plus the costs associated with filing regular reports.

How do you trade on the TSXV?

Investors can trade on the TSXV the way they would trade stocks on any exchange. This means they can use a stock broker or an individual investment account to buy and sell shares of TSXV-listed companies during the exchange’s trading hours.

The digital twin: From concept to US$1 billion reality

Dr. Michael Grieves first introduced the conceptual model of digital twins at a Society of Manufacturing Engineers conference in Michigan in 2002. He originally called it the “Information Mirroring Model”.

The phrase was coined by NASA technologist John Vickers in 2010. He was collaborating with Dr. Grieves and suggested the name for a NASA technical roadmap to describe the virtual replicas of spacecraft used for simulation and safety.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is currently the concept’s most well-known advocate after he used it to describe a cornerstone of NVIDIA’s Omniverse and industrial AI strategy at the GTC 2021 keynote. He later expanded this vision at CES 2026, where he declared that “the future of heavy industries starts as a digital twin.”

In a move that expands digital twins’ use cases, NVIDIA and Eli Lilly recently announced a first-of-its-kind, five-year partnership to build a co-innovation lab in the San Francisco Bay Area. This US$1 billion investment focuses on moving drug discovery away from traditional trial-and-error toward a high-speed engineering model.

Under the terms of the collaboration, the lab will utilize NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin chips, the successor to the Blackwell architecture, to provide the massive computational power required for large-scale biological models.

Researchers will use NVIDIA’s BioNeMo AI platform to simulate vast chemical and biological spaces in silico before a single physical molecule is created in a lab.

The collaboration extends into manufacturing, using NVIDIA Omniverse to create digital twins of production lines. This allows Lilly to stress-test supply chains and optimize the manufacturing of high-demand medications, such as GLP-1s and next-generation weight loss drugs.

Twin Health: Reversing chronic disease with digital twins

While NVIDIA and Lilly focus on creating new drugs, Twin Health is using AI to help patients wean off chronic injections.

Twin Health is a precision health company focused on reversing chronic metabolic diseases, specifically type 2 diabetes and related conditions like obesity and hypertension, using AI and digital twin technology. The company was founded by Jahangir Mohammed, a serial entrepreneur who previously founded Jasper, an Internet of Things (IoT) pioneer, which was later acquired by Cisco.

The core of Twin Health’s whole body digital twin technology is creating a dynamic, virtual map of a patient’s unique metabolism by gathering over 3,000 daily data points, including blood sugar, heart rate, sleep and physical activity.

Users wear continuous glucose monitors and smartwatches at home to capture real-time data, paired with a provided smart scale and blood pressure cuff for daily vitals. AI takes this data to build a digital replica of the user’s body’s unique metabolic responses.

No routine clinic visits are required for data collection, though periodic lab work and tele-coaching support the program. Through a mobile app, the AI provides real-time nudges; for example, it might tell the wearer that a 15-minute walk now will stabilize a blood sugar spike from their lunch.

On January 12, the company rang the Nasdaq opening bell as new clinical and economic data were released that highlighted the platform’s efficacy in high-cost patient populations. Central to this milestone was the Cleveland Clinic-led Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), originally published in the New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst on August 20, 2025.

The study demonstrated that 71 percent of participants achieved type 2 diabetes reversal, defined as a level of hemoglobin A1C below 6.5 without the use of insulin or other glucose-lowering medications, with the exception of metformin, a low-cost, common first-line drug. Crucially for today’s market, the data showed that 85 percent of users were able to eliminate high-cost GLP-1 medications, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, while maintaining optimal blood sugar levels.

Market analysis: The payer revolt and the shift to value

The GLP-1 drug class rapidly transitioned from niche diabetes medications to multi-billion dollar blockbusters for obesity. From 2018 to 2023, researchers found that spending on GLP-1s in the US rose by more than 500 percent to reach US$71.7 billion. Sales are projected to reach US$100 billion by 2030.

In a fierce race to meet skyrocketing demand that outstripped production capacity, Eli Lilly and its main competitor in this space, Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO), committed massive investments. Lilly invested US$9 billion into API production, while Novo Nordisk matched this with a US$11 billion investment in facilities across Denmark and North Carolina.

Now, both companies are chasing affordability via direct-to-consumer deals and 2026 oral pills as payers raise plan costs or restrict access. AON’s Global Medical Trend Rates Report for 2026 projects 9.8 percent hikes in employer plan costs from GLP-1s and utilization surges, as Mercer’s Survey on Health and Benefit Strategies for 2026 shows 77 percent of large employers targeting GLP-1 costs, with coverage growth stalling amid restrictions.

The payer revolt is fueling Twin Health’s rise, marked by its US$53 million August 2025 raise for Fortune 500 expansion. Twin Health’s performance model pays on outcomes, delivering an estimated US$8,000 savings per high-cost member.

Big Pharma is betting on AI not just to sustain blockbuster growth but to reinvent the discovery engine amid exploding development costs. At Davos, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang illustrated this shift bluntly: “Three years ago, most of their R&D budget…was probably wet labs,” Huang said. “Notice the big AI supercomputer that they’ve invested in, the big AI lab. Increasingly, that R&D budget is going to shift towards AI.”

This comes as the pharmaceutical sector comes under pressure to justify hundreds of billions in R&D spending, where Phase I candidates still face a roughly 90 percent failure rate before approval. Eli Lilly could lower the cost of drug failure by embedding NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin chips into a 24/7 learning loop.

The divergence between NVIDIA’s pharmaceutical supercomputer and Twin Health’s metabolic reversal tech captures 2026’s market trend pivot from AI experimentation to proven ROI. Deloitte’s 2026 US Health Care Outlook emphasizes that the industry is moving away from theoretical models in favor of scaling AI to realize measurable financial impact.

Investor outlook

Payers requiring measurable ROI are pushing healthcare innovators to prove value, whether by improving drug discovery or reversing chronic disease.

This tension shapes investment strategies, too. Paul MacDonald, CIO at Harvest ETFs, welcomes AI’s momentum while highlighting GLP-1’s staying power in the firm’s HHL ETF.

“AI in healthcare is very exciting, and we see practicable applications being deployed across many fields, most notably in the diagnostics areas, but increasingly in biopharma research and medical devices.

“As exciting as technology like wearables and designing more personalized lifestyle plans is, we continue to believe that the broader obesity drug classes and markets will continue to grow significantly in the coming years.

MacDonald points to expanding Medicare access and oral formulations as key drivers, even as payers tighten restrictions.

“The systemic benefits and significant health benefits beyond weight loss from the drugs (are) resulting in expanding adoption, and broader coverage affording larger patient cohorts to access the drugs. Currently, there are pilot plans to expand access for Medicare (enrollees) in the USA later this year, which (will expand) the prescription volume potential significantly.

“In addition to the traditional subcutaneous injection, oral options are increasing in availability, and that not only increases the potential for broader adoption but also improves the overall cost structure and margins for the companies with established production facilities.”

MacDonald’s balanced allocation of AI excitement alongside GLP-1 conviction captures a new reality: in 2026, life sciences investors are navigating a complex landscape defined by more variables than ever before.

1. Payments expansion and invisible settlement

Stablecoins are evolving from a gray-zone asset into an invisible, programmable global settlement infrastructure, integrated into cross-border and local instant payment systems and card networks. Wallets function as multi-currency routing hubs, handling conversions and optimizing paths, increasingly using ‘PayFi’ models where held capital automatically earns on-chain yield during payment cycles.

2. The rise of agentic commerce

The artificial intelligence (AI) economy is moving toward machines as autonomous economic actors. Protocols like x402 enable AI agents to transact automatically for data and services by embedding stablecoin payments in HTTP requests.

As this shifts the security focus from know your customer to know your agent (KYA), wallets are becoming unified funding, risk control and KYA enforcement hubs for both people and their authorized agents.

3. Privacy as core infrastructure

Privacy is now essential for scalable on-chain finance. With the Ethereum Foundation prioritizing it, privacy must be built into the infrastructure. Wallets are emerging as the main privacy boundary, managing transactions and on-chain data access to balance trust, usability and compliance without revealing full balances or behaviors.

4. On-chain credit evolves from collateral to reputation

DeFi is shifting from overcollateralized lending to models based on behavioral trust. Continuous on-chain activity, including recurring payments and cash management, generates behavioral signals for dynamic risk assessment. Wallets can aggregate these cross-chain, time-based behaviors to create a behavioral credit layer, translating consistent activity into better permissions and reduced friction, thus building durable financial relationships.

5. Market rebalancing and RWA derivatives

Real-world assets (RWAs) are evolving past simple tokenization toward perpetual and synthetic exposure.

With regulatory clarity and a sizeable increase in tokenized RWA value, reaching US$37.7 billion in 2025, attention is shifting to trading. Synthetic RWA derivatives and perpetual decentralized exchanges (Perp DEXs) are emerging, facilitating price exposure to nearly any asset with a reliable feed, and turning wallets into cross-market portfolio allocation gateways.

6. Perp DEXs and wallet-native trading

Decentralized perpetual markets grew significantly in 2025, with monthly turnover surpassing US$1 trillion at times. This brought on-chain perpetuals close to 20 percent of centralized derivatives volume.

Wallets are increasingly becoming the main trading platform, integrating execution, context and portfolio management, replacing standalone trading venues.

7. Prediction markets as tradable information

Prediction markets have become key financial infrastructure, with annual volumes over US$40 billion.

They now convert real-world events, like sports or elections, into tradable probability signals containing asymmetric information. Wallets are transforming into event-driven financial interfaces, making it easier for users to express views and manage risk based on these outcomes.

8. Memecoins as an onboarding vector

Memecoins, despite driving new wallet downloads and trading, offer inconsistent liquidity.

As the market matures, wallets are adding advanced tools like address clustering and relationship analysis to help users better understand the emotion, momentum and capital flows of meme trading, aiming to convert speculative activity into sustainable financial behavior.

Investor takeaway

“Crypto is increasingly being used for everyday financial activity,” said Bitget Wallet CMO Jamie Elkaleh.

Elkaleh also noted that Bitget Wallet has embraced this shift, strategically aligning its product architecture around payments and cash management with its unified Pay hub that combines crypto cards, QR payments and bank transfers alongside yield and trading features.