What is XRP Ledger 3.3.0 Upgrade? The XRP Ledger is moving from version 3.2.1 to 3.3.0, bringing a substantial set of protocol changes. But there is an important distinction. The 3.3.0 software release does not mean every new feature is already active on the XRPL mainnet. The release gives validators the software needed to support new amendments, which must separately pass the XRPL's amendment process. Put simply, this upgrade is less about changing how the entire XRP Ledger works and more about giving it new tools for payments, tokenization, privacy and institutional use. Here are the major changes: (1) Batch Transactions Batch transactions allow multiple transactions to be packaged and executed as a single atomic unit. That means a group of related transactions can either succeed together or fail together. This could be particularly useful for institutional delivery versus payment, where an asset and payment need to settle together without leaving one side completed while the other fails. The XLS-56 standard defines the Batch design and allows multiple transactions to be processed as one atomic unit. (2) Permission Delegation Permission Delegation allows an account to grant specific transaction permissions without handing another party control of its main private key. That could make operational wallets easier to manage for institutions. For example, a business could delegate certain actions to another party while retaining control over the underlying account. The important point is that delegation is limited by the permissions granted, rather than becoming a transfer of complete account ownership. (3) Sponsor Sponsor tackles one of XRPL's less visible barriers for new users. Accounts and certain ledger objects require XRP reserves, while transactions also require fees. Sponsor allows another account to cover those costs on behalf of a user. That could be useful for neobanks, wallets and other applications that want customers to use XRPL without first acquiring XRP simply to satisfy network requirements. The XLS-68 proposal specifically covers sponsored fees and reserves while keeping the user's account control intact. (4) Confidential Transfers Confidential Transfers bring a limited form of privacy to Multi-Purpose Tokens, or MPTs. The feature is designed to hide certain balances and transfer amounts while preserving mechanisms for authorized parties to verify information when required. This is important for institutions handling tokenized assets because complete public visibility can create problems around commercially sensitive transactions. However, this is not full account anonymity. The feature is focused on MPTs. It does not suddenly make XRP transactions private across the entire XRP Ledger. (5) Dynamic MPT Dynamic Multi-Purpose Tokens make MPTs more flexible after issuance. Token issuers can designate certain properties as mutable when creating the token. Those permitted properties can then be changed later without making every part of the token freely editable. That could matter for tokenized real-world assets whose requirements may change over time. The XLS-94 proposal is designed specifically around this controlled flexibility. (6) Fixes And Protocol Improvements Not everything included in XRPL 3.3.0 is a headline feature. The release also contains software fixes, security improvements, performance work and other protocol changes. The official 3.3.0 release includes Batch V1.1, Confidential Transfer for MPTs, Sponsor and Dynamic MPT work, alongside numerous fixes and engineering changes. There is also an important history behind some of these features. Earlier versions of Batch and Permission Delegation encountered security issues before activation, leading developers to work on revised implementations. That means the new versions are not simply new features appearing overnight. They are also the result of the XRPL's amendment and security review process. And this is perhaps the most important thing to understand about XRPL 3.3.0. A software release is not the same thing as a network activation. Validators still need to support individual amendments through the XRP Ledger's governance process before those capabilities become active. So XRPL 3.3.0 should be viewed as an important infrastructure milestone rather than six new features suddenly switching on simultaneously. Together, these changes push the XRP Ledger further toward the infrastructure needed for tokenized finance and institutional blockchain applications.

In 2023, more than 5,000 attended the 30th Annual "OWN IT!" Baron Conference at New York's iconic Met Opera House. The 2024, 31st Annual "Building Legacy" Baron Conference on November 15th at The Met… features exceptional executives of SpaceX...MSCI...Arch Capital...and Red Rock Resorts...the Baron Capital team...incredible entertainment...and an ice cream cone served by former ice cream truck driver Ron... Oh yeah...good luck winning one of three awesome Tesla Y door prizes. All expenses, including door prizes...are paid by @BaronCapital...not our clients... Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of the investment carefully before investing. The prospectus and summary prospectuses contain this and other information about the Funds. You may obtain them from the Funds’ distributor, Baron Capital, Inc., by calling 1-800-99-BARON or visiting Please read them carefully before investing. Portfolio holdings as a percentage of net assets as of June 30, 2024 for securities mentioned are as follows: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation - Baron Asset Fund (2.9%), Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund (0.9%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (10.3%), Baron Global Advantage Fund (6.1%), Baron Opportunity Fund (2.8%), Baron Partners Fund (13.2%*); Tesla, Inc. - Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund (3.2%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (8.6%), Baron Global Advantage Fund (3.3%), Baron Opportunity Fund (3.5%), Baron Partners Fund (28.9%*), Baron Technology Fund (2.5%); MSCI Inc. - Baron Asset Fund (0.5%), Baron Durable Advantage Fund (2.1%), Baron FinTech Fund (2.5%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (3.1%), Baron Growth Fund (9.8%), Baron Partners Fund (1.8%*); Arch Capital Group Ltd. - Baron Asset Fund (4.8%), Baron Durable Advantage Fund (2.1%), Baron FinTech Fund (3.0%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (6.4%), Baron Growth Fund (12.7%), Baron International Growth Fund (2.8%), Baron Partners Fund (9.5%*); Red Rock Resorts, Inc. - Baron Discovery Fund (1.6%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (3.9%), Baron Growth Fund (1.5%), Baron Partners Fund (1.5%*), Baron Real Estate Fund (1.7%), Baron Small Cap Fund (3.6%). *% of Long Positions. Portfolio holdings are subject to change. Current and future portfolio holdings are subject to risk. All expenses associated with this conference are paid by Baron Capital, Inc. No conference expenses are paid by Baron Funds. BAMCO, Inc. is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Baron Capital, Inc. is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA).

The Q2 2026 Letter from Ron is here. Our Founder and CEO @RonBaronAnalyst shares his thoughts on: · @MSCI_Inc and the case for investing in long-term opportunity over near-term profits · @Tesla's robotaxi economics · @elonmusk's discussion with Jamie Dimon about leadership · A conversation with Claude on this year's Conference theme: "I think you should..." Read the full letter here: -- Information and services provided on independent websites are not reviewed, guaranteed by or endorsed by Baron Capital or its affiliates. Please be aware that this independent website’s terms and conditions and other legal information may be different than those of Baron Capital’s website. Baron Capital is not liable for the content appearing on it, or for the content appearing on it, or for technical or systems issues arising from the use of this independent website. Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fund carefully before investing. The prospectus and summary prospectus contain this and other information about the Fund and can be obtained from the Fund's distributor, Baron Capital, Inc., by calling 1-800-99-BARON or visiting Please read them carefully before investing. Risks: All investments are subject to risk and may lose value. Portfolio holdings as a percentage of net assets as of June 30, 2026 for securities mentioned are as follows: Tesla, Inc. - Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund (3.9%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (6.4%), Baron Global Opportunity Fund (1.5%), Baron Opportunity Fund (4.7%), Baron Partners Fund (14.1%*), Baron Technology ETF (3.2%), Baron First Principles ETF (12.4%), Baron Risk Optimized Large Cap ETF (2.1%); MSCI Inc. - Baron Asset Fund (1.0%), Baron Durable Advantage Fund (3.0%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (5.0%), Baron Generational Growth Fund (19.5%), Baron Partners Fund (3.9%*), Baron Financials ETF (3.6%), Baron First Principles ETF (4.5%), Baron SMID Cap ETF (1.9%), Baron Global Durable Advantage ETF (2.3%), Baron Risk Optimized Large Cap ETF (0.9%). *% of Long Positions Portfolio holdings are subject to change. Current and future portfolio holdings are subject to risk. The discussion of market trends is not intended as advice to any person regarding the advisability of investing in any particular security. The views expressed in this email reflect those of the respective writer. Some of our comments are based on management expectations and are considered “forward-looking statements.” Actual future results, however, may prove to be different from our expectations. Our views are a reflection of our best judgment at the time and are subject to change at any time based on market and other conditions and Baron has no obligation to update them. BAMCO, Inc. is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Baron Capital, Inc. is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA). © Baron Capital 2026. All rights reserved.

🇺🇸US DATA RUNS HOT: INFLATION STICKY, DEMAND FIRM INFLATION • Headline PCE MoM: +0.2% vs +0.1% est.; prior -0.1% • Headline PCE YoY: +3.7% vs +3.6% est.; prior +3.7% • Core PCE MoM: +0.2% vs +0.2% est.; prior +0.1% • Core PCE YoY: +3.3% vs +3.3% est.; prior +3.3% GDP • Q2 GDP annualized: +1.5% vs +1.5% est.; prior +1.5% • Personal consumption: +3.4% vs +3.2% est.; prior +3.2% • GDP Price Index: +6.4% vs +6.2% est.; prior +6.2% • Core PCE QoQ: +3.6% vs +3.4% est.; prior +3.4% INCOME & SPENDING • Personal income MoM: +0.4% vs +0.2% est.; prior +0.2% • Personal spending MoM: +0.2% vs +0.1% est.; prior +0.3% • Real personal spending MoM: 0.0% vs 0.0% est.; prior +0.4% DURABLE GOODS • Durable goods orders MoM: +1.1% vs +0.5% est.; prior +0.5% • Durables ex-transportation: +0.4% vs +0.6% est.; prior +0.7% • Core capital goods orders: +0.2% vs +0.7% est.; prior revised to +1.7% • Core capital goods shipments: +1.4% vs +1.0% est.; prior revised to +2.4% BOTTOM LINE: Inflation remains sticky while consumer demand and headline durable goods beat expectations. GDP growth was in line, but stronger price pressures could keep the Fed cautious on rates.

🚀 vLLM-Omni v0.20.0 is out — aligned with upstream vLLM v0.20.0 (CUDA 13.0 · PyTorch 2.11 · Transformers 5.x). ⚡ Qwen3-Omni throughput +72% on H20, 32 conc (0.241 → 0.414 req/s) via talker / code2wav multi-replica scaling 🎙️ TTS faster & leaner: VoxCPM2 RTF 0.946 → 0.106 · Fish Speech Fast AR latency -53% · Qwen3-TTS / Voxtral-TTS Code2Wav saves ~3.2 GiB 🎨 Diffusion dynamic step-level batching: +7.8% throughput / -5.8% latency 🆕 New / improved: HunyuanImage-3.0, ERNIE T2I, AudioX, Wan2.2-S2V, LTX-2.3, FastGen Wan 2.1 📱 Wan2.2 on NPU production-ready: MindIE-SD, fused ops, VAE BF16, HSDP/USP — +50–60% perf 🧮 Quant expanded: Qwen Omni W4A16, OmniGen2 FP8, Z-Image FP8, HunyuanImage3 NPU, GLM-Image 🧩 Multi-backend updates across CUDA / ROCm / MUSA / NPU / XPU Check it out →

NVIDIA $NVDA has missed revenue expectations just once in the last 5 years: 🟢 Q1 2022: $5.66B (+4.6%) 🟢 Q2 2022: $6.51B (+2.8%) 🟢 Q3 2022: $7.10B (+4.3%) 🟢 Q4 2022: $7.64B (+3.0%) 🟢 Q1 2023: $8.29B (+2.1%) 🔴 Q2 2023: $6.70B (-6.9%) 🟢 Q3 2023: $5.93B (+2.8%) 🟢 Q4 2023: $6.05B (+0.7%) 🟢 Q1 2024: $7.19B (+10.3%) 🟢 Q2 2024: $13.51B (+20.9%) 🟢 Q3 2024: $18.12B (+12.0%) 🟢 Q4 2024: $22.10B (+7.5%) 🟢 Q1 2025: $26.04B (+5.9%) 🟢 Q2 2025: $30.04B (+4.5%) 🟢 Q3 2025: $35.08B (+5.8%) 🟢 Q4 2025: $39.33B (+3.1%) 🟢 Q1 2026: $44.06B (+2.3%) 🟢 Q2 2026: $46.74B (+2.4%) 🟢 Q3 2026: $57.01B (+4.3%) 🟢 Q4 2026: $68.13B (+3.9%) NVIDIA reports next earnings this Wednesday. 97% chance they beat it. Trade here →

In the Q2 2026 Baron Small Cap Fund quarterly letter, Portfolio Manager Cliff Greenberg explores how our research-intensive process helps us identify high-quality, well-managed businesses. Our work ahead of the IPO of Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust offers one example. The research team spent considerable time with management, examining the depth of its team, the quality of the identified pipeline, and the clarity of its long-term vision. This research gave us a deeper understanding of what we believe makes for a compelling opportunity. As Cliff explains in the letter, the lack of large-scale capital dedicated to acquiring stabilized data center assets has left a significant volume of institutional-quality assets available at attractive prices with limited competition. Learn more about this investment and other recent activity here: -- Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of the investment carefully before investing. The prospectus and summary prospectuses contain this and other information about the Funds. You may obtain them from the Funds’ distributor, Baron Capital, Inc, by calling 1-800-99-BARON or visiting Please read carefully before investing. Historical performance was impacted by gains from IPOs. There is no guarantee that these results can be repeated or the level of IPO participation will be the same in the future. Risks: Specific risks associated with investing in smaller companies include that the securities may be thinly traded and more difficult to sell during market downturns. Even though the Fund is diversified, it may establish significant positions where the Adviser has the greatest conviction. This could increase volatility of the Fund’s returns. The discussion of market trends is not intended as advice to any person regarding the advisability of investing in any particular security. The views expressed in this post reflect those of the respective writer. Some of our comments are based on management expectations and are considered “forward-looking statements.” Actual future results, however, may prove to be different from our expectations. Our views are a reflection of our best judgment at the time and are subject to change at any time based on market and other conditions and Baron has no obligation to update them. Portfolio holdings as a percentage of net assets as of June 30, 2026 for securities mentioned are as follows: Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust Inc. - Baron Small Cap Fund (1.2%). The Top 10 Holdings for Baron Small Cap Fund: Vertiv Holdings Co (7.6%), Red Rock Resorts, Inc. (5.1%), Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. (4.1%), SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (3.7%), JBT Marel Corporation (3.4%), TransDigm Group Incorporated (3.3%), Cognex Corporation (3.2%), Guidewire Software, Inc. (3.0%), Liberty Media Corporation - Liberty Formula One (2.7%), The Baldwin Insurance Group, Inc. (2.5%). Portfolio holdings are subject to change. Current and future portfolio holdings are subject to risk. Investment Products: NOT FDIC INSURED | MAY LOSE VALUE | NOT BANK GUARANTEED BAMCO, Inc. is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Baron Capital, Inc. is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA). ©2026 Baron Capital. All rights reserved.

After going 1-2-3 to open this game against Nathan Eovadi, the Mariners quickly find themselves down 3-0 here in the 1st inning. Bryan Woo gets tagged for two doubles, one triple, one walk and an RBI groundout.

Last wk, S&P/Nas/Mag7 were +1.2%/+1.7%/+4.0% despite oil +4% & bond ylds +7bps on Iran flare-up. 2 days remain during this seasonally favorable time from the last 3 trading days of June through first 9 days of July. Earning season starts w/ big banks on Tuesday. As I first posted about on June 28th and reiterated on July 5th, the seasonality is historically very favorable from the last three trading days of June through the first nine trading days of July during which the S&P/Nasdaq have advanced 1.6%/2.5% and been up 78% of the time since 1985. The S&P/Nasdaq is up 3.0%/3.6% during the first 10 trading days of this time period in 2026 already. But for the heart of the AI trade, the Semiconductor (SOX) Index is down 7.0% during these last 10 trading days on fears of a “speed bump” that I have been posting about since 6/28. For the AI trade going forward, two separate thoughts with two different implications are beginning to coalesce in my mind. The first thought is that AI revenue growth for the leading LLM models is likely to hit a “speed bump” and slow in the September quarter. Last week, $SPCX and $META released new LLM models that both closed much of the gap with the leading edge models from OpenAI and Anthropic. But Meta plans to price their model at roughly 1/4th the cost of the two leaders with SpaceX aggressive as well. This is particularly relevant as companies switched from token maxing in March to token minimization in June. As an example, the CEO of Coinbase posted on June 26th, “How to keep AI spend flat while token usage grows exponentially... Putting this into practice has cut our AI spend nearly in half, while our token usage continues to grow.” Sam Altman on Thursday: “we have heard enterprises on their concerns about AI costs, and 5.6 sol is a huge step forward for dollars-per-task, as are terra and luna”. But on a positive note, two more public cloud providers have been recently added to the four that already existed of $AMZN, $GOOGL, $MSFT and $ORCL. SpaceX in the past month raised over $100B in equity plus debt and plans to spend hundreds of billions to attack the $28.5 trillion TAM they talked about in their IPO prospectus. News surrounding Meta last week seems to imply that they are launching a cloud offering not because they have excess compute but so 1) they can double their compute spend from 7 MegaWatts in 2026 to 14 MegaWatts in 2027 and 2) have capacity to sell their Muse Spark LLM. So in summary, with this seasonally favorable period of time for the overall market coming soon to a close, I believe cutting back excess exposure is prudent. Reaction by investors on Tuesday to bank earnings which should be strong, may give us a good tell as to the risk vs reward at current levels over the shorter-term. As for the AI trade, I believe selectivity is key as we work our way through the “speed bump” and the positive implications of 4 aggressive public cloud vendors now becoming six versus the negatives of token maxing in March turning to token minimization in June. All the best in the week ahead.