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- How Spotify Ganged Up on Apple — and Won
How Spotify Ganged Up on Apple — and Won
& What are Tokenised Stocks Anyway?
How Spotify Outfoxed Apple
For years, Apple was the gatekeeper, raking in its 30% cut from App Store payments while Spotify seethed on the sidelines. Instead of going head-to-head, Spotify played the slow game — lobbying in Brussels, filing antitrust complaints, and framing Apple as the greedy toll collector.
Credit: Wall Street Journal
With the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), the tables finally turned and Apple is forced to allow apps like Spotify to bypass its in-app payment system — meaning Spotify customers in Europe can finally subscribe directly without Apple skimming its cut.
Suddenly, Apple had no choice but to let Spotify steer users to its own payment system, commission-free. After years of pressure, Spotify finally cracked the vault. Apple didn’t just lose a fee — it lost control of the narrative. And Spotify? It pulled off one of a kind of plot: beating Big Tech at its own rules.
Tokenized Stocks: Wall Street Meets Blockchain
Think of tokenized stocks as digital twins of real-world shares. Instead of buying Apple or Tesla stock directly through a broker, you buy a blockchain-based token that mirrors its price. Each token is backed 1:1 by the actual stock (or in some cases, by derivatives tied to it).
Instead of sitting in a brokerage account, your “stock” lives on a blockchain -the perks? 24/7 trading, fractional ownership, and easier global access — no matter where you live. These tokens can trade on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), where buyers and sellers connect directly without a middleman. Smart contracts — bits of code on the blockchain — handle the trade automatically, ensuring it’s secure and instant.
The Twist: NASDAQ is considering tokenized stocks. That’s huge, because until now, tokenized equities lived mostly on smaller crypto exchanges and faced regulatory skepticism. If a major exchange like NASDAQ jumps in, it could blur the lines between Wall Street and Web3 — and potentially change how the world trades stocks.
China: Global Green Powerhouse — Yet Still The Coal King
China led the world with a whopping $386 billion invested in renewables during the first half of 2025 — accounting for 44% of global new investment. It also unveiled a massive solar farm the size of Chicago, while solar and wind installations in 2024 outpaced coal output in energy growth.
Even as renewables surge, coal remains deeply rooted in China’s energy mix. In 2024 alone, the country added 94 GW of new coal capacity, securing its place as the world’s top coal producer — a stark reminder that clean energy growth is happening alongside, not instead of, fossil fuels.
China now controls nearly two-thirds of global renewable energy investment, leaping ahead in the clean-energy race. Yet its continued expansion of coal capacity signals a balancing act — juggling climate goals, energy security, and industrial growth on a massive scale.