Router maker TP-Link is facing a criminal antitrust investigation into whether it engaged in predatory pricing, Bloomberg reported yesterday. TP-Link was already facing government scrutiny over its ties to China.

"The US is conducting a criminal antitrust investigation into pricing strategies by TP-Link Systems Inc., a California-based router maker with links to China whose equipment now dominates the American market, according to people familiar with the matter," Bloomberg wrote. "Beyond pricing, a focus of the inquiry is also whether the company's growing US market share represents a threat to national security... The scrutiny began in late 2024 under the Biden administration and has continued under President Donald Trump."

Justice Department prosecutors are investigating whether TP-Link engaged in a predatory pricing scheme that "involves selling goods below cost in order to gain market share before raising prices once competitors have either been hobbled or eliminated," the report said.

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The crypto market has calmed down after a couple of months characterized by price-cutting volatility. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is down 8% year-to-date on April 21. That's comparable to the stock market, as the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index fell 13% over the same period. If anything, Bitcoin has been more stable than stocks amid the tariff drama, rising 3% since the end of March while the leading stock index dropped 9% lower.

But if you're planning to buy into the crypto sector in this period of stable prices, you have other options than Bitcoin. The largest crypto's market-beating stability hasn't rubbed off on the entire sector, and many altcoins are available at dramatically lower prices nowadays.

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In particular, I recommend taking a closer look at Polkadot (CRYPTO: DOT) right now. The cross-chain app development coin, managed by the Web3 Foundation, has also outperformed the S&P 500 in April with a smaller 4% price drop. But it's down 42% since the end of 2024, even though a stack of bullish growth drivers is piling up.

I'll give you the lowdown on Polkadot's transformation. If you're still not excited about this promising Web3 investment by the end of this page, you should probably stick to more traditional ideas like Bitcoin and value-oriented stocks. That's OK -- Polkadot is just one of many perfectly reasonable investment ideas in this dynamic market.

Polkadot's special place in the crypto world

Polkadot has two main purposes, and they are tightly related to each other:

• As the official coin and blockchain network of the Web3 Foundation, Polkadot was explicitly designed to support the next generation of the internet. It facilitates privacy, personal data control, and a financial system of peer-to-peer transactions. Getting this dotted ball rolling could disrupt everything from personal finance and media publishing to medical records and social media.
• The Polkadot blockchain network doesn't stand alone. Instead, it can connect to many of the leading blockchains out there, sending and receiving data from one to another. Let's say your Web3 decentralized finance app needs to manage money transfers with the Cosmos (CRYPTO: ATOM) network and store the user's wealth in the form of Bitcoins. The process is handled by Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) smart contracts, based on real-world data provided by Chainlink (CRYPTO: LINK). Letting these components talk to each other can be complicated, but Polkadot's integrated development tools make it easy. And that's how you build an advanced Web3 app.

Where are all the Polkadot apps?

So Polkadot's purpose is pretty clear, and I'm looking forward to Web3 ideas making an impact on mainstream culture. I'm not aware of any game-changing examples so far, though the Subsocial content monetization platform and Polkamarkets data forecasting community are off to a good start.

If those early hopefuls don't get the party started, the first Polkadot killer app might be a decentralized game or a mobile network management system. The first big Polkadot apps might not have the cryptocurrency's logo plastered all over it, but it can do the heavy cross-chain communications lifting behind the scenes. The resulting torrent of Polkadot usage will still build real-world value, one microscopic transaction fee at a time.

Polkadot's impressive technical makeover

On top of the incoming Web3 future, Polkadot is upgrading is technical platform at the moment. The original collection of parachains and crowdfunding auctions was powerful but also confusing in many ways. The new Polkadot 2.0 design simplifies everything into a single computing hub, running a massively scalable supercomputer on the blockchain. This platform can execute perfectly ordinary computer programs, such as a playable version of the classic ID Games game DOOM . That's a pretty silly example, but also a colorful demonstration of the next-generation Polkadot ecosystem's flexibility.

Putting this upgraded system in the hands of a global developer community could very well create that long-awaited first Web3 killer app. If this isn't the right market for any of these disruptive ideas, the stage will be set for a longer waiting game. So I can't promise that Polkadot will skyrocket in 2025, or the foreseeable future.

But I don't mind buying coins on the cheap and waiting for the sea change to come -- even if it takes several years. Investing is a marathon, not a sprint.

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Anders Bylund has positions in Bitcoin, Chainlink, Cosmos, Ethereum, and Polkadot. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Chainlink, and Ethereum. The Motley Fool recommends Cosmos. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

• Elon Musk recently streamed multiple gaming sessions from his private jet while testing Starlink.
• Gaming with his camera on and reflecting on a "stressful" week, the streams offer a glimpse into how he spends his downtime.
• Musk's gaming has also generated controversy in the community.

It's 2:17 in the morning. Elon Musk is gaming on his private jet.

His webcam is turned on and his face is visible, as is the interior cabin of his private jet, both of which are illuminated by the light from his computer screen as the plane travels through the night sky.

It's a glimpse into how the world's richest man spends his downtime, a look in real time at the late nights he frequently references.

Millions of people tuned in as he played video games for 44 minutes, much of which he spent in silence. The Tesla CEO's gaming livestream in the early hours of April 10 has accumulated 16.7 million views since being posted.

When he did talk, he mentioned turbulence, Starlink, updates to his AI chatbot Grok, the upcoming season of the game "Diablo IV" — and the fact that he'd had a "stressful" week.

"Today was a good day for Tesla," Musk said in the video. "It's been kind of a stressful week frankly. But today was a good day."

The billionaire CEO has been dealing with a lot: feuding with Trump's trade advisor, Peter Navarro, over tariffs, Tesla's declining sales and volatile stock price amid global protests, and his continued work with DOGE.

It's not the first time Musk has posted a livestream video of himself gaming. Usually, the billionaire does so under his gamer-focused handle @cyb3rgam3r420. The sessions sometimes last several hours and show glimpses of Musk taking care of his son, or discussing different topics, like what kind of armor Roman legions wear or whether Tesla would ever make a smartphone.

His most recent livestreams from his private jet, however, also served another purpose: testing out Starlink's "airborne connectivity" and talking up the satellite internet service ahead of some major launches. SpaceX, Musk's space exploration company, has recently signed partnerships to roll out Starlink in a number of airlines including Air France, Qatar Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, and United Airlines.

The recent gaming session livestreams also provide Musk, who has previously bragged about his gaming skills and achievements, an opportunity to get some street cred back after a YouTuber and gamer, NikoWrex, posted what he said where screenshots of a January conversation he had over DM with Musk. According to the screenshots, Musk talked about "account boosting," or paying other players to level up one's account, because it was "impossible to beat the players in Asia" otherwise — an idea some gamers said they agreed with.

Musk, who at the time reposted NikoWrex's video about the account-boosting conversation, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

But the possibility that Musk was bragging about gaming achievements made while using an account others had been paid to play quickly generated criticism among some high-profile members of the gaming community, including the social media account for the hit game "Assassin's Creed."

While Musk's recent livestreams provided a look into how the CEO decompresses — in one case, during a flight to DC — they likely won't quiet the criticisms of his gaming skills.

Musk repeatedly died while playing "hardcore" mode (in his defense, one of his virtual deaths happened after receiving a "connection lost" message while using Starlink).

He decided to switch things up during his next livestream.

"I'm playing softcore instead of hardcore this time," he said.