Crypto News: Ford Lightning strikes back

It turns out US drivers did want to snap up Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck after all — provided the price is right. Since the vehicle was discontinued last year, it’s become a hit on the used market, where models can be purchased for 50% to 60% of the initial sticker price.

Also in today’s edition, hedge funds are seizing on opportunities to purchase legal claims tied to the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Meanwhile, traders are making bearish bets on natural gas on the prospects that a powerful El Niño will keep winter temperatures mild.

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Ford’s surprise EV success

By Kyle Stock

It turns out, to make Ford Motor’s electric pickup truck a sales champion, the company just had to stop making it.

The F-150 Lightning, which Ford stopped making in December, is in high demand on the used market.

Since the final F-150 Lightning rolled off the assembly line in December, it has become one of the most coveted cars in America and a glowing ember in the red-hot market for used electric vehicles. The surging demand shows that there is plenty of appetite for electric trucks among US drivers, provided the pickups aren’t too expensive, said Jimmy Douglas, CEO of Plug, a wholesale electric vehicle dealer.

“When Ford was selling it brand new, the math was complicated,” Douglas said. “But used, the Lightning is 50% to 60% of the sticker price and that is really a sweet spot; it’s an incredible truck for the money.”

In addition to being put off by high prices, truck drivers have been relatively slow to go electric because the machines aren’t very aerodynamic. The boxy build and hefty weight of a half-ton pickup hamstring driving range. However, combustion trucks fight the same physics when it comes to mileage. Pickup fans, in short, have felt the sting of the high gas prices, spiked by the Iran war, more keenly than most drivers.

Scarcity has helped too. In a good year, Ford sells about 900,000 gas-powered F-150s, whereas it moved slightly more than 100,000 of its electric version in a little over four years.

The typical Lightning is changing hands in about 20 days in the US, versus 44 days for the average used vehicle. The price has steadily risen to $50,000, an increase of 4% since the start of the year, according to Edmunds.com.

And nearly one-third of used Lightnings are being sold by dealerships that peddle other brands. Typically, those stores would flip a used Ford to a Ford dealer, according to Douglas, but many are electing to list the car directly to tap red-hot demand.

Chase Norris, a county planner in Colorado ski country, recently ditched his gas F-150 for a used Lightning. At $40,000, he considered the vehicle both a major upgrade and a bargain.

“It’s better for the environment and it happens to be faster than some Mustangs,” Norris said. “And I go camping a lot; if it gets cold at night I can just plug my electric blanket into the outlet.”

Part of the appeal for customers like Norris, however, is they won’t notice much of a difference. The exterior of the Lightning is pretty much identical to the gas-powered version — so is the cabin, right down to the massive gear selector, which folds down into the center console. The only apparent EV exception is the yawning front trunk where the spark plugs and cylinders used to be. In a pinch, the truck can also power a house.

Keep reading

New model

$28,000

Roughly the starting sticker price for Ford’s new Fathom electric pickup, which the company aims to sell 100,000 of annually from next year.

Lower prices

“Used EV demand has shown customers are willing to consider electric when the value proposition is right.”

Kevin Roberts

Director of market intelligence at CarGurus Inc., a digital sales platform.

Funds snap up LA wildfires deals

By Gautam Naik

Hedge funds are stepping up purchases of legal claims tied to the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, after political opposition to the deals lost steam.

Destroyed homes after the Palisades Fire in 2025.

In some cases, funds are paying as little as 3 cents on the dollar, according to details of transactions shared with Bloomberg. The most expensive are going for around 60 cents on the dollar.

California lawmakers had sought to rein in investor purchases of subrogation claims, as such deals are called, criticizing efforts to reap financial gain from the human and environmental cost of wildfires. But an impasse in the state legislature has now reassured investors that there’s still room to chase lucrative transactions.

Cherokee Acquisition Director Bradley Max, who spoke last year of “a chill” in the market for subrogation deals, says he now sees optimism returning.

“There’s plenty of appetite for buyers and sellers,” said Max, who acts as a broker between hedge funds and insurers looking to pass on subrogation claims.

“Insurance companies know that there is liquidity available and the market has become more mainstream,” Max said, declining to identify individual insurers or hedge funds by name.

The blazes that swept through LA’s Eaton and Palisades neighborhoods in early 2025 caused about $40 billion in insured losses, by some estimates. Today, roughly 20 months after the event, disputes over who should foot that bill have yet to be resolved. Verisk, a risk assessment firm, describes the LA fires as a “historical loss event” whose ongoing claims management challenge carries “a multiyear development tail.”

Prospect of Arctic Blasts Threatens Energy Traders’ El Niño Bets

Traders are piling into bearish bets on US natural gas, wagering that a powerful El Niño will keep temperatures mild and curb heating demand this winter. A burst of Arctic cold risks upending the trade.

Dual Tropical Storms Hit Both US Coasts With Floods and Outages

More than 440,000 homes and businesses from Pennsylvania to Florida are without power and flood threats are rising at both ends of the country as the US deals with a rare double tropical threat from the remnants of storms Isaias off the Atlantic and Rachel moving into the Southwest from the Pacific.

Singapore F1 Race Draws Near-Record Turnout Despite Choking Haze

Singapore’s Formula 1 Grand Prix race saw a near-record turnout, bucking concerns that one of the worst regional haze in recent years would threaten the event.

Nationalizing English Water Firms Could Cost £105 Billion

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s push for greater control of England’s troubled water industry could come with a hefty price tag of about £105 billion, according to a new industry-commissioned analysis.

A Rare ‘Super’ El Niño Is Looking More Likely. Here’s What to Expect

El Niño is back and shaping up to be the most powerful on record.

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Tasmania’s Electric Shipping Bet

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