According to Compounding Quality, academic research demonstrates that investing in companies which efficiently convert most of their earnings into free cash flow results in over 17 percent annual outperformance compared to companies that do not achieve this conversion (source: Compounding Quality Twitter, May 15, 2025). For traders, focusing on businesses with strong free cash flow generation over reported earnings provides a more reliable indicator of financial health, which is crucial for stock selection and risk management. This principle is especially relevant when analyzing blockchain-related equities or crypto-exposed stocks, as strong cash flow supports reinvestment in digital asset infrastructure, thereby potentially stabilizing or boosting cryptocurrency market valuations.