Money

Fintech

The news comes just over a month after FTX’s billionaire founder, Bankman-Fried, disclosed a sizable stake in Robinhood.

Just as it wasn’t over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor (according to Blutarski in the movie Animal House, at least), the fintech revolution isn’t over just because the valuation of two companies (Klarna and Robinhood) has declined.

A detailed study by the Asian Development Bank found that an increase in the fintech development level has a significant association with decrease in crime because fintech reduces cash holdings (and, rather interestingly, providing more job opportunities).

When it secured a banking charter and raised a half-billion dollars last year, Varo promised growth and profitability. But an abrupt fintech downturn and high spending have left it with no choice but to slam on the brakes. In the first quarter, it laid off 8% of staff.

Last year, as the pandemic continued to push more buying and banking online and the price of both bitcoin and tech stocks climbed, venture capitalists poured money into fintech— a total of $133 billion globally, almost three times the year before.

Neobanks may have won the first battle with incumbent banks, but a new wave of competition is coming from the likes of Square, PayPal, and Apple. It’s hard to imagine that venture capitalists will continue to fund new neobank startups.

Bitcoin lost more than 70% of its value since November highs, and Celsius, a lending platform, announced that it would be pausing a significant portion of its activity.

If this crypto crash is like the tulip bubble then that is a very good thing, because the new regulatory environment that will support tokens, digital currencies and decentralised finance will be the crucial factor in creating a new golden age whether Bitcoin goes to zero or $100K next year.

The identity verification startup raised $450 million last November and is now aiming to make its cash last. Even before the layoffs, there were signs of employee unhappiness.

Suneera Madhani’s fintech company, Stax, has processed over $23 billion in payments for 22,000 businesses.

Settle's multiyear revolving credit facility will allow the company to continue expanding support for emerging and high-growth e-commerce businesses.

The last cryptocurrency downturn began in early 2018 and lasted about two and a half years.

Ando is a banking service that invests every cent of customers’ money into projects and companies committed to fighting climate change

The crypto selloff is yet another sign of just how bad investor sentiment has gotten, experts say.

The two-year Treasury yield jumped to over 3.2%—its highest level since 2007.

In time, value will migrate to currencies built on quantum-resistant algorithms. But right now it might be well worth spending a few billion to build a quantum submarine to dive down dredge up a hundred billion or so in lost cryptocurrency. Who’s up for a crowdfunding?

Just as Apple Pay didn’t “upend” anything right away, neither will Apple’s new buy now, pay later service. But it is a piece—and an important one at that—of Apple’s broader strategy.