MVO BLOG
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
The U.S. Justice Department has tapped, Eun Young Choi, a seasoned computer crimes prosecutor to lead its new national cryptocurrency enforcement team and announced on Thursday that the FBI is launching a unit for blockchain analysis and virtual asset seizure.
U.S. regulators under President Joe Biden have been ratcheting up their scrutiny of the crypto industry in the wake of a series of high-profile cyberattacks last year on the largest U.S. fuel pipeline network and the world's largest beef supplier. Ransomware groups often demand their fees in bitcoin.
👉 Read the full Thomson Reuters article here
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📊 INFOGRAPHIC
In this WhiteSight article by Sanjeev Kumar and Risav Chakraborty they explore some of the key events that shaped Meta’s journey in its quest to disrupt the payments industry.
👉 Check the link here
💬 INTERVIEW
Liu helped start Piñata with the goal of coming up with a way for renters “to get more out of their largest expense every month.” She notes that she herself has been a renter off and on her entire adult life, and also a landlord.
“One of the biggest things that I regret as a renter is all of those longtime rent payments haven’t contributed to my credit score. They have not resulted in any additional perks or benefits or equity-building opportunities,” Liu told TechCrunch.
👉 Read the full article here.
📰 ARTICLE
Despite its recent dip, 2021 was a breakthrough year for crypto, with its market capitalization rising by 188% to reach ~$3 trillion in November 2021. Crypto’s profile and growth to date have derived from its utility as a store of value, but we are finally starting to see its potential as a ‘medium of exchange’.
In this article by Flagship Advisory Partners, they examine how crypto payments are gaining relevancy in mainstream commerce, illustrate the current payments use cases, and evaluate their growth outlook. 👉Link here
💡INSIGHTS
Innovation and investments have been the key trends in the WealthTech industry over the last decade. Its recent claim to fame with the high-value mergers and acquisitions is driven not only by incumbents like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Charles Schwab, but also by FinTech players such as SoFi, Acorns, and NuBank.
While the financial details of most of the deals remain undisclosed, the sheer size of the acquirers has been sufficient to garner attention.
In this post, WhiteSight is taking a closer look at some of the mega mergers and acquisitions that the sector witnessed in recent years.
👉 Read the full article by Sanjeev Kumar & Risav Chakraborty here
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NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Pipe expands into media and entertainment financing with its acquisition of Purely Capital. Link here
⭐️ Found raised $60 million in Series B funding led by Founders Fund. Link here
⭐️ Ramp announced that it is expanding into the travel space. Link here
⭐️ Airbase announced that it is working with American Express. Link here
⭐️ Tilled announced the close of a funding round, led by G Squared. Link here
⭐️ Check announced that it has raised $75 million in a fresh funding round. Link here
DIGITAL BANKING
SoFi Technologies Inc. is buying banking-software maker Technisys SA for about $1.1 billion, the latest in a string of deals designed to transform the lender into a one-stop financial shop. Link here
A new mobile banking platform called Spruce, built by tax preparation company H&R Block and powered by SoFi-owned fintech Galileo Financial Technologies, has launched in the US. Link here
U.S. Bank announced a new solution with Payactiv to bring Earned Wage Access (EWA) to U.S. Bank clients. The bank is one of the first major financial institutions to collaborate with an EWA provider to bring an EWA payroll card solution to employers and employees. Link here
GreenBox POS announced that it has entered into a licensing partnership with Cross River. This partnership will bring to fruition the launch of their first banking-as-a-service initiative and ushers GreenBox into the arena with the likes of well-known, major financial technology-driven brands. Link here
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway dumped a portion of its Visa and Mastercard holdings and increased exposure in Nubank, the largest fintech bank in Brazil that's also popular among the country's Bitcoin investors. Link here
PAYMENTS
EasyWorkforce, the unified workforce management platform for companies of any size, and Clair, a leading provider of on-demand pay as a service, today announced a partnership to bring earned-wage access to all EasyWorkforce customers and their employees. Link here
Klarna announced that its waitlist for the Klarna Card is now open to all US consumers. The Klarna Card will bring the company’s popular “Pay in 4” service to a physical Visa card form issued by WebBank, empowering consumers to pay over time in four payments for any in-store or online purchase. Link here
GoDaddy continues to make e-commerce and in-person payments faster, easier, and more accessible to small businesses with its latest release of QR codes for on-the-go transactions. Link here
Amazon has reached agreement with Visa to accept its credit cards across its network, ending a standoff between the two that threatened to disrupt e-commerce payments and deal a blow to the U.S.-based payments processor. Link here
BNPL
Australian payments firm Zip Co forecasted a bigger half-year loss than analysts' expectation, citing lower consumer spending in the United States as fiscal stimulus money dries up. The downbeat forecast sent the stock of the company down nearly 7% to its lowest since May 2020. Link here
CRYPTO
USD Coin (USDC) operator Circle has launched a new account service aimed at helping businesses transact in cryptocurrencies — potentially opening the door to wider mainstream adoption of digital assets. Link here.
Coinbase Global, the biggest US cryptocurrency exchange, is wading into the international money-transfer business, seeking to tap into a huge market dominated by firms like Western Union. Link here.
Also, Coinbase faces stiff competition from other firms in the business of cross-border money transfers, and new entrants continue to materialize. The crypto exchange must compete with industry stalwarts like Western Union and MoneyGram International, and fintechs like Revolut and Ripple. Link here
Attackers stole hundreds of NFTs from OpenSea users, causing a late-night panic among the site’s broad user base. A spreadsheet compiled by the blockchain security service PeckShield counted 254 tokens stolen over the course of the attack, including tokens from Decentraland and Bored Ape Yacht Club. Link here
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Revolut, the global financial superapp with over 18 million customers worldwide, announced the appointment of Ibrahim (Ibo) Dusi as its Chief Risk Officer for Americas as the company continues to build out its capabilities on a global scale. Link here
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.