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| January 23 · Issue #16 · View online |
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Happy Tuesday everyone! I missed last week’s newsletter due to being in Denver over MLK weekend, so I have a lot of catch up to do in regards to what has happened over the past few weeks. On the flip side, got to spend some quality time with the significant other and old friends from college, so totally worth it to unplug for at least a couple of days. In other news, I’m thinking about renaming my newsletter to All The Blockchain Fintech in hopes that it will automatically increase my subscriber list 1000% as it seems to be working for some companies like Kodak and others. Nevertheless, lots of activity in fintech outside of a wild couple of weeks for crypto prices. (Side note, I find it interesting on how quickly price anchors change in this market, just a month ago everyone was freaking out at Ethereum breaking $1k, Bitcoin hitting above $10k, Ripple hitting $1, etc).
I’m keeping this week’s column brief since there was a lot of news, but next week I’ll try and compile 2018 fintech perspectives from bankers, founders, and investors :).
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Twitter’s Anthony Noto to Become SoFi CEO
Anthony Noto, the operating chief at Twitter Inc., has accepted an offer to become chief executive of online lender Social Finance Inc. Mr. Noto will take over the top spot at SoFi on March 1. Big hire for SoFi, meanwhile every other investment bank just lost left lead for the IPO (for now…)
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Bitcoin broker Coinbase booked $1 billion in revenue last year - Recode
Coinbase crossed $1 billion in revenue last year, Recode has learned from industry sources, a tremendous rise fueled by layman interest in both bitcoin and competing virtual currencies that users can buy and sell through the app. Bitcoin’s killer use case for 2017 wasn’t as a payment mechanism, but rather speculative investment. The amount of growth that Coinbase experienced in 2017 was pretty astounding, will be interesting to see what else they do with more cash available.
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South Korea to ban cryptocurrency traders from using anonymous bank accounts
South Korea will ban the use of anonymous bank accounts in cryptocurrency trading from Jan. 30, regulators said on Tuesday in a widely telegraphed move designed to stop virtual coins from being used for money laundering and other crimes. Crypto prices dropped in large part due to news that South Korea and other asian countries were looking to ban crypto exchanges, still TBD on what’s going to happen.
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Stripe Ending Bitcoin Support
In 2014, we became the first major payments company to support Bitcoin payments.
Our hope was that Bitcoin could become a universal, decentralized substrate for online transactions and help our customers enable buyers in places that had less credit card penetration or use cases where credit card fees were prohibitive.
Over the past year or two, as block size limits have been reached, Bitcoin has evolved to become better-suited to being an asset than being a means of exchange.
Even Stripe views Bitcoin as an inefficient method of payment. Increasingly looking as though Bitcoin is more valuable as a store of value, whereas other cryptocurrencies better for transfer of funds. Keep in mind that Stripe also owns (if they haven’t sold yet), a significant amount of Stellar. |
Silicon Valley-Backed Payments Processor Adyen Weighs an IPO
Adyen BV, a fast-growing Dutch payments company backed by Silicon Valley billionaires, is considering an initial public offering as early as next year, according to people familiar with the matter. 2018 starting off strong for fintech exits! Adyen has (a bit quietly in the US) built a really strong payments business.
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Insurtech Startup Hippo Grabs $25 Million In Series B Financing
California-based insurtech company Hippo, has announced today on securing $25 million in Series B funding, led by Comcast Ventures and Fifth Wall, and joined by other top fintech investors. Insuretech continues to heat-up with VC funding going to existing companies…
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Fintech continues to push into car lending as Chase partners with AutoFi
The San Francisco-based startup is joining with Chase, the first major US bank to go on the company’s platform. I expect a lot more announcements like this, as banks continue to partner with vc backed companies and build frameworks for such partnerships.
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Report: WhatsApp is testing P2P payments in India, beta rolling out this quarter
Following murmurs from last April about WhatsApp gearing up to allow payments in India, FactorDaily reports that Facebook employees in the country are presently testing the new functionality in the messaging app, and that the company plans to begin testing it with about 1 percent of its user base. Facebook testing out more payments, interesting test-bed to build out business case in India through WhatsApp.
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Cardlytics filed for marketing analytics IPO
Cardlytics has been on file for IPO, multiple sources tell TechCrunch. The Atlanta-based marketing analytics business filed its confidential S-1 last year and has been trying to determine the best time to go public. More IPOs!
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Facebook adds first black board member: American Express' Kenneth Chenault
Facebook is adding American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault to its board. The move is significant for the company: It marks the first black member appointed to Facebook’s currently all-white board. Facebook building a deep bench of senior payments execs - e.g. David Marcus leading messenger and now Kenneth joining the BOD.
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Goldman predicts rise in payments M&A in 2018
Goldman Sachs (GS.N) expects more M&A deals in digital payments this year and on Thursday identified Wirecard (WDIG.DE) and Ingenico (INGC.PA) as potential targets. Payments getting hot again for 2018?
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Bank of America: No More Free Checking for Customers With Low Balances
Bank of America Corp. has eliminated a free checking account popular with some lower-income customers, requiring them to keep more money at the bank to avoid a monthly fee. This month, all remaining eBanking customers with the Charlotte, N.C. There continues to exist a huge opportunity for emerging companies to serve underbanked demographics, especially as large banks begin to focus more on prime customers.
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Goldman takes new steps to boost demand for its personal loans
Goldman Sachs has started marketing its personal loan product as a way to pay for home improvements, the latest step in the New York investment bank’s push to build a consumer lending franchise. Marcus making more moves.
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Japan's Largest Bank to Launch Cryptocurrency Exchange - Bitcoin News
Japan’s largest bank MUFG plans to launch its own cryptocurrency exchange as well as a new cryptocurrency pegged to the Yen. I wonder when we’ll see a bank ICO…
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