As bitcoin prices have exploded upward throughout the beginning of this year, many traditional financial institutions have been forced to one conclusion: cryptocurrency is here to stay. Even if your institution doesn’t plan to deal directly in the space, the need to be knowledgeable about it is becoming an increasing imperative. But it’s a complicated subject – a crowded … [Read more...] about Banks Increasingly Need Crypto Literacy
Local FinTech Deals
Just as all politics is local, all business is ultimately local. National and international media tend to cover the large local companies, which tend to get identified with their country of origin. PayPal is American. Ant Group is Chinese. Wise is British. Klarna is Swedish. Yet the FinTech revolution is going local, as reflected in the following selection of FinTech deals … [Read more...] about Local FinTech Deals
Follow the Money: The Institutional Rise of Crypto and FinTech
Addendum: This quote from 04/21/21 NY Times DealBook supports the general trend: "The public listing of Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., generated a wave of excitement that competitors aim to ride. Among them is Binance.US, the third-ranked domestic crypto exchange, which yesterday named Brian Brooks — formerly Coinbase’s chief counsel and most recently … [Read more...] about Follow the Money: The Institutional Rise of Crypto and FinTech
Navigating Startups from Seed to Series B
The allure of startups has rarely seemed stronger. Much of the tech industry is built on the backs of multi-billion dollar giants that came out of the startup space, and while tech appears to be in the middle of another bubble, the lure of relatively free-flowing investor money is hard to ignore. But what does it take to build a successful startup in this environment? Two … [Read more...] about Navigating Startups from Seed to Series B
China’s Digital Currency and CME’s Bitcoin Micro Contract
This week we feature a guest post from John Browning, founding partner of Hong Kong commodity and financial futures broker BANDS Financial. In reporting on the state of and statistics on the Chinese economy, Browning follows the development by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) of a so-called "digital yuan." We last wrote about it here. The PBOC's effort is gaining enough … [Read more...] about China’s Digital Currency and CME’s Bitcoin Micro Contract
Crypto’s Regulatory Imperative
For many FinTechs, particularly those operating in cutting-edge spaces like blockchain and cryptocurrency, regulation has often been seen as a dirty word; something that can only shackle innovation. But lack of regulation in the blockchain and crypto space has often served as a greater restriction than most actual laws can be, creating an air of uncertainty for companies … [Read more...] about Crypto’s Regulatory Imperative