Sitemap - 2021 - Fintech Blueprint 🤖🏦🧭

Blueprint: KKR, Goldman, others invest $350MM in custodian Anchorage; Neobank SPACs MoneyLion and Aspiration; Unicorn growth capital for datatech Nansen and Dune Analytics

Podcast Conversation: Pioneering Crypto ETPs to $3B in assets in 3 years, with 21Shares CEO Hany Rashwan

Digital Wealth: Wealth Management Platform FNZ To Raise $1 Billion For Expansion

Long Take: The State of Decentralized network M&A in 2021, with Polygon's $650MM of acquisitions

Blueprint: Coinbase offers DeFi yield to non-Americans; FNZ raising $1B for wealthtech rollup; Mambu banktech gets $266MM at $5B+ valuation

Podcast Conversation: Investing in real estate, crypto, and startups using your retirement account, with Rocket Dollar CEO Henry Yoshida

Digital Wealth: Santander to launch SigFig-powered Roboadvisor

Long Take: What Goldman's institutional financial cloud on Amazon means for embedded finance

Blueprint: Square & Twitter Web3 plans; Digit neobank sold for $240MM; Ritholtz, WisdomTree, Onramp launch Crypto Index SMA

Podcast Conversation: Origins of Metamask's 20 million Web3 users, with co-founder Dan Finlay

Digital Wealth: Moneyfarm B2B Digital Wealth Platform For UK Advisers

Discussion: What will Stripe do in crypto?

Blueprint: Experian's $350MM+ shopping trip; Damien Hirst and Drake's NFT dividend; $9B valuation for Pokemon GO metaverse maker

Podcast Conversation: Powering the FX behind Africa's trillion-dollar growth, with Aza CEO Elizabeth Rossiello

Digital Wealth: UK's Freetrade Surpasses Crowdfunding Goal By 800% with 1MM customers, £1B in assets

Long Take: World Economic Forum CBDC analysis in the era of Populism, Institutionalism, and Hofstede's Cultural DNA

Blueprint: ConstitutionDAO defeated by Ken Griffin of Citadel; public Nubank airdrop; $200MM ConsenSys raise

Podcast Conversation: Digitizing banks with better BNPL, Underwriting, and Anti-Fraud Tech, with Amount CEO Adam Hughes

Digital Wealth: Wealthfront Exploring Sale at Valuation of $1.5 Billion

Long Take: The role of Alameda and Cumberland as USDT market makers

Blueprint: 72% HNWI invest in crypto; $725M Funding for Blockchain Gaming; $1.4B in Axie's market maker; $29MM Beeple astronaut statue; Ripple's gamble

Podcast Conversation: DAOs 101, with SharkDAO, PartyDAO, and Juicebox contributor Nicholas

Digital Wealth: Abrdn seeks to buy £55B AUM Interactive Investor for £1.5B

Long Take: Plaid's payments ecosystem & Affirm's decoupled debit card reveal embedded finance Trojan Horse

Blueprint & Digital Wealth: Google invests $1B into CME Group; Revolut crypto exchange; $10B valuation from SoftBank for $40B+ AUM Grayscale holdco

Podcast Conversation: Building a $15B+ embedded loan management platform, with LoanPro CEO Rhett Roberts

Welcome Digital Wealth Week!

Long Take: Why Facebook is domain squatting on the Metaverse

Blueprint: 🔥Fintech 2021🔥 $100B+ year with 100 $100MM+ deals; Nubank going public; Alchemy's $250MM a16z round for crypto infra

Podcast Conversation: Chainlink Co-Founder Sergey Nazarov on building the global decentralized oracle network powering DeFi and Web3

DeFi 2.0 Primer (part 2): Tokemak aims to aggregate and improve market making, like a decentralized Citadel

Blueprint: Why PayPal wants 450 million Pinterest users; $9B N26, $12B Brex, $25B FTX are the new finance

Podcast Conversation: How China is winning the race in Fintech, Payments, and CBDCs, with Fintech expert Richard Turrin

DeFi 2.0 Primer (part 1): Rise of Protocol Owned Liquidity and Olympus DAO mechanics

The Blueprint: SEC allows Bitcoin futures ETF and Bitcoin lender Celsius gets $400MM @$3B; Coinbase & Sotheby's offering NFT platforms; Traditional paytech IPOs still doing great

Podcast Conversation: Scaling Web3 with the $10B+ Polygon protocol, with COO Sandeep Nailwal

Long Take: The Law of Unintended Consequences via Wells Fargo, Divergence Ventures, DeFi designs, and the Federal Reserve

Short Takes: $30B+& 5MM users for Bank of America via Life Plan; Direct Indexing acquisitions by Vanguard & BEN; FTX LedgerX buy powers crypto futures

Podcast Conversation: CEO of Yield App, Tim Frost, on integrating DeFi Yield products into a regulated Fintech company

Long Take: User-Generated Finance and Cultural Financial Instruments, via Snoop Dogg, Dapper Labs, and $1.5B Decentralized Social

Short Takes: SocGen's $20MM DeFi loan from Maker; $1.3B Alloy powering Brex, Ramp; TikTok NFTs from Lil Nas X, Gary Vee, Grimes

Podcast Conversation: Robinhood's order flow disrupting equities and crypto market structure, with Paul Rowady of Alphacution

Long Take: Will Paypal's digital wallet beat Google Pay and Square Cash App on shopping & banking?

Short Takes: China bans Bitcoin (again!) & surveils Ant Group lender; $36 trillion custodian State Street's $3.5B deal; NFT royalty model and crypto Twitter tips are here

Podcast Conversation: What's next in Web3? Tachyon Accelerator's MD Gabriel Anderson on early stage in NFTs, DeFi, & Crypto

Short Takes: Sorare raises $680M; Revolut copies Robinhood PFOF model; Goldman to buy $2.2B Greensky; Coinbase's crypto futures play; QED Investors' $1B fintech fund; the role of Conversational AI

Long Take: Unlocking Demand-side growth with Square's payment network and Goldman's GreenSky acquisition

Podcast Conversation: NVIDIA's Kevin Levitt on Artificial Intelligence, deep learning, and its role in financial services

Short Takes: Beijing breaks up Alipay; SEC vs. Congress; PayPal buys Japanese BNPL Paidy for $2.7B; Varo bank hits $2.5B val; Audius showcases Solana NFTs; Insurance DeFi Cover shuts down

Long Take: The principle behind Mastercard's CipherTrace acquisition, L1 growth, and IRS getting your bank data

Podcast Conversation: Art Blocks CEO Erick Calderon on Generative Art, Blockchains, and the NFT movement

Short Takes: PayPal's new trading service; SEC investigates Uniswap; Binance.us's 2024 IPO; First chartered bank offers bitcoin services; Sberbank's digital asset tool; YC Alumni Jeeves raises $57M

Long Take: Financial Mythmaking with $200MM of Loot NFTs and their growing world

Podcast Conversation: Metaverse 101 with Lex Sokolin and Cris Sheridan, Sr. Editor of Financial Sense

Short Takes: NuBank's $55B IPO; PayPal UK launches crypto; Amazon/Affirm BNPL; Deposits on Google Pay amidst departures; Blockstream valued at $3.2B; .com domains for crypto trading;

Long Take: OnlyFans bank-forced adult content ban, its failure, and the Metaphysics of Finance

Industry Roundtable: Is Fintech or DeFi Bigger? And Who eats Whom? Hosted by The Defiant

Short Takes: Visa buy a Cryptopunk, Chime valued at $25B, A neobank for musicians, Aspiration's $2.3B SPAC, Crypto exchanges lose $690M in hacks, SuperRare launch token, and Social VR Games

Long Take: Creating, Transacting, and Storing Value in the Financial Metaverse of NFTs, DAOs, and DeFi

Podcast Conversation: Altruist CEO Jason Wenk on WealthTech, financial planning, advice, and generally improving financial health

Short Takes: Buffett-backed Bank's $2B IPO; Reddit worth $10B; Football tokens crash exchange; Pelosi to revise US crypto tax definition; China favor science over big tech; Fintech continues to rise!

Long Take: Global and Crypto Macroeconomics in August 2021, from GDP to BTC to Web3

Podcast Conversation: Treasury Prime CEO Chris Dean on Banking-as-a-service, embedded finance, and the evolution of FinTech API infrastructure

Short Takes: JPM's private bitcoin fund; Messari raises $21M from P72; Circle to become National Bank; Indian fintech unicorns; NFTs hit $1.2B in July; London's Burning ETH

Long Take: Acquisition arbitrage between public and private fintech revenues, highlighted by Figure and Starling

Podcast Conversation: Sheila Warren of the World Economic Forum on the 4th Industrial Revolution, the role of Law, Government, and DAOs, and the Creator Economy

Short Takes: $29B Afterpay bought by Square; Figure and Starling acquire mortgage biz; Rapyd gets $300MM; Paxos worth $2.4B; Investors Bancorp's $3.5B acquisition; Metaverse DEX; Stoner Cats NFT Fail

Long Take: What do SPACs and IPOs say about Coinbase, Robinhood, Lemonade, SoFi, and other fintech darlings?

Podcast Conversation: Step CEO CJ MacDonald on building the leading Gen-Z bank, TikTok influencers, and money culture

Short Takes: Visa buys Currencycloud for £700m; Fireblocks worth $2.2B; Uniswap delists security-like tokens; Maker decentralizes; Nasdaq Private Markets; Insurtech valuations and exits

Long Take: Getting ahead in Facebook's Metaverse by earning the Harvard of NFTs

Podcast Conversation: eToro CEO Yoni Assia on the purpose of investing, crypto assets, and building a $10B fintech

Short Takes: Exchange extravaganza - $9B Bullish SPAC, $18B valuation for FTX; Revolut raises $800MM @$33B; EU & US digital currencies; NFT Sports Sorare gets $532MM; Apple & GS partner on BNPL

Long Take: The difference between Gen Z and Millennial online culture, resulting in DAOs, decentralization, and creative financial communities

Food for Thought: Hallucinating Art and Finance with CLIP, VQGAN, and Big Sleep

Short Takes: $14B Wise partners with Monzo; Google fintech in Japan; Bunq neobank for expats €1.6B; Messari's Web3 & NFT Report; BoFA & Fidelity hiring in crypto; Schwab's potential $200M robo fine

Long Take: The fundamentals of Circle's $4.5B SPAC, Robinhood's IPO, and the $30B of fintech venture capital

Podcast Conversation: Fintech venture investing after a career in the US treasury and Wall St equity research, with Patrick Pinschmidt of MiddleGame Ventures

Short Takes: Robinhood's $520MM of Q1 revenue; JPM invest in Brazil neobank & buy OpenInvest; EY & SkyBridge Capital Ethereum plays; Drake ❤️ Aspiration; Crypto Metaverse music festival

Long Take: Luxury and Fashion market structure applied to finance, NFTs, and DAOs

Podcast Conversation: Building the best payments fiat to crypto onramp, with Ivan Soto-Wright of MoonPay

Short Takes: DeFi 4% rates via Compound, Circle, Current, Coinbase; Revolut to launch roboadviser; Andreessen $2.2B cryptofund; B2C audience rounds for SmartAsset ($100MM) & ClearScore ($200MM)

Long Take: The Fintech tipping point is here -- Visa's $2B Tink acquisition, Dave neobank $4B SPAC, and Revolut's 15MM users in context

Podcast Conversation: Inspiring creativity, collaboration, and visual conversation by harnessing decentralized tech, with Beatriz Helena Ramos of DADA.art

Short Takes: Revolut's $280M loss; China kills 90% of local crypto mining; Securitize gets $48MM from MS; JPM acuires UK robo; Blend (banking), Addepar (wealth), Tractable (insurtech) are unicorns

Long Take: What the market misses about Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2021

Food for Thought: A meditation on capitalism, the grey goo, and the Borganisms

Short Takes: Polygon's 7 million daily transactions; Scalable Capital valued at $1.4B; Square competitor Clip raises $250M; Crypto investment managers Bitwise gets $70MM, Set $14MM, InstaDApp $10MM

Long Take: The links between tech, commerce, and finance behind Klarna's $45B valuation and Pinduoduo's $150B marketcap

Podcast Conversation: From ecommerce to a million+ global financial community, with Maximilian Rofagha of Finimize

Short Takes: El Salvador crowns Bitcoin as national legal tender; Dave banking app SPACed at $4B; BlockFi looks to $5B valuation; Truebill gets $45MM; Square crypto wallet

Long Take: Purpose of Identity, its connection to finance, and implementations in the Euro digital wallet and DeFi protocols

Podcast Conversation: Developing regenerative finance using memes for the public good, with Kevin Owocki of Gitcoin

Short Takes: GameStop NFTs; Opera browser paytech spinout OPay raises $400MM; Talos gets $40MM from PayPal & Fidelity for inst crypto trading; Nebraska's crypto banks; Stash looking at public markets

Long Take: The $2.2 billion Acorns SPAC and a $50 billion fintech roll-up strategy for public funds

Podcast Conversation: The software stack powering Capital Markets and its coming transformation, with Horacio Barakat of Broadridge

Short Takes: Starling's £50MM from Goldman; Figure's $200MM raise & Provenance chain; FTX targets $20B valuation; Wealthechs popular again with Altruist & Vise, BNPLs surge

Long Take: Bitcoin price falling doesn't mean what Paul Krugman claims

Podcast Conversation: Rob Leshner of Compound on creating a multi-billion DeFi lending protocol, and innovation under constraint

Short Takes: Coinbase's DeFi extension; Facebook Diem & Silvergate; $1B valuation for banktech Amount and $2B Ethos life insurtech; Zapper raises $15MM; Amazon palm scanner; Burning Shiba

Long Take: Marqeta's $300MM of revenue & Ethereum's $20B in ann. transaction fees highlight opportunity and industry structure

Podcast Conversation: Digital banking opportunities across geographies and generations, with Will Beeson of Bella

Short Takes: eBay to sell NFTs & Filecoin launches NFT.Storage; HoneyBook raises $155MM @$1.1B; Bitso raises $250MM @$2.2B; Uniswap v3 launch; Goldman invests in CoinMetrics

Long Take: Lessons from Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Galaxy Digital, and the emerging DAOs for building a Fintech empire

Podcast Conversation: Decentralized Identity and the Metaverse, with Michael Sena of The Ceramic Network

Short Takes: Galaxy buys BitGo for $1B+; Paxos raises $300MM @$2.4B; Neobank Vivid Money raises $60MM; $13B staked to secure Eth2.0; AI tax software and avatar influencers

Long Take: The top 5 NFT trends for 2021, and current state of the NFT market

Podcast Conversation: Scaling B2B cross-border payments and the competition between global payment rails, with Marwan Forzley of Veem

Short Takes: UiPath's $35B of robots; $140MM Ethereum ETFs & Paxos Fed Bank Charter; Ant Group powers China CBDC; Pagaya's $8B Credit AI SPAC; Neobank funds $100MM for Step, $220MM for Current

Long Take: What TikTok's GenZ financial influencers mean for RIAs, wealthtech, and financial advice

Podcast Conversation: Building the foundational money DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) in DeFi, with Rune Christensen of Maker Foundation

Short Takes: Folly of innovation clowns; $270MM from Goldman for Brazilian credit; N26 offers insurance; Gemini $25B under custody and Galaxy+BitGo; DBS AI-powered financial advice

Long Take: Grab's $40 billion SPAC in the context of Uber's borked neobank, Apple's iOS, and Ant Financial's superapp

Podcast Conversation: Building global paytech companies and communities with Anil Aggarwal of TxVia, Money2020, and Fintech Meetup

Short Takes: Will Coinbase trade $65B+?; Plaid worth $14B; Indian FinTech Groww & Ramp unicorns; MicroStrategy pays board in BTC & NYSE sells NFTs; SoftBank invests $500M in mortgageco Better.com

Long Take: The "fundamental" economic design driving crypto valuation to $2 trillion

Podcast Conversation: Building blockchain money and sustainable economies, with former Supervisory Board Chairman of the Icelandic Central Bank and Co-founder of Monerium, Jon Egilsson

Short Takes: Coinbase $1.8B in Q1 revenue; Caribbean and China CBDC growing; SME insurer Next Insurance worth $4B; AI-powered receivables fintech HighRadius raises $300M

Long Take: Getting paid now for future performance with Pipe's $150MM raise and BitClout's $200MM of Bitcoin

Podcast Conversations: Fintech One on One with Peter Renton (on DeFi/NFTs), Planet Economics with Jack Allinson (on entrepreneurship), and Bully Esquire Podcast with Crypto Bully (on MetaMask)

Short Takes: Fidelity & Goldman fight for Bitcoin ETF; Fintechs raise $44B; ConsenSys launches NFT studio; DapperLabs & Blockchain.com get $300MM; 4 million transactions for Digital Yuan

Long Take: Are the NFT and DeFi markets recreating traditional human hierarchies through new social capital?

Food for Thought: Uniswap's V3 upgrade, the future of Automated Market Makers, and the financial compression algorithm

Short Takes: Robinhood's market listing follows Chime & eToro; Vanguard/Ant roboadvisor at 1MM users; crypto infra Fireblocks raises $133MM; Thailand & Australia up fintech regs; NFT farts for sale

Long Take: Understanding the Fintech user growth behind the $10.4 billion eToro SPAC and coming Chime IPO vs. the melting Megabanks

Podcast Conversation: Camila Russo of The Defiant and author of The Infinite Machine discusses crypto journalism, writing about Ethereum's inception, $69M NFTs, and building a DeFi community

Short Takes: Stripe is now worth $95B; Starling valued at $1.9B after raising $376MM; BlockFi gets $350MM at $3B; a16z invests in NFT marketplace; FIS will pay off your student loans

Long Take: The battle for Chinese Fintech as China highlights blockchain in Five Year Plan, ramps up Ant and Tencent regulation, phases in e-CNY

Podcast Conversation: Joe Lubin, ConsenSys CEO and Ethereum co-founder discusses AI, macroeconomics, philosophy, and the future of the $200 billion Ethereum network

Short takes: Betterment's $200MM AUM WealthSimple acquisition; $70B AUM AssetMark buys finplanner Voyant for $142MM; Greensill is insolvent; McAfee Indicted; Amazon now supporting Ethereum

Long Take: Why Square bought Jay Z's music service Tidal for $300MM, and how the NFT-driven transformation of music royalties and ownership can explain this future

Podcast Conversation: How a moment on the NYC 6 train turned into using NFTs in the $74T supply chain industry before NFTs were cool, with Tyler Mulvihill of EulerBeats

Short Takes: Klarna worth $30B+; crypto custodian Anchorage raises $80MM, Curv selling for $200-500MM to PayPal; Sorare gets $50MM for NFT football collectibles; and your wooden debit card

Long Take: The Federal Reserve Payment Processor, its $100B of revenue, and whether blockchains and L2s can match the value it settles

Podcast Conversation: $60B digital capital markets, crypto law and regulation, and Ethereum Layer 2 scaling, with Pat Berarducci

Short takes: $35B USDT issuer Bitfinex settles @$19MM; TransferWise rebrands as Wise pre-IPO, Fintech Browser Wars with Opera & Brave; Mark Cuban, Gary V and Christies love NFTs; Crypto SEC & Fed now

Long Take: Why Coinbase's $100B+ valuation makes sense, and how to compare it to $60B Ethereum DeFi, and to crypto-king Binance

Podcast Conversation: The $250M of non-fungible tokens and the $200MM crypto neo-cyberpunk art market for digital objects (e.g., Beeple, NBA Top Shots), with emerging financial features

Short Takes: $30B Klarna valuation, Amazon crypto in Mexico, PayPal & Goldman Sachs roboadvisors, Cream/Alpha $37MM exploit; Binance Chain $24B volume; Rabobank to cut 5,000 jobs

Long Take: How $12 Billion in Fintech SPAC capital is teaching us about the economics of target unicorns like Payoneer, Apex, SoFi, and MoneyLion

Podcast Conversation: How M1 Finance's $3B AUM super-app is outcompeting Wealthfront, Robinhood, and Schwab, with CEO Brian Barnes

Short takes: Tesla's $1.5B of Bitcoin treasury, $3.3B Payoneer SPAC, $3.4B Robinhood and $125MM Stash raises, China anti-monopoly fintech regulation, Apple's VR headset leak

Long Take: Non-fungible tokens and crypto art (like Hashmasks) will create multi-billion markets for digital objects with financial features

Podcast Conversation: The post-FinTech New American Finance, and Robinhood’s $3.4B support of an 8MM-strong Reddit army that cost Wall Street $7B, with Will Beeson of Bella

Short takes: $4T AUM InvestCloud supergroup; Coinbase $90B AUC and Nasdaq direct listing, $9B Trustly paytech IPO, NFT Hashmasks raise ETH 7,600 ($12MM) and other crypto art; Fall of IBM blockchain

Long Take: How the Internet/Reddit/GameStop broke our financial market structure, the social contract, and what comes next

Podcast Conversation: The path from institutional finance (Goldman) to enterprise blockchain (PwC) to the $26B edge of DeFi innovation (Aave) with Ajit Tripathi

Short takes: $390MM Capital One fine, GS Marcus is a $100B neobank; BlackRock ❤️ Bitcoin; Yearn v2; Grab's $2B IPO; ARK Invest Big Ideas; and your NFT Rick & Morty

Long Take: What 1840s "Free Banking" and the 1910s Cubist movement suggests about DeFi and economic machine evolution

Podcast Conversation: Embedded Finance as a $7 trillion market opportunity for banks in the business of suffering, with Simon Torrance

Short takes: Jack Ma alive; UBS placing $400MM in Paytm; Curve closes $95MM; Coinbase acquires Bison Trails for $80MM+; Anchorage is a bank; Expose on USDT in Bitcoin

Long Take: Explaining ~100x revenue multiples for Affirm, Checkout, Rapyd, and other fintech companies using systems theory

Podcast Conversation: Who wins and loses in the Plaid/Visa divorce, and the $10 Billion in new Fintech SPACs (Spakkt and Spofi), with Will Beeson

Short takes: $5B Plaid and Visa deal falls apart, $9B Affirm IPO, $1.7B Mambu, SPACs for SoFi and Bakkt, Walmart & Ribbit mystical fintech announcement

Long Take: How the OCC is building Crypto America and saving banks from extinction

Food for Thought: Lessons for banking and finance from video game interface design

Short takes: Banks can operate blockhain networks and use stablecoins; DeFi at $20B TVL; Venmo cashes checks; Cred worth $800MM; $2B Quibi is dead; Japan distances from China

Long Take: What do Bitcoin, Ethereum, GDP, unemployment, and Covid have in common in 2021?