This week most of the big fintech news stories revolved around crypto. Although Brex led the week’s news with the announcement of a new software product that had nothing to do with crypto, we also had news from Circle, BlackRock, the DTCC, Moonpay and more. Here are what I consider to be the top ten fintech news stories of the past week.
Fintech Brex bets big on software, lands DoorDash as a customer from TechCrunch – Brex is adding a completely new business line, moving beyond financial services and into software with the launch of Brex Empower. They are also moving upstream to enterprise customers with the announcement of DoorDash as their first big customer.
Circle Raises $400M as BlackRock Explores USDC from CoinDesk – Even though Circle is supposed to be going public via a SPAC soon they have closed another funding round with the likes of BlackRock and Fidelity investing. This is certainly a bullish sign for USDC.
Larry Fink Says BlackRock Is Studying Cryptocurrencies from The Wall Street Journal – Speaking of BlackRock, CEO Larry Fink said in a conference call this week that the world’s largest asset manager has been working with Circle to manage some of its cash reserves and is looking closely at the crypto sector.
Major US Clearing House Experiments with CBDC for Real-Time Settlements from The Defiant – The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is building “Project Lithium”, a CBDC prototype to speed up the clearing and settlement of trades. The DTCC processed an astonishing $2.37 quadrillion worth of securities in 2021 so making settlement more efficient could have some real flow-on benefits.
Justin Bieber, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashton Kutcher are among dozens of celebrity investors piling into crypto startup MoonPay from CNBC – Crypto exchange MoonPay has recruited around 60 celebrities to invest a collective $87 million into the company as an extension of their previous $555 million funding round.
Step to add stock, crypto investing for teens from LendIt Fintech News – Teen financial app Step is adding an investing feature that will allow its users to invest in the stock market as well as crypto (with the permission of their parents).
U.S. Agency Links North Korea Crime Ring to $540 Million Axie Infinity Crypto Hack from The Wall Street Journal – The recent Axie Infinity hack looks like it was perpetrated by the North Korean government with OFAC saying this week that the Lazarus Group is the owner of the crypto address that was used in the hack.
Fireblocks and Fintech Major FIS Bring DeFi to Capital Markets from CoinDesk – FIS, one of the leading technology providers to banks and capital markets firms, is teaming up with crypto custody firm Fireblocks to bring crypto trading and DeFi applications to the broader market.
With Digital Checking, Goldman’s Marcus Looks to Create 153-Year-Old Neobank from PYMNTS.com – Goldman Sachs has made no secret of the fact that it intends to launch a checking account for its Marcus business this year and with 13 million customers it will immediately become a force in the neobank space.
Credit firm TransUnion used deceptive marketing and ‘dark patterns,’ lawsuit alleges from NPR – TransUnion is in hot water with the CFPB as agency chief Rohit Chopra claims the credit reporting agency is repeatedly using deceptive marketing practices. So, the CFPB has filed suit against the company which claims they are doing nothing wrong.
Every Thursday, the LendIt Fintech News team and a special guest discuss the news of the week live on LendIt TV, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. We have now made the show available in podcast format – click on the audio player below.
