The use cases of blockchain technology has increased significantly in 2017; Business Insider looks at how the technology behind bitcoin is being used in international payments, capital markets, trade finance, regulation, money laundering, insurance and peer to peer transaction; they also look at other industries like healthcare, real estate, media, energy and more. Source.
Goldman Sachs first entered the market with the acquisition of GE Bank and the subsequent launch of GS bank; Tearsheet explores their other moves in the market more recently in fintech; Goldman Sachs has invested in 23 fintech startups and is the only top ten bank that has hit every category in its investments: blockchain, data analytics, insurance, personal finance, wealth management, financial services software, lending, payments and settlement, real estate and regulatory technology. Source
American Banker shares some of the companies that may stand to benefit from the Equifax hack as identity verification becomes top of mind; Mitek is planning to roll out a new product called Mobile Verify for Lending; other companies that have similar solutions include Trulioo, VixVerify and AuthenticID. Source
Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said he thinks bitcoin is “certainly something more than just a fad,” according to a Bloomberg report; he also stated that the concept of anonymous currency is interesting because of the privacy it provides; while he has yet to invest in the technology he does see more regulatory control coming soon. Source.
Chime raises $18mn in a series B fundraise from Cathay Innovation, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Crosslink Capital and more; Chime is a digital banking app focused on millennials by not charging monthly fees or overdraft charges; they make money on transactions and thus far have over 500,000 customers. Source.
Envestnet | Yodlee discusses their recent webinar Leveraging Alternative Data to Energize Your Lending Portfolio; speakers included Jason O’Shaughnessy, Senior Vice President, EMEA & Australia, Envestnet | Yodlee; Phil Grady, CEO of Castlight Financial; Roger Vincent, Head of Banking & Innovation, Equifax; and Venkat Srinivasan, Head of Lending for Monzo; Gary Wright, Director of Content, Finextra moderated the webinar; the on-demand webinar is available for those that missed the live event. Source
Peter Renton, Founder of Lend Academy provides a summary of the second annual Online Lending Policy Summit which covered a wide variety of topics around regulation for fintech companies. Source
Fortress Alum Mike Novogratz is starting a $500mn hedge fund to invest in cryptocurrencies, ICOs and other companies in the blockchain space; he will start the fund with $150mn of his own money and raise the rest from family offices, fund managers and wealthy individuals; “This is going to be the largest bubble of our lifetimes,” Novogratz said to Bloomberg. "You can make a whole lot of money on the way up, and we plan on it.” Source.
The collaborative paper between ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and developer Jason Teutsch, creator of smart contract scalability project TrueBit, would produce what CoinDesk says is a potentially transformative protocol for ICOs; the new protocol would allow buyers the option to analyze bids on token sales; they are still early on in their development. Source.
Fred Wilson is urging investors to diversify their bitcoin assets before the crash comes; while he does not offer a timeframe for when this might occur he does think diversification will protect those who are heavily invested; he is a believer in the crypto markets in general and thinks they add value to a portfolio. Source.