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Marcel van Oost - FinTech News USA
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REPORT
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
The Securities and Exchange Commission said it has approved proposals for 11 spot bitcoin ETFs on an accelerated basis, in a document that was uploaded to the SEC website.
The document lists 11 spot bitcoin ETFs by Bitwise, Grayscale, Hashdex, BlackRock, Valkyrie, BZX, Invesco, VanEck, WisdomTree, Fidelity and Franklin.
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📰 ARTICLE
💡INSIGHTS
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Thunes expands its leadership to accelerate growth.
⭐️Neobank Dave will pay $71 million to FTX liquidators.
⭐️ Holiday shoppers spent $16.6B online using BNPL according to Adobe.
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FINTECH
Arc Arc Capiis introducingtal Markets — The First Venture Debt Marketplace for Silicon Valley. Through Arc Capital Markets, premium technology companies can apply for up to $250M in debt capital.
Carta, the cap table management outfit, is accused of unethical tactics by a prominent startup. A prominent customer is now accusing Carta of misusing sensitive information.
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Intuit TurboTax integrates with Credit Karma and QuickBooks. These integrations create a more seamless and personalized tax preparation and filing experience for individual tax filers and small business owners.
Big Tech firms begin fight back over regulatory oversight of digital wallets. A US lobby group representing the interests of Big Tech firms has hit out at proposals by the CFPB to regulate tech giants.
Visa adds more digital wallets to CIBC and Simplii global money transfers. The new collaboration will enable the bank’s clients to send funds to family and friends across borders more conveniently.
Digital Business Networks Alliance launches to operate US e-invoicing exchange network. A nonprofit organization that serves as the legal entity overseeing the Exchange Framework.
PAYMENTS
JPMorgan Chase has stopped providing payments services for many long-standing clients of WePay, suggesting a retreat in the bank’s efforts to compete with Stripe.
Visa cracks down on surcharge programs. The company is boosting efforts to enforce surcharge rules, with non-compliance potentially resulting in fines up to $1 million, according to one card processor.
Optty to offer customers Link Money's Pay by Bank tech. Optty’s collaboration will empower its US-based merchant clients and partners to leverage Link Money’s Pay by Bank solution.
A Stripe secondary deal worth paying attention to. TechCrunch+ survey: VCs expect exits to rebound in 2023. The consensus is that Stripe will go public this year.
OPEN BANKING
PortX connects with Plaid. The alliance between Plaid and PortX marks a pivotal moment in the financial technology sector, combining the expertise of two industry leaders to revolutionize.
REGTECH
CFTC takes aim at ID discovery in DeFi. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is urging policymakers to address identity issues in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) operations.
DIGITAL BANKING
Revolut app allegedly wrongly scans users' faces, violating IL biometrics law, class action says. The lawsuit accuses Revolut of improperly scanning users' faces during the application process on their mobile app.
Mastercard collaborates with BaaS platform 4t Wave. The collaboration will leverage 4thWave’s advanced supply chain finance platform for managing B2B payments to benefit Mastercard’s commercial customers
Three failed US banks had one thing in common: KPMG. The trio of bank failures since March has cast a pall over KPMG’s lucrative business as the largest auditor of the US banking sector.
CRYPTO
Visa pilots Web3 customer loyalty platform. Crypto products and partnerships continue to emerge from the payments giant.
Goldman Sachs in talks to manage more bitcoin ETF shares. A spot ETF would create regulated shares that follow bitcoin’s price without investors having to buy the asset directly.
North Korea Was Responsible for Over $600M in Crypto Thefts Last Year: TRM Labs. North Korea-affiliated hackers were involved in a third of all crypto exploits and thefts last year.
Bitcoin ETF planned fees revealed: BlackRock goes low, Grayscale stays high. More fund groups vying to launch spot bitcoin ETFs revealed planned fees that would undercut a low mark previously held by Fidelity.
PayPal stablecoin deployment on Aave sought by Paxos. PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin has struggled to gain a foothold in the top-heavy stablecoin sector.
Crypto and fintech groups fined $5.8bn in global crackdown on illicit money. Penalties for lax controls in 2023 exceed those on traditional finance groups for the first time.
Bitcoin ETFs Could See Up to $100B in Inflows If SEC Approves: Standard Chartered. Analysts predict that a spot bitcoin ETF could see over $1 billion in inflows over just the first quarter.
DONEDEAL
Exponent Founders Capital raises $75M to invest in early-stage startups. as closed on $75 million in capital commitments. The firm, which, raised $50 million for its first fund in November of 2021.
Abbeycross raises $6. 5m in seed round led by Peter Thiel’s Valar to disrupt EM FX infrastructure. The capital will be channeled towards the further development and deployment of the ABX Sync platform.
M&As
Talus Pay acquires Jobox.ai and Clarus Merchant Services. In combination with Jobox and Clarus, Talus Pay now processes more than $9B in annual payments volume for over 22,000 merchant customers across the US.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
BankProv announces leadership shake-up. The firm has welcomed Curt Murray into the role of Assistant Vice President (AVP), Business Banking Officer.
Simon Wilson-Taylor joins FastFin. Wilson-Taylor will leverage his deep institutional fintech expertise to lead groundbreaking sell-side and buy-side innovation projects at FastFin clients.
Nymbus welcomes Jeff Fonda as CFO. His expertise will be instrumental as Nymbus expands its partnerships with banks and credit unions.