This Week In Fintech Ending 23 April 2021

Republished By Plato

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This week our experts brought you the following insights based on their experience as investors, entrepreneurs & executives.

Monday Ilias Hatzis @iliashatzis our Greece-based crypto entrepreneur (Founder & CEO at Kryptonio, a “keyless” non-custodial bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallet, that lets users manage bitcoin and crypto without private keys or passwords) wrote Are crypto startups less risky now?

While the crypto industry is still in its infancy, lately it’s been seeing a lot of growth. Venture capital funding in crypto and blockchain startups is expected to break new records in 2021. The results for the first quarter of this year has been impressive, regardless on your source of data. Research from CB Insights shows that $2.6 billion was raised by 129 blockchain-focused startups during the first quarter of 2021. PitchBook data shows that VC investment in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups hit a record $3 billion in Q1 2021 across 239 deals. No matter which figures you look at, the results for this quarter blow away the $2.3 billion raised from 341 deals for the whole of 2020. Coinbase’s direct listing a few days ago on April 14, was another indication of the success of digital assets, particularly cryptocurrencies. The Coinbase IPO really helps bring in a mainstream audience and develop their understanding both in terms of how crypto operates and the technology behind it. Viewing it from another angle, Coinbase is going to force traditional finance to wrestle with the phenomenal growth that is taking place in crypto. This is only going to intensify as more money from VCs pours in to crypto startups.

Editor note: This bull market leads to a growing ecosystem of investors and trade sale acquirers.

Bernard Lunn, CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy wrote: This crypto-in a-suit bull market will NOT end like the two previous bull markets.

We are in the crypto-in a-suit bull market, made glorious by Coinbase joining the Fintech 50 Index last week..

A suit is the uniform of corporate life but we are not defined by our uniform. Years ago, during a crypto bear market I was at a conference of legacy finance folks. I was the token crypto bull on the panel. A fellow panelist said to me “I am representing a bank which is anti Bitcoin, but that is company policy not what I think”. In other words, humans put on a suit but we are not suits.

Editor note: Read this if you want the two early warning signs that this crypto bull market is coming to an end.

Bernard Lunn, CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy wrote: Are Security Tokens now called Stock Tokens and are they like like an ADR on a legacy exchange?

Nerdy headlines like that will get me a stern lecture from our CMO about generating more page views from clickbait.

In what seems like an eon ago (on 3rd March 2021), I wrote in 4-parter on Coinbase “IPO” – Part 1 = 5 Reasons Why It Matters

“The Coinbase “IPO” (actually a Direct Listing) is where the three worlds collide:

Silicon Valley VC – the old Wild West

Cryptoworld – the new Wild West

Wall Street – the old Regulated East”

Now we see this happening in the news that Binance Will Open Trading for Coinbase Stock Token (COIN)

Editor note: why did Coinbase not eat its own dog food and list as a crypto stock token?

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Tuesday Bernard Lunn, CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy wrote:4-part series on Digital Identity. Part 3 = JoQPublic says this is about the trade-off between privacy & convenience.

Do you do passwords properly (long & complex & frequently changed)? Or do you think life is too short, so you entrust your identity to some service that becomes your gateway to the Internet? Do you find it a bit disturbing that these services know your most intimate secrets, but you are too busy to focus on this?

If so you are one of 8 billion people who wrestle with the trade-off between security and productivity. Welcome to the world of Digital Identity, which is trying to find a solution for you.

Editor note: You want it all – privacy AND security AND productivity and many vendors are working hard to give you that.

Bernard Lunn, CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy wrote: OOPS! The market just lost over $25 billion of Coinbase (COIN) stock

Coinbase Market Cap was listed incorrectly and all major news sources reported this bad data as fact.

Bear with me while I go a bit nerdy to describe how all these trusted sources got it so badly wrong. $25 billion difference is a big mistake.

This is NOT about the trading price per share. At market close on Friday it was $342. All financial sites reported that consistently.

I am not here prognosticating about how much Coinbase should be worth based on it’s business prospects, disruption blah blah. Plenty of people are doing that and I have no desire to add to that digital landfill.

How do we at Daily Fintech know this? Error messages from our Fintech 50 Index system smacked us in the face!

Editor note: We don’t go looking for scoops, but this one found us!

Wednesday Alan Scott Managing Director EMEA at 24 Exchange @Alan_SmartMoney wrote his weekly snapshot of the news that matters in the Stablecoin market.

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Thursday

Rintu Patnaik, an Insurtech expert based in India, wrote: Lloyds Market’s Extended Innovation Factory: Lab’s Cohort 6

Lloyd’s Lab is an accelerator launched in September 2018 by Lloyds, the insurance market. After intensive global talent searches that attract several hundred applications, selected companies receive privileged access to its market for specialist insurance and reinsurance. These teams are tasked with driving innovative solutions to unique challenges the market faces. Over a ten week period, teams are proffered guidance as they develop products, platforms and processes to potentially transform Lloyd’s. The start-ups receive expert support from market participants, catalyzing development of ideas for their unique needs.

Editor note:Lloyds is a fascinating innovation ecosystem to study . It has been an ecosystem since well before that word was trendy.

Christian Dreyer @x3er, our Swiss based CFA who focusses on how XBRL changes our world wrote his weekly snapshot of the news that matters in the XBRL market.

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Friday Howard Tolman, a well-known banker, technologist and entrepreneur in London. wrote: his weekly snapshot of the news that matters in the Alt Lendng market.

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Your Editor is Bernard Lunn. He is also the CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy and occasional opinion columnist.

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