Fintech Focus For February 23, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: “Bitcoin prices have continued their meteoric rise with Tesla, BNY Mellon and Mastercard’s announcements of greater acceptance of cryptocurrencies,” JPMorgan said in a research note last week.

“But fintech innovation and increased demand for digital services are the real Covid-19 story with the rise of online start-ups and expansion of digital platforms into credit and payments.”

Source: CNBC

One Big Thing In Fintech: Incapital, an underwriter and distributor of fixed-income and market-linked securities, and 280 CapMarkets, a technology company providing best-execution trading support and price transparency, are merging to create InspereX, a financial technology-focused broker-dealer.

Source: The Bond Buyer

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Coinbase, Stripe valued over $100B.
• MoneyLion CEO on fintech solutions.
• Apex Clearing to go public via SPAC.
• Virtu Financial a DMM for BTC ETF.
• Bitcoin’s big run and fintech impacts.
• EquityBee taps $20M for equity tech.
• MoneyGram suspended Ripple pact.
• EliData combines with Virtu RFQ-hub.
• China to tighten online lending rules.
• Bitcoin crash triggers DeFi liquidation.
• Startup Earnix has hit unicorn status.
• JPMorgan has invested into Zanbato.
• MSCI, Microsoft team on SaaS tech.
• dYdX founder unpacked ETH scaling.
• Broadridge launches lending market.
• TD digital asset head joined the Fed.
• How open banking drives innovation.
• Post-Brexit Britain plots fintech boom.
• Trade Republic is not like Robinhood.
• Currency.com added to 2020 growth.
• FUNDtastic landed a $7.7M Series A.
• TradeZero on post-COVID strategies.

Watch Out For This: Porsche’s Vice President Motorsport and GT cars, Dr. Frank Walliser, stated that the company has been envisioning something called eFuel, a synthetic fuel that would have the same carbon output as an electric car. Testing is supposed to start off in 2022, and it would be possible to use this fuel in any internal combustion car without having to go through the lengthy—and expensive—process of converting it.

Source: Jalopnik

Interesting Reads:

• 3 tips for businesses looking to scale.
• BA suspends 777 after engine failure.
• The impact of post-COVID innovation.
• Citi planning to cut down its operation.
• Spotify to launch newer subscriptions.
• The losing battle against fake product.

Market Moving Headline: U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were up at 1.36% on Monday. Since the beginning of February, 10-year yields have risen about 26 basis points, on track for their largest monthly gain in three years.

“Investors are a little nervous about Treasury yields rising so quickly and it has been a pretty quick move in a short period of time,” said Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist at Ally Invest, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“What investors are grappling with ... is what does this mean from an inflation perspective. Because of that, there’s a little bit of tantrum in the market right now,” she added.

Source: Reuters