Fintech Focus For February 22, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: “I think we’ve positioned ourselves as the finance super app because I don’t think people want to go to four, five, and six different solutions to manage their money,” M1 Finance marketing vice president Bob Armour said.

“We’re a place for investing, borrowing, spending, and credit.”

Source: Bob Armour

One Big Thing In Fintech: When typically discussed, blockchain lacks a utility component.

That’s what Morpher CEO Martin Fröhler is looking to change. Fröhler is a mathematician, with a background in quantitative finance, specializing in research and trading algorithms. After founding a decentralized quantitative hedge fund in Silicon Valley, Martin co-developed the Morpher Protocol to replicate the trading of any market, on the blockchain, without actually trading underlying assets.

In the simplest way, Morpher cuts out the middleman -- brokers, exchanges, and counterparties -- allowing market participants the ability to trade assets, with infinite liquidity, on an incorruptible protocol. The solution cuts the costs associated with fixed liquidity, enabling participants, globally, to transact any asset, fractionally, with leverage and no fees.

“Our goal is to democratize trading and investing as a whole,” the CEO said. “Morpher provides global access to anyone who trades on limited markets, with infinite liquidity.”

Source: Benzinga

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Fintech Spotlight: Meet M1 Finance.
• Fintech Spotlight: What is Morpher?
• M1, Acorns, Public see big sign-ups.
• May crypto retail be generating risk?
• Boson Protocol, Royale teamed up.
• Google introducing pay for parking.
• Diginex adding digital asset access.
• France emerging as fintech hotspot.
• Mastercard, Island Pay eye a CBDC.
• Citadel’s Ken Griffin supporting T+1.
• Coinbase stock is trading at $100B.
• Brex applies for charter, taps talent.
• NYDIG files to create a new BTC ETF.
• Bitcoin breaks $50K, Coinbase IPO.
• NBA All-Star leads Varo investment.

Watch Out For This: Another week and the biggest story in a sea of big stories continues to center on SPACs, these blank-check companies that raise capital through IPOs expressly to acquire a privately held company and take it public. But some industry watchers as starting to wonder: Is the party just getting started, with more early guests still trickling in?

Have we reached the party’s peak, with the music still thumping? Or did someone just quietly barf in the corner, an indicator it’s time to wrap things up before something worse happens?

Source: TechCrunch

Interesting Reads:

• Uber has lost the U.K. legal challenge.
• Bill Gates on plan for climate change.
• Signal sees a record pace in growth.
• How drones have added to conflicts.
• U.S. on engaging with the euro area.
• Facebook news in Australia now dark.
• A U.S. vaccine surge is coming soon.
• Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine distribution.
• Laws “Uber-izing” the U.S. workforce.
• WhatsApp detailing privacy changes.
• The best stock education newsletters.

Market Moving Headline: U.S. stock index futures auctioned lower last week.

Key Takeaways:

- Debt, inflation threatening low-rate regime.

- Markets most complacent in two decades.

- Sentiment turns hot from hotter amid slide.

- Global equity fund net inflows decelerated.

- Markets fret about economic performance.

- Retail sales and industrial production gain.

In the coming sessions, participants will want to pay attention to the VWAP anchored from the S&P 500's $3,959.25 overnight rally-high and $3,909.25 high-volume area.

In the best case, the S&P 500 opens and remains above the $3,909.25 volume area.

Additionally, auctioning above the $3,915.00 VWAP would suggest buyers, on average, are in control and winning, since the February 15 rally high.

For more on next week's trade in the S&P 500, see the link below.

Source: Physik Invest