Fintech Focus For June 18, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: "A man is but what he knows.”

Source: Sir Francis Bacon

One Big Thing In Fintech: At the end of May, the total market capitalization of stablecoins, which include ones offered by crypto firms Tether and Centre, broke $100 billion.

But in recent weeks, lawmakers and officials from the Federal Reserve and the administration have expressed alarm both in public and private that some consumers won’t actually be protected should one of the firms not have the backing they purport to have. They also say the growing size of stablecoins has created a situation where huge amounts of U.S. dollar-equivalent coins are being exchanged without touching the U.S. banking system, potentially blinding regulators to illicit finance.

Source: Bloomberg

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• eMoney Advisor plans for a summit.
• Integritee added $2M seed funding.
• Circle partnered with maps platform.
• Wedbush joins Paxos’s settlement.
• Visa, Mastercard facing suit on fees.
• Neobank aims to assist gig workers.
• Score adds Sterling Pro integration.
• VanEck invested in CryptoCompare.
• JPMorgan purchasing robo Nutmeg.
• Yodlee has updated developer tech.
• Cboe combines MATCHNow, BIDS.
• AppZen innovates with an AI patent.
• Unit added $51M in Series B round.
• TRM Labs adds new $14M Series A.
• MoneyGram hit record transactions.
• Credijusto acquired Banco Finterra.
• Cross River Bank adds venture arm.
• AptPay eys to disrupt fintech startup.
• SynFutures raises a $14M Series A.
• Goldman’s Marcus finding next CFO.
• Mogul strikes AIOZ distribution deal.
• Voyager sponsored a Nascar Driver.
• Clearlake has acquired Confluence.

Watch Out For This: President Joe Biden signed a law making Juneteenth a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States as the nation continues enacting change amid a racial reckoning.

Source: Al Jazeera

Interesting Reads:

• Visa business study, 2021 outlooks.
• Oil prices signal the need for output.
• Southwest canceled flights on glitch.
• Should we kill the 5-day workweeks?
• Running BTC node on Raspberry Pi.
• Spotify has bought podcast platform.

Market Moving Headline: A faster-than-expected global economic recovery is boosting prices as supply chains have struggled to keep up with rapidly expanding consumer durables demand and world merchandise trade. However, slower growth, supply adjustments in bottleneck sectors, a switch back towards services consumption, and fading impacts from US fiscal stimulus should see the rate of inflation decline in 2022.

Source: Fitch