Fintech Focus For April 8, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.

Source: Leo Tolstoy

One Big Thing In Fintech: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital transformation in finance accelerated and stock market engagement rose.

Headlines on so-called meme-stocks like GameStop led to increased account openings for both brokers and financial insight platforms.

In allowing investors to better act on emerging themes and trends, Benzinga spoke with Rob Hoffman, the CEO, and founder of WealthCharts.

Source: Benzinga

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Gemini taps Alloy over verifications.
• Plaid raised $425M Series D round.
• Avant bought Zero Financial, Level.
• Acorns’ target is debt management.
• FinanZero credit market raises $7M.
• Goldman Sachs leader joined Talos.
• Blue dot raises $32M for accounting.
• Voyager Digital AUM crosses $2.4B.
• Tom Brady launching NFT platform.
• Coinbase CEO releases music NFT.
• Sotheby’s plans to host an NFT sale.
• Dimon suggests fintech here to stay.
• Banks split on lending to crypto-rich.
• Wing and Ontology’s platform is live.

Watch Out For This: LinkedIn Corp. has proprietary data on migration based on changes to workers’ profiles, and its principal economist Guy Berger says there has “definitely been a large percentage increase in tech migration to Miami” from the San Francisco Bay Area. Yet, he says, the total back-and-forth flow of such people between the Bay Area and greater Miami is still less than one-tenth what it is on average between San Francisco and New York, Los Angeles, or Seattle.

Source: CityLab

Interesting Reads:

• Yellen says Tax Plan recoups $2T.
• Intel’s $20B bet on manufacturing.
• Twitter talks to acquire Clubhouse.
• Vaccine Passports a no-go for WH.
• Global venture funding hit a record.

Market Moving Headline: Jamie Dimon said he’s optimistic the pandemic will end with a U.S. economic rebound that could last at least two years.

“I have little doubt that with excess savings, new stimulus savings, huge deficit spending, more QE, a new potential infrastructure bill, a successful vaccine and euphoria around the end of the pandemic, the U.S. economy will likely boom,” the JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer said Wednesday in his annual letter to shareholders. “This boom could easily run into 2023.”

Source: Bloomberg