Fintech Focus For April 22, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: Big Brother is watching you.

Source: George Orwell

One Big Thing In Fintech: Apart from supporting firms like Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, and Microsoft Corporation, from their earliest stages, Nasdaq offers numerous other products and services, all of which increase market access and transparency for both institutions and retail participants.

One service is the Nasdaq Fund Network, or NFN, which collects and disseminates performance, NAV, valuation, and strategy-level reference data for over 35,000 investible products.

“The goal of the Nasdaq Fund Network is to provide transparency and distribution for IRAs, asset managers, and both institutional and retail investors,” said Devin McCarthy, NFN managing director. “We work with the issuers of mutual funds, collective investment trusts, unit investment trusts, and we register those instruments and apply, whether it’s a five- or six-character ticker symbol, and then we publish that market data to over 400,000 different financial platforms.”

Source: Benzinga

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Welcome Tech closes $35M round.
• Cathie Wood analyst talking crypto.
• BMO has partnered with Hope Trust.
• Telos has bridged to Binance’s BSC.
• Coinbase is committing to innovation.
• Okra raises $3.5M for fintech portal.
• Apex Clearing CEO on doge trading.
• Fintech Revolut to hire 300 for hub.
• Austin Capital launches fintech fund.
• Bank of Queensland is going digital.
• Archax appoints new head of sales.
• Karura integrating Chainlink’s feeds.
• CME adds Refinitiv, IHS messaging.
• Alto Solutions raises $17M funding.
• Neuravest Research intros Refinery.
• Deutsche Börse, BMP partnered up.
• What BitGo’s custody insurance is.
• Why VCs are investing in NFT tech.
• Ampleforth launches FORTH token.
• Prometheum raises proposed deal.
• Digital Asset raises $120M Series D.
• Welcome Tech raises for ecosystem.
• BornTec, CapitalMarkets.tech team.
• Cloud9Techn, Glue42 partnering up.
• Plastiq, Billfire partner on payments.

Watch Out For This: The news cycle may have moved on from the Ever Given, but the Ever Given still hasn’t moved on from its holding spot in the Great Bitter Lake in the middle of the Suez Canal after almost a month. The crew still stuck on the ship is very concerned about this, as there seems to be no sign that an agreement will be reached between Egypt and the Ever Given’s owners any time soon. Until there is an agreement in place, the crew is stuck there, and they could be for years.

Source: Jalopnik

Interesting Reads:

• Robinhood made trading too easy?
• Story: HSBC managers heart attack.
• Virus resurgence is pressuring Asia.
• Chicago mulling guaranteed income.
• Nasdaq podcast unpacking trends.
• CMG smashing earnings estimates.

Market Moving Headline: JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou noted that the last few times they witnessed such negative price action in Bitcoin, buyers returned in time to prevent deeper slumps. This time, they’re worried.

If the largest cryptocurrency isn’t able to break back above $60,000 soon, momentum signals will collapse, the strategists wrote in a note Tuesday. It’s likely traders including Commodity Trading Advisers (CTAs) and crypto funds were at least partly behind the buildup of long Bitcoin futures in recent weeks, as well as the unwind in past days, they said.

“Over the past few days Bitcoin futures markets experienced a steep liquidation in a similar fashion to the middle of last February, middle of last January or the end of last November,” the strategists said. “Momentum signals will naturally decay from here for several months, given their still elevated level.”

Source: Bloomberg