Fintech Focus For August 16, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: “The way that I manage risk has changed materially. I try as often as I can to think about multi-decade holding periods for the things that we own. In the moment, it is hard, but then you figure out guardrails to stay in an infinite mindset. If I’m thinking over the course of my lifetime, then what happens in three or four months is utterly irrelevant if we have made the right decisions.”

Source: Chamath Palihapitiya

One Big Thing In Fintech: The neobank concept is one big reason behind soaring valuations for payments apps and companies like Afterpay, which has made a huge splash in e-commerce with a buy-now-pay-later installment payment option. A couple of weeks before Square acquired Afterpay, Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev wrote that Square’s Cash App “may be en route to becoming the ultimate neobank and the money center bank of the future,” and that buying Square stock today could be “analogous to buying J.P. Morgan in 1871.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Bitwave secured $7.25M a round.
• Upgrade raised a $105M Series E.
• PNC, Coinbase plan crypto offers.
• Opendoor seeks $2B credit facility.
• Coinbase, Upstart report growth.
• Auto fintech Finova in bankruptcy.
• Treasury Prime CEO talking BaaS.
• Chime raises $750M in a Series G.
• Kavak announces 4 tech centers.
• Bipartisan bill may include fintechs.
• Uala secures a $350M Series D.
• Crypto.com adds free tax service.
• LendingHome closes securitization.
• Coinstar’s crypto kiosks in Alaska.
• Kubo Financiero is eyeing growth.
• MassMutual, NYDIG partnered up.
• Big banks investing in Freshbooks.
• Fintech FUSE added $10M round.
• Clients push NYDIG, Fidelity offer.
• SEBA added AAVE and Chainlink.
• Prizeout enters into crypto space.
• US Bank will acquire Bento fintech.
• Rario platform is now on Polygon.
• Technicorum NFT announcement.
• Veem added pay later capabilities.
• O’Leary, FTX secured relationship.
• Solana’s DEX secures a $70M sale.

Watch Out For This: One email about a $15 million gift, suspected of phishing, sat unopened for a month. Several others about a $20 million pledge went ignored by an assistant, who thought the nondescript sender was fake. The recipient of another memo, promising millions more, turned to their lawyer, who said it was likely a scam.

All of those big-fortune messages, and hundreds more like them, were not only legitimate, they came from the same source: a team working on behalf of MacKenzie Scott, fourth richest woman in the world — and, increasingly, the most powerful and mysterious force in philanthropy today.

Source: Bloomberg

Interesting Reads:

• DJs play for those that vaccinate.
• Unpacking community and crypto.
• Norton, Avast to merge for $8.4B.
• Chip saw record female investors.
• Fending off Apple, Square fintech.
• Banks have lost control over fees.
• Citadel stated what about PFOF?

Market Moving Headline: Equity index futures are set to open sideways Sunday after a divergent advance on light volume and poor structure.

- Fundamental context – the good and bad.

- Ahead a heavy week in terms of releases.

- A narrow rally on unsupportive dynamics.

- A simple way to hedge off your downside.

U.S. stock index futures auctioned sideways to higher last week as the baseline Dow Jones Industrial Average is forecast to have peaked, according to Moody’s.

Further, for next week, given expectations of middling volatility and responsive trade, on factors like the upcoming August 20 monthly options expiration, participants may make use of the following frameworks.

In the best case, the S&P 500 trades sideways or higher; activity above the $4,459.00 untested point of control (VPOC) puts in play the $4,463.25 minimal excess high. Initiative trade beyond the minimal excess high could reach as high as the $4,470.75 and $4,483.75 Fibonacci-derived price targets.

In the worst case, the S&P 500 trades lower; activity below the $4,459.00 VPOC puts in play the $4,439.00 VPOC. Initiative trade beyond the $4,439.00 VPOC could reach as low as $4,430.00 – a visual low likely generated by short-term (i.e., technically driven) participants who may be unable to defend retests – and the previously discussed $4,422.75 BAH.

Source: Physik Invest