Top News In Fintech And Beyond For June 13, 2022

🏆 The Fintech Awards Are Upon Us: Benzinga is bringing back its annual Global Fintech Awards event this December.

To participate in the biggest recognition of disruptive innovation in finance, please visit bzawards.com to learn more. Questions? Contact events@benzinga.com.

PS: Want to make your awards application stand out, watch this video, now!

👉 Top Things To Know In TradeFi:

• Aplo hones singular crypto access
• Freetrade cuts nearly 15% of staff
• Coinbase CEO addressing culture COIN
• Abrdn kills a deal w/ investing app
• Trade Republic bagged new funds
• DelphX issues first CPOs & CRNs DPXCF
• RoboMarkets founded CFD broker
• Huobi intros Ivy Blocks invest arm
• Wealthsimple combining products
• CaixaBank launching FXNow offer CAIXY
• Pintu bagged $113M in a Series B

👉 Top Things To Know In Fintech:

• Valkyrie announces new fundraise
• Coin Center suing Treasury & IRS
• Revolut added USD B2B transfers 
• Citi and others invested in LiquidX C
• Safaricom, Visa intro a virtual card
• EU nearing agreement over crypto
• Ualá to push Wilobank acquisition
• Razorpay helped HostBooks raise
• Lawsuits over Zelle keep piling up
• Request Finance adds $5.5M seed
• MoneyGram added crypto-to-cash MGI
• Mastercard teams w/NFT markets MA
• Apple’s BNPL nightmare for others AAPL
• Circle to buy crypto-tech CYBAVO 
• Abra adds 1st crypto rewards card
• Zelle is growing faster than others
• LendingClub seeks profitable user LC
• BlockFi lobbying after record fines

💭 Executive Perspective: Benzinga spoke with Oliver Yates, the CEO and co-founder of Aplo, an EU-licensed broker to institutional investors.

We asked for his thoughts on the Terra-apocalypse. He said this:

Half of Terra was premiums from loans due to the protocol. The other half was a gift from the foundation itself. That’s unsustainable.

At the end of the day, there’s no free lunch. Crypto is no different.

There’s no free 20% return. If you’re lending, you can potentially make 10% but there’s default risk.

You’ve got to ask the right questions. Does the yield come from anywhere apart from inflation?

👉 Interesting Reads:

• Do not let employees dictate terms
• Gensler eyes PFOF & rebate conflicts
• How to pitch VCs during downturn
• A thread: getting to your first $10M