Published:
Jul 27, 2024
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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With the Paris Olympics taking off, competition is in the air. As excitement builds in France and globally, the financial system is seeing its own brand of breakthroughs and new records. This week the first US ETFs that invest directly in Ether are showing high trading volumes for fund debuts, according to Bloomberg. On Day 1 alone, Ether ETF volumes surpassed $1b, relative to Bitcoin’s first trading day volume of ~$4.5b.
With both Bitcoin and Ether ETFs being approved and traded this year, these asset classes are gaining more institutional recognition, and may soon become required learning in financial literacy, just like credit or debit cards. That said, financial literacy remains a problem at large in the US. Many people are unable to understand the effects of inflation on their income, and a third of young people don’t know the difference between a credit and debit card, as reported by the FT.
Additionally, some of the financial literacy content on social media doesn’t help - for example, some “get rich quick” schemes that operate in legal gray areas or are actual scams. To combat general lack of awareness in financial literacy, half of the country’s states have now introduced or implemented legislation requiring financial literacy classes in schools. As the financial system continues to increase in complexity, with concepts like cryptocurrency ETFs coming into public view and discussion, these classes could be coming just in time. For now, let the games begin!
Portfolio News
FinTech Collective invests in bunch - We are thrilled to announce FinTech Collective’s lead role in the $15.5m Series A investment in bunch, a Berlin-based company building the end-to-end fund admin infrastructure for private markets investors. The capital will enable bunch to scale to serve funds across more geographies and asset classes. Read more
Simetrik: A milestone in B2B financial solutions with a successful first semester - Simetrik, the emerging Colombian startup in B2B financial solutions, has delivered an outstanding performance in the first half of 2024, standing out in the competitive fintech market. Simetrik has reported an impressive 113% growth in sales compared to the same period last year, thanks to the efforts of its talented Latin American team. Read more
Stables launches stablecoin virtual card in Europe - The move comes after a collaboration with Mastercard last year in Australia, where Stables introduced the first stablecoin wallet in the APAC region to offer payments from a single stablecoin balance. Now, with a Virtual Asset Service Provider license, the startup is offering Europeans the ability to make contactless in-store and online payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay across Mastercard’s network of merchants. Read more
Financial Olympics
Spot Ethereum ETFs generate over $1b in trading volume on first day - Seven months after Bitcoin made its big debut on Wall Street, it was Ethereum's time to enter the spotlight. Spot Ethereum exchanged-traded funds — nine different ETFs from eight issuers — began trading this week and turned the normally staid world of ETF trading into a bonanza. Read more
Even Wall Street bankers’ kids need lessons in financial literacy - In the US, entrepreneurs, donors and family foundations are backing initiatives to teach the basics of managing money. Read more
The 401(k) rollover mistake that costs retirement savers billions - Workers miss out on billions in investment gains by pulling retirement savings out of the stock market after switching jobs—often without meaning to. When people roll 401(k) balances from their old company’s plan into an individual retirement account, the money is frequently held as cash until they select new investments. Many never do, according to new research from Vanguard Group. Read more
Industry News
Why paper checks refuse to die - Check fraud has more than doubled in recent years, and it costs at least a dollar for businesses to process each check they receive. Plenty of young adults have never even written one. But if you haven’t used a check in years and consider it a badge of honor, that may say a lot about where you live and what you pay for. In many industries, checks continue to be a popular form of payment, and sometimes they are required. Read more
Are you being exploited by AI-powered surveillance pricing? - The Federal Trade Commission announced this week that it’s ordering eight companies that offer AI surveillance pricing products and services to turn over information about the impact these pricing schemes have on privacy, competition, and consumer protection. Read more
Revolut secures UK banking license after 3-year wait - Revolut says it has secured a UK banking license, ending a more than three-year tussle with regulators and delivering a boost to the fintech’s expansion plans in its home market. The London-based company said on Thursday it had received the license from the Prudential Regulation Authority, which first received an application from Revolut in early 2021. Read more
UK open banking hits 10m users - More than 10m UK consumers and small businesses are now regularly benefiting from using open banking technology. The milestone comes six-and-a-half years after the rollout of open banking in the UK, building an ecosystem worth more than £4b to the economy and creating around 5000 skilled digital jobs, claims Open Banking Limited (OBL). Read more
Xbox players are the credit-card industry’s next big thing - Banks are seeking out millennial and Gen Z customers in the $57 billion-a-year videogame industry. Leading the charge is Barclays, a big player in U.S. credit cards, which wants to do with gamers what card companies long ago did with airline passengers: boost loyalty, and spending, by offering customers rewards when they charge their card. Read more
Britain will soon lay out new plans to regulate ‘buy now, pay later’ firms after delays - This follows multiple delays to the roadmap for BNPL legislation in Britain. The government first set out plans to regulate the sector in 2021. That followed a review from former Financial Conduct Authority boss Christopher Woolard, which found more than one in 10 BNPL customers were in arrears. Read more
Mastercard doubles fraud detection rate with Generative AI - Mastercard has unveiled a new approach to identify compromised payment cards, leveraging a combination of generative artificial intelligence and graph technology. The company reports that this method has doubled its detection rate for compromised cards before they can be used fraudulently. Read more
How Britain reacted to Crowdstrike IT meltdown: withdrawing £6m in cash - During the global CrowdStrike outage, ATM transactions in the UK surged by 30%, demonstrating cash as an essential backup. Link reported the increase, emphasizing the need for robust digital systems before society can safely go cashless. Read more
JPMorgan pitches in-house chatbot as AI-based research analyst to 50,000 employees - After JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon stated that AI would transform every job, the bank introduced a GenAI tool to its asset and wealth management employees, enabling tasks like writing, idea generation, and summarizing documents using advanced language models. Will it be caught “hallucinating”? Read more
He was an online drug lord. Now he’s a crypto entrepreneur - A great NY Times read on Blake Benthall, once the mastermind behind the illegal Silk Road 2.0, who now runs a startup, Fathom(x), that helps track digital currency transactions for businesses and government agencies, aiming to prevent fraud and ensure compliance. Read more
How Wall Street needs to adapt to AI - In the FT, a former Morgan Stanley and UBS research head argues that for new technology to be trusted, it must include a human element. While AI excels in financial predictions, clients value human intuition, making a tech-personal touch blend essential. Read more
Select Financings
Bitlayer Labs - Singapore based bitcoin Layer 2 raised $11m in Series A funding led by Franklin Templeton and ABCDE. Read more
Chainbase - Singapore based blockchain data network developer raised $15m in Series A funding led by Tencent and Matrix Partners China. Read more
District Cover - Nashville based public-benefit company raised $7m in Seed funding led by Mosaic General Partnership. Read more
Etherfuse - California based real-world asset tokenization platform raised $3m in Seed funding led by White Star Capital and North Island Ventures. Read more
Finbee Verslui - Lithuania based alternative lender raised €35m in growth funding led by Pollen Street Capital. Read more
Fragment - New York based ledger reconciliation company raised $9m in Seed funding led by BoxGroup and Avid Ventures. Read more
GeoWealth - Chicago based proprietary technology and turnkey asset management company raised $18m in growth funding led by BlackRock. Read more
Grazzy - Austin based tip collection and tax compliance company raised $4m in Seed funding led by Next Coast Ventures. Read more
Hash AI - UK based crypto mining company raised $10m in new funding led by Bolt's Capital. Read more
Igloo - Delaware based L2 blockchain company raised $11m in new funding led by Founders Fund. Read more
Jarvis - UK based workplace pension provider raised £1.8m in Seed funding led by Ascension VC and Cornerstone VC. Read more
Meisterwerk App - Berlin based SaaS platform for craft businesses raised €6m in Series A funding led by Semapa Next. Read more
MNT-Halan - Egypt based banking and payments provider for SMBs raised $157.5m in new funding led by the International Finance Corporation. Read more
Nirvana Labs - Los Angeles based blockchain cloud firm raised $4m in Seed funding led by Castle Island Ventures and RW3 Ventures. Read more
OnRamp - Boston based customer onboarding company raised $14.2m in Series A funding led by Javelin Venture Partners. Read more
Payflow - Barcelona based earned wage access company raised €6m in new funding led by Seaya Ventures. Read more
Payt - Netherlands based accounts receivable management platform raised €55m in growth funding led by Partech. Read more
Plum - London based money management app raised £16.1m in Series B funding led by Eurobank. Read more
Powder - Los Angeles based wealth management company raised $5m in Seed funding led by a syndicate of 40 Silicon Valley insiders. Read more
Sokin - London based international money transfer platform raised $31m in growth funding led by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and Aurum Partners. Read more
Strive Enterprises - Ohio based financial services company raised $30m in Series B funding led by Cantor Fitzgerald. Read more
TigerBeetle - San Francisco based financial transaction database raised $24m in Series A funding led by Spark Capital. Read more
Truvius - Boston based crypto investment platform raised $3.2m in pre-Seed funding led by Galaxy Ventures. Read more
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