#276
Speed Of Light

Wunder Capital named one of the most innovative companies in 2019 - Congrats to Bryan Birsic, CEO of solar financing company Wunder Capital, and his team for being named by Fast Company as one of the most innovative companies in 2019. Read more

Finance v physics: even ‘flash boys’ can’t go faster than light - Back in 2011 the computers used by the “flash boys” took around five millionths of a second to cut a trade. Today, the data is moving 60 times faster, taking only 84 billionths of a second (nanoseconds). Read more

It started with a jolt: how New York became a tech town - Great NY Times history lesson of how NYC became a tech town post financial crisis with some great stories on Tim Armstrong, Mike Bloomberg, and Kevin Ryan. Read more

Fintechs help boost US personal loan surge to a record $138 billion -The unsecured personal loan market in the US increased 17% last year, reaching $138b. Fintech companies issued 38% of all U.S. personal loans, up from just 5% in 2013 (according to TransUnion). Read more

Coinbase acquires blockchain-tracking startup Neutrino for an undisclosed price - As part of its effort to offer more diverse crypto assets across borders and become the "Google of Crypto," Coinbase has acquired Neutrino which will help it conduct blockchain intelligence to beef up its compliance monitoring across various protocols. Read more

"Mobile phones will become banks." As Mexico pushes mobile payments - In a nation where more than half the population is unbanked, Mexico's new leftist government recently announced it is planning a digital payments system that will allow citizens to make and receive payments through their smartphones free of charge. Read more

This legislation could force stores to take your cash - As the world moves towards cashless payments using cards or mobile devices, regulators in several US states are pointing out that an outright ban on cash discriminates against those without credit or bank accounts, and raises concerns about privacy and data security. Read more

Pantera has raised $125m for its third crypto fund - The target size for the VC fund is $175m and Pantera's is looking to support 30 to 50 companies with an expectation there will be a large shift to equity versus tokens as the primary investment mechanism. Read more

One crypto fund says don't be fooled - bottom is not yet in - Alex Sunnarborg, co-founder of Tetras Capital, a NYC based crypto HF with ~$30m in AUM, is not convinced by this week's 20%+ crypto rally. While skeptical on prices, he is paying most attention to Grin (the latest non pre-mined privacy), the Fidelity crypto platform roll out in March, and more penalties from the SEC to rain down on past ICOs. Read more

Apple, Goldman Sachs team up on credit card paired with iPhone - Apple and GS hope to lure cardholders by offering them extra features on Apple's Wallet app. While Apple already takes a small cut through Apple Pay, it would potentially get a bigger slice of the fees from it's own card. Read more

Bloomberg Enterprise Access Point expands to include alternative data - Bloomberg is now making alternative datasets available to customers through the company's Enterprise Access Point. Some of the alternative data providers include Thasos, Apptopia, TipRanks, PredictWallStreet, RS Metrics, Orbital Insight, Predata, Evaluate, and Symphony Pharma. Read more