The Fintech Blueprint

Hi Fintech futurists -- Welcome, dear reader, to our 2021 retrospective. If you haven’t yet, this is the last time to take advantage of our holiday offer below. See you on the other side! In Review Over the last year, we have done a major housekeeping effort of tagging all our content according to thematics. Let us consider those categories here:

The startup is now in direct competition with alts tech incumbent iCapital, which services 1,300+ RIAs

Gm Fintech Architects — Today we are diving into the following topics: Summary: It is easy to fall into the trap of ignoring certain information, or expecting breakthroughs only from your favorite sources. After a while, we confirm too much of what we believe, and ignore too much of what we don’t understand. In this take, we focus on our own blindspots around innovation from incumbents, and revisit developments from Apple in iOS 16 around BNPL and identity. We also check in on AI-based art, and reconnect to earlier themes around machine generated creativity.

Gm Fintech Architects — Today we are diving into the following topics: Summary: We look at the Bain Capital report about embedded finance growing to $7T in flows by 2026, and the recent OCC moves to regulate the evolution of fintech and crypto banking. This jumping off point helps us understand the process by which new things become popular, gain a mandate, and then cause an opposite reaction from their counter forces. We also touch on the SEC looking to gain jurisdiction over ETH post Merge, the White House working on a digital asset framework, and the OCC’s blocking of stablecoin based banking.

Hi Fintech Futurists — You are the best, today’s agenda below. CRYPTO: Ethereum Merge alleviates ESG concerns (link here) PAYTECH: Mesh raises $60m for finance automation platform (link here) PAYTECH: JPMorgan Chase acquires payments fintech Renovite to help it battle Stripe and Block (link

Welcome Fintech Futurists — Today we are looking at our 2022 coverage in the Long Takes, and pulling out the core themes and lessons that have shone through. It wasn’t pretty, but it was needed, and here we still are. If you enjoy these insights, don’t forget to share with others below. 👇👇👇

And the differences with the B2C path

Hi Fintech Futurists — Happy New Year! This week we are combining the Short Takes and Web3 Weekly, giving you all the top news across fintech and Web3 in one place. Here’s that handy upgrade button to access the Long Takes — a rigorous view on the future of our industry. Level up your Fintech and DeFi knowledge. 👇👇👇

Hi Fintech Futurists — We were off yesterday given the great British Queue paying respect to the great British Queen. Hope you enjoy this combination of the Short Takes and Web3 news. CREDIT: Fintech startup Power raises $316MM in funding (link here

First Fidelity Bank, a community bank with $2.6B in AUM, is the first customer to go live with Apex via Unifimoney

Hi Fintech Architects — This week we are reflecting on the year, and sharing 5 of the most significant and popular podcasts so far. These conversations should anchor you to think about fundamentals over the long term, rather than short-term market volatility.

The world is on fire and your money is the fuel

Gm Fintech Futurists — our agenda for today is below. FINANCIAL METAVERSE: Forte Closes Additional $725 Million in Funding to Extend Its Lead in Building a Compliant, Interoperable Blockchain Gaming Platform (link here) NFTs: NFT Artist Beeple’s First Physical Sculpture Fetches About $28.9 Million (link

Maybe the SEC is the savior we deserve

Gm Fintech Futurists — our agenda for today is below. You are the best. PAYTECH: Block rival SpotOn raises $300M at $3.6B valuation (link here) DEFI: Nansen acquires DeFi investment tracker Ape Board (link here) OPEN BANKING: Plaid expands into identity and income verification, fraud prevention and account funding (link

It rhymes with De Moines

Hi Fintech futurists -- In the long take this week, I dig deeply into the $5.3 billion acquisition of data aggregator Plaid by $500 billion payments network Visa. We examine why this deal is worth 25-50x revenue, while Yodlee's sale to Envestnet was priced much lower. We also look at how Plaid could be an existential threat to Visa, and why paying 1% of marketcap to protect 200 million accounts may be a good bet. Broader implications for product manufacturers across payments, investments, and banking also emerge -- the middle is getting carved out, and infrastructure providers like Visa or BlackRock are moving closer to the consumer.

Hi Fintech Futurists — You are the best, today’s agenda below. ROBOADVISOR: Goldman Closes on NextCapital Purchase: Tech Roundup (link here) and Truist launches robo-advisor (link here) DEFI: One Does Not Simply Destroy DAI: Maker Founder's 'Endgame' Proposal (link

Gm Fintech Futurists — Welcome to our Web3 newsletter, covering DeFi, digital assets, NFTs, and the emergence of the financial metaverse. This content is premium only — give it a share, and leave suggestions in the comments! DeFi Protocols and Digital Assets

Also Signature Bank, Silvergate, and understanding the math

Everyone is launching a token, maybe never

Why does nobody ever learn?

The Series E funding round was led by Apis Partners, with participation from Tiger Global, Winter Capital and Evolence

Dear readers — Today we extend a warm Fintech welcome to the subscribers of Digital Wealth Week. DWW is a great newsletter focusing on the latest in digital investing technology and the wealth / asset management industries. We have recently joined forces with them under the Fintech Blueprint banner. As a result, we are adding a weekly email to our content calendar that includes focus on those topics, which you can adjust in your Substack profile. For instructions and a tutorial, please see our

Hi Fintech Futurists — this is a highly personal email for me. I am going to ask you to consider joining me on yet another exploration, this time at the intersection of art, technology, and markets. Over the last five years, I have loved building out a research practice around fintech, blockchain, and digital investing.

Moody's downgraded the bonds and the bank is selling off securities to meet liabilities

This is the first part of a series on building companies from the Fintech Blueprint

Hi Fintech Futurists — You are the best, today’s agenda below. CRYPTO: Coinbase Announces cbETH Wrapped Ethereum Staking Token (link here) NEOBANK: YC-backed Zywa, a neobank for Gen Z, raises $3M to expand across MENA (link here) WEB3: Banking behemoth MUFG invests in Animoca Brands Japan’s $45 million raise (link

Or Optimism for that matter. How many Venmos would fit in?

Hi Fintech Futurists — You are the best, today’s agenda below. INVESTING: Robinhood banks on retirement to slow user attrition(link here) NFT: Starbucks Sees 'Unprecedented Interest' as Polygon NFT Rewards Platform Launches (link here) BNPL: Walmart-backed fintech startup plans to launch its own buy now, pay later loans (link

Hi Fintech Futurists — Given the holiday break this week we are combining the Short Takes and Web3 Weekly, giving you all the top news across fintech and Web3 in one place. Here’s that handy upgrade button to access the Long Takes — a rigorous view on the future of our industry. Level up your Fintech and DeFi knowledge. 👇👇👇

MEV is one of the most important and technical topics in Web3

Plus Revolut is profitable now

In 2021, aggregate sales of art and antiques by dealers and auction houses reached an estimated $65B, up 29% from 2020, surpassing pre-pandemic levels of 2019

Last month, UBS also sold its proprietary US alternative investment manager and the feeder fund platform known as “AlphaKeys Funds'' to iCapital

Confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance, private information, and now deep fakes

Gm Fintech Architects — We are going to take a break from the *Build It* series for this week, and parse a weird but important topic. Summary: Today we are going cover JP Morgan spending $175MM on Frank, the … frankly fraudulent … financial aid fintech. We look at the topics of student lending, the cost of acquiring customers, and explore why JPM would want to own this asset. The interesting bit, however, is trying to figure out how Frank faked 4 million accounts. This connects to the current trends in generative AI, and in particular the attempts of building out synthetic humans at scale — people who seem real, but aren’t. Those may populate video games and the metaverse, but also fraudulent sales of neobanks.

Hi Fintech Futurists — You are the best, today’s agenda below. BNPL: Dubai-based PayTech Tabby raises $150MM in debt finance (link here) Paytech: Global Payments to acquire B2B paytech EVO for $4B and sell B2C business Netspend for $1B (link here) Digital Banking:

Plaid has launched a new aggregation service called Wallet Connector, which pulls together access to over 300 wallets like MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, and Trust Wallet.

Gm Fintech Futurists — Welcome to our Web3 newsletter, covering DeFi, digital assets, NFTs, and the emergence of the financial metaverse. Today we highlight the following: DEFI & DIGITAL ASSETS: Aave Releases Technical Details Of GHO Stablecoin, and Near Protocol’s USN Stablecoin Shut Down After Suffering $40M ‘Collateral Gap’