Fintech News Issue #302 February 4th, 2021

To spite “hedge fund bros,” retail investors led a surge in GameStop’s stock price largely through the trading app Robinhood. While progressives relished watching Wall Street’s old guard scramble amid the chaos, fintech firms like Robinhood — apps for lending, investing, and so on — certainly aren’t seeking an end to financial capitalism.

The case for stablecoin continues to strengthen

The popularity of fintech has spiked in recent times. Here's how FinTech will shape the global financial market in 2021.

When a crusading group of retail traders decided last week to bid up the price of GameStop shares, the target was Wall Street. Empowered by Reddit and the commission-free trades of Robinhood’s online trading app, they succeeded in putting the squeeze on hedge funds that had shorted GameStop.

Too many institutions treat relations with fintechs as an afterthought, rarely making these deals anybody's job. Often these alliances aren't focused on revenue-building opportunities, which tends to reduce their priority. No wonder the payoff is so meager. Meanwhile opportunities with Google and Amazon beckon.

Artificial intelligence (AI), banking and insurtech emerged as the most mentioned trends among fintech influencer discussions on Twitter during the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2020, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Customers who bought crypto through the platform have been logging in twice as much as they were before, the payments giant said.

The architect of 'The Everything Store' may be moving to a different role, but the behemoth he built — and the team that did the heavy lifting — will offer financial institutions both competition and partnership opportunity.

I’m working on a new book project. You might have spotted the themes in my recent blog entries but, if not, it’s all about purpose. The tagline is: if you don’t stand for something, you fall down, and is focused upon stakeholder capitalism.

For a significantly long period of non-touch, everything meant growth continued for the sector

Last year, the world was crippled by COVID-19. But for the FinTech sector, it was just a speed bump. After the initial stun and the cautious reactions, the global pandemic acted as an accelerant for digital services, pulling the incumbent financial institutions from their manual, paper-driven ways.

Visa, a one-time enemy of the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community, is fast becoming one of bitcoin's biggest cheerleaders.