Goldman Sachs unveils Amazon-backed cloud service for Wall Street trading firms - The bank is opening up access to its trove of market data and software tools to hedge funds and asset managers in an offering designed with Amazon’s cloud division. The move, the result of a two-year collaboration with AWS, puts Goldman in the unusual position of being a provider of cloud services for Wall Street. Read more
Covid-19 made Americans into super savers. Now they’re hoarding cash - Americans are hoarding cash because of fatigue and uncertainty, with little chance the trend will reverse soon. Over the past two years, households have socked away close to $1.6t in “excess savings,” according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The funds are well beyond the three to six months of emergency savings generally recommended by financial advisers. Read more
Metaverse real estate piles up record sales in sandbox and other virtual realms - A growing number of investment firms are acquiring digital land in worlds such as the Sandbox and Decentraland, where players simulate real-life pursuits, from shopping to attending a concert. They are betting that individuals and companies will spend money to use virtual homes and retail space and that the value of properties will increase as more people join the worlds. Read more
Art-world insiders turn $13m Banksy into 10000 NFTs - Christie's co-chair Loïc Gouzer said he spent $12.9m at Sotheby's in May to buy a Banksy painting estimated at $3m to $5m. He's now showing the work at Art Basel Miami Beach under the aegis of Particle, a company that intends to turn the work into 10,000 NFTs "within the overarching structure of collective ownership." Read more
Money managers who got blindsided by market manias like GameStop and Bitcoin are turning to ‘econophysics’ to help them avoid the next crash - The work of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist is helping investing pros understand the science behind "stonks", and how the actions of individuals or small groups trigger the manias, crashes, and crises that ultimately take down markets and harm the global economy. Read more
TikTok adds creator monetization features, including tips and video gifts - While already, the short-form video platform allowed creators to accept virtual gifts from fans during TikTok LIVE videos, a set of new features will allow creators to accept payments and gifts when they’re not livestreaming through the addition of Tips and Video Gifts. These features are rolling out alongside a new “Creator Next” portal, which organizes all TikTok’s monetization opportunities in one place. Read more
Goldman Sachs, other Wall Street banks exploring bitcoin-backed loans - Banks such as Goldman will not touch cryptocurrency spot markets but lean towards synthetic crypto products such as futures. Emulating tri-party repo type arrangements (a way of borrowing funds by selling securities with an agreement to repurchase them, involving a third-party agent), banks are exploring ways to follow the same path of not touching bitcoin, like other synthetic products. Read more
BIS Innovation Hub partners with Fed to support analysis of digital assets - Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said the partnership would support the agency’s analysis of digital currencies, including the rollout of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The center plans to support analyses aimed at improving cross-border payment systems. Read more
Seedrs bought by US group after merger of UK rivals was blocked - US start-up investing platform Republic announced this week that it has bought Seedrs in a $100m deal as part of a push into European markets. The merged companies will aim to take advantage of new EU legislation this month that has harmonized rules for crowdfunding across the bloc, opening the market for larger-scale operations. Read more
Emerging markets ‘leapfrog’ the west in digital payments race - Western financial companies that have long dominated payment markets are now facing competition from technologically innovative start-ups in fast-growing emerging markets. Some are “leapfrogging” the payment infrastructure of those in the developed world, having adapted to the internet age more quickly. Read more
Facebook retreats from crypto ad ban - Facebook announced its decision to reverse long-standing policy that prevented most cryptocurrency companies from running ads on its services. While the move comes after the company tried and failed to launch a cryptocurrency that was intended to send money easily across the world via the company’s services, the new policy is huge for the crypto industry and will allow more retail investors to access cryptocurrencies than ever before. Read more
Bolt makes first acquisition with Tipser, launches ‘Remote Checkout' - The ability to purchase something at the point of discovery from digital content exists, but checkout technology company Bolt has the opportunity to give that its “one-click” treatment. It announced this week that it made its first acquisition in Tipser, a Swedish-based technology company enabling direct checkout on any digital surface. Read more
Capital One is the latest bank to ditch overdraft fees - The fees, which are charged when customers don’t have enough money in their accounts to cover payments, are a source of income—and criticism—for banks. Read more
India to regulate crypto, avoids outright ban - A cabinet note seen by NDTV shows the Indian government will regulate cryptocurrencies in the country, rather than imposing a ban on their use. Read more
Tribal expands financing, payment services to SMBs in Peru, Chile, Colombia - The expansion comes at a moment of significant development and momentum for Tribal Credit, which has seen more than 50x growth in LatAm since early 2021, serving many of the fastest-growing small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Mexico. Read more
Dispersion launches DeFi platform for crypto investors - Dispersion, an incubator specializing in decentralized finance ("DeFi"), is pleased to announce today’s launch of AQRU, an innovative platform which enables simple access to the competitive crypto yields available in DeFi. Read more |
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