By Christopher Hamman
Happy new month!
Buying a home has become as easy as owning a credit card with Rocket and Visa launching a new product, though rising interest rates are certainly an impediment for many would be homeowners. The SEC continued to hammer at the crypto space (with crypto prices going up), Apple FINALLY launched its BNPL product, and Navy Federal upped its game with new deposit banking software.
This is your week in digital wealth.
WealthTech, RegTech and Treasury
Capitolis
Boutique equity and forex technology solutions provider Capitolis revealed that it had significantly adjusted its FX novation service. The improvements increase anonymity with streamlined process flows from initiation to execution for smoother trading experiences.
TradeWeb Market
Market operation solutions firm TradeWeb Markets relocated its data center from Equinix NY11 (Carteret, NJ) to Equinix NY5 (Secaucus, NJ) as part of an infrastructure upgrade and improvement in services. This follows the 2021 acquisition of the Nasdaq Fixed Income platform (formerly eSpeed).
ACA Group (ACA)
Compliance advisory and risk solutions firm launched ACA Signature, a flexible all-in-one compliance solution. The solution offers financial institutions partnerships, ground-up and ongoing options alongside managed services and RegTech support via ACA’s ComplianceAlpha®.
Crypto, Blockchain and Digital Assets
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
To further its crypto efforts, the United Nations agency for Children UNICEF developed a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) prototype that allows for the global distribution of digital public goods, forms of software, or content that is distributable over networks or, in this case, blockchains.
The DAO will be built on Polygon, an Ethereum-based second-layer solution.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)/Beaxy
The SEC went at the crypto space (again) with a lawsuit against Beaxy Exchange, a Chicago-based crypto exchange alongside its founder Artak Hamazaspyan and other executives ” for failing to register as a national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency.”
The regulator also accused Artak of raising $8 million in an unregistered offering and misappropriating at least $900,000.
Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd.
In an announcement, premier digital asset firm Galaxy Digital revealed it lost $1 billion in the past year of operations.
The Mike Novogratz-owned firm attributed the loss to market conditions and investment failures.
USDC/USDT Stablecoins
Even after its recovery from the Silicon Valley Bank failure, the USDC stablecoin continued to see outflows of over $10 billion, with a 23% market capitalization decline to $33 billion from $44 billion in the past thirty days.
On the other hand, Tether’s USDT grew more than 10% last month, with its market capitalization crossing $79.8 billion.
FinTech, Personal Finance, and App
Enigma/Noble
Fintech solutions company Noble and data science solutions firm Enigma revealed their partnership that allows financial institutions to launch products “on the go” seamlessly.
Per the cooperation, Enigma’s proprietary algorithms will enable clients to develop their products and services on Nobles’s infrastructure and provide accurate financial health assessments.
Apple Inc.
iPhone maker Apple launched Apple Pay Later, its “Buy Now Pay Later” (BNPL) solution that allows Apple Wallet users to spread their purchases four times over six weeks.
Credit applications are accessible via iPads and iPhones with a $50 to $1,000 range.
Pidgin/Effectiv
As part of its efforts to combat payment fraud, Payments Platform Pidgin revealed its partnership with Effectiv, an automated fraud detection and compliance solutions firm.
The cooperation will see Effectiv provide artificially intelligent transactions monitoring and payment fraud detection and prevention tools for clients within Pidgin’s ecosystem.
Banking, Payments and Infrastructure
Repay Holdings Corporation/MiCamp Solutions
MiCamp Solutions and Repay Holdings Corp. announced their partnership that gives clients robust end-to-end payment flexibility and an edge over other payment providers.
Per the combination, Repay provides MiCamp with backend solutions, including clearing and settlement processing. Frontend needs and interactions remain in the forte of the Atlanta-based payment solutions provider.
WorkWhile/Marqeta
Workers can now have quicker access to their wages with the new Marqeta-WorkWhile partnership. The collaboration centers around a debit card that will enable faster paychecks.
The LaborTech company has included this offering across its 17-state spread nationwide.
Navy Federal Credit Union/Blend
America’s largest credit union, Navy Federal Credit Union, partnered with Blend, a top-tier banking cloud software firm, to upgrade its deposit account option for new members.
The integration increases automation, vertically integrates workflows, and deploys data on another level per user operations.
REtech, Insurtech and Investing
Builders & Tradesmen’s Insurance Services (BTIS)
Contractors got a boost with the launch of VETA, a General Liability insurance product that covers over thirty-five construction trade classes.
VETA is currently available in California, but BTIS, the exclusive provider revealed plans for a nationwide launch.
Relay
Insurance solutions platform Relay revealed the launch of Technology Errors and Omissions (Tech E&O), a simple-to-use but effective Application Programming Interface (API) that automates quotes and proposals for retail agents and wholesale brokers.
The new API product connects to premier Commercial carriers and gives real-time Cyber Insurance quotes.
Rocket/Visa
Owning a home has become as easy as a credit card swipe with the Rocket Visa Signature Card, a credit card that allows cardholders to earn 5% back towards mortgage costs with an $8,000 limit or 2% earned from spending points go to unpaid principal balances.
The Rocket Visa Signature Card has a $95 annual maintenance fee and integrates with the Rocket Money Personal Finance app.
