The Lead

A lot of people are beginning to use a Bitcoin ATM and those devices are popping up at more and more locations at very rapid pace.

While it’s hard to predict with certainty when COVID-19 will be in the rearview mirror, the end does seem to be in sight as firms, industry associations and advisors are all starting to contemplate holding certain events and meetings on an in-person basis, commencing in the closing quarters of this year.

While crypto art has been around in various forms since 2015, the medium made a huge splash last week at Christie’s in New York as “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” by Beeple sold for $60.25 million at auction, which cost the buyer $69 million when Christie’s buyer’s premium is included. That makes “Everydays” as the most valuable piece of digital art to be sold at auction thus far.

Recognizing the potential for an explosion in customer demand for bitcoin, Goldman Sachs is re-entering a sector they exited just a couple years or so ago by relaunching its cryptocurrency trading desk, thus allowing them to deal Bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards to clients.

Just last week the rock band Kings of Leon released their latest album in the form of a NFT, becoming the first band to ever do so.

Fintech has a metaphorical chocolate and peanut butter. The chocolate would be decentralized finance, fintech applications that put the power of banking, lending and investing directly into the user’s hands, with less reliance on financial intermediaries, or no reliance on them at all.

In what is surely a MOST uncanny coincidence, two major fintech SPAC deals were recently announced at $5 Billion dollar valuations First, what are the odds, and second, HOLY CANNOLI, that's a lot of money.

JP Morgan Chase has tested blockchain payments between orbiting satellites (yes, in space) to demonstrate how digital devices might use technology behind virtual currencies for transactions. In other words, telling your creditors you were abducted by Martians and couldn't pay your bills ain't gonna fly.

After a busy 2020, TAMPs are making a splash again in 2021.

Men still dominate the fintech landscape, according to Deloitte. Beyond that, Inclusive Fintech Benchmarks data found that women don’t even benefit on the other end — a service gender gap also exists