Week in Digital Wealth

Earnings season is underway, and banks are obsessed with their chief rivals — fintechs. VCs can’t get enough of fintechs either, but in a good way as funding levels continue to rise. Meanwhile, neither cryptocurrencies nor fintech stocks have been able to win over investors so far in 2022, except for one meme coin. Amazon and Visa have found a way to coexist in the U.K. 

Discussions between the U.S. and Moscow could lead to sanctions on Russia targeting the financial and tech sectors. Meanwhile, the CEO of a major tech company has decided if you can’t beat them, join them in fintech.

Fintech CEOs must be keeping their New Year resolutions close to the vest. Nevertheless, we still rounded up the latest happenings across the industry, including how banks are responding to the spread of the omicron variant.

Inflation might be in the air, but that hasn’t stopped American consumers from shopping online and at physical stores this holiday season in a rush to beat the supply chain blues. BNPL has come into its own in 2021.  Mastercard and Visa both have their sights set on digital payments. Credit unions want more control over their crypto holdings. And billionaire tech entrepreneur Jack Dorsey is stirring the pot in the VC community. 

BNPL companies are in the spotlight, but not for the reasons they would want. Wall Street analysts have fintech stocks in their sights, while one China-based tech giant is looking to gaming to take some of the regulatory heat off in Beijing. Fintech M&A is alive and well, while an emerging fintech-focused VC firm with its roots in a major crypto exchange has entered the fray.

With inflation hovering at a 40-year high, BNPL is being looked to as the hero among consumers. One Brazilian digital bank fintech’s IPO was a hit on Wall Street. The CEO of Better.com could not have picked a worse way or time to announce layoffs. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is eyeing greener pastures.  

 If it seems like fintechs have been especially active in the SPAC market this year, it’s not your imagination. Fintechs have participated in more than three-dozen blank check deals year-to-date, according to the FT Partners Q3 fintech report.

Jack Dorsey is shaking things up at Twitter. Ready or not the holiday season has kicked off, and the threat of yet another COVID variant coupled with the supply chain disaster has American shoppers shifting gears. BNPL firms are enjoying the spotlight, and Mark Cuban shares how he sees crypto maturing.   

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio has warned that sky-high inflation is eroding wealth and has offered some suggestions on how to fix it. Regulators have turned their backs on a bitcoin spot-market ETF yet again. Also, PayPal and Citigroup CEOs recently discussed “navigating the pandemic.”

Fintech is exiting 2021 with a bang. IPOs and M&A are on the horizon, while venture capital is shaking things up. Crypto may have lost one battle but it has its sights set on winning the war. BNPL is tapping the capital markets, and fintech stocks could be a bubble just waiting to happen, according to one veteran PE exec.