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Forward-thinking financial advisory firms face an increasing number of challenges. In addition to fee compression, strong market competition, shrinking margins and increasing cyberattacks, firms also have to navigate and comply with country-specific regulations.

While government regulators ponder (that's being kind) about how to formally regulate crypto, it seems almost everyone has an opinion on whether it will be "doom" or "gloom" for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Here is a glimpse of the topic from a great "point-counter point" article by two extremely knowledgeable industry leaders on their thoughts.

The deal pipeline is filling in the fintech space, chief of which includes Visa flexing its muscle in Europe’s open banking industry. Kids are gaining access to financial apps sooner than later, thanks to one UK-based challenger bank. In addition, a couple of German fintech startups are looking to gain a foothold in the US market while the IPO pipeline keeps growing. Andreessen Horowitz has made a key hire and is doubling down on crypto despite a murky regulatory environment.

Fintechs are increasingly coming into their own, with investment banks hunting ways to rub shoulders with the digital crowd. In the past week, JPMorgan made a splash with a fintech investment while the IPO pipeline is filling in the U.S., as well as globally. PayPal is upping the ante for merchants as it boasts its prowess in the competitive payments landscape, while central bank digital currencies are all the rage.

Global central bankers, already extremely anxious about losing monetary control to the likes of Bitcoin, are going to have some very sleepless nights ahead. Nightmare type sleepless nights. Last week El Salvador's President, Nayib Bukele, signed into law legislation declaring Bitcoin to be legal tender in the country.

Cryptocurrencies, in particular Bitcoin, have come under recent criticism for being environmentally unfriendly, specifically for the energy it takes to mine and transact with digital assets. Most recently, Tesla founder Elon Musk triggered a wave of volatility in Bitcoin after he opined that the digital currency was not energy efficient.

A bevy of deal activity kept the fintech space in the spotlight once again. The pipeline of startups set to hit the public markets after Marqeta made a splash on the Nasdaq last week is building, and SPACs are still hot to trot. Payments platform Stripe has launched its own AI-fueled identity product, while the buy now, pay later trend continues to gain momentum.

KEEPING SCORE; SO FAR BITCOIN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CLIMATE POLLUTION,MONEY LAUNDERING, CRIME, RANSOMWARE, COLLAPSE OF FINANCIAL STABILITY, MARRIAGE/RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS (OK, that's mine)....whatever.

BITCOIN is about to become legal tender for a sovereign country. Or, as one guy said on the moon, "One small step for Bitcoin, one giant leap for digital currency." Something like that anyway.

When Jahon Jamali first learned about blockchain technology, he knew he had found something that would change the world. “We’re now at a point where I can text someone in Nigeria and have a conversation in real time, but I can’t easily send them a buck,” said Jamali. “It makes no financial sense. With blockchain, we are free of that."