Every day we bring you fresh insights about Fintech from an elite group of Authors who are just like you – senior executives, entrepreneurs and investors on the frontlines of the global Fintech & Crypto revolution. Once a week Daily Fintech’s Editor summarises these posts so that busy people can get a peek at what you will get by reading the whole article.
Bernard Lunn @LunnBernard is a Fintech deal-maker, investor, entrepreneur and advisor. He is CEO and Editor of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy.
Monday, Ilias Hatzis @iliashatzis, our Greece-based crypto entrepreneur, wrote Do we need Stable Coins?
While most consider cryptocurrencies an investment asset class, we should not forget that the original purpose of decentralized digital currencies was to be used as currencies. Volatility has been the biggest obstacle for cryptocurrency payments. The use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method has been slow, but over time it has been gaining substantial momentum.
Editor Note: Ilias describes Stablecoins as an essential step in the evolution of cryptocurrencies. He shows some data to back the idea that Stablecoins will be used more for payment than as an asset class for trading.
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Tuesday, Efi Pylarinou @efipm our Swiss-based Fintech Adviser wrote Hybrid Security Tokens – What are they and What are they not?
NEWS – Crypto and Security Token Exchange INX to Raise $130 Million in Landmark IPO: INX Limited, a crypto exchange startup, plans to raise up to $129.5 million through an IPO, in the first security token sale registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Editor Note: Efi analyses a very important news item in one of the mega trends of our era – the rise of Security Tokens. As with so many Crypto developments, the INX IPO has no obvious parallels in the legacy finance world. It has a similar structure to tZERO, whose founder resigned amidst turmoil this week. There are also additional major players in the pipeline: Coinbase Prime, Fidelity Digital Assets, Bakkt, and Six Digital Exchange.
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Wednesday, Jessica Ellerm @jessicaellerm our Australia-based Fintech entrepreneur, wrote Raisin acquires pensiontech Fairr, in record year for fintech M&A
The application of new technology to retirement savings (dubbed Pensiontech) became exciting when a Goldman Sachs backed ”deposits-as-a-service” Fintech called Raisin acquired Fairr, a German Pensiontech.
Editor Note: Thinking about pensions when young maybe boring, but the €12 trillion European pension market is not boring and a natural adjacent space for a savings oriented business like Raisin. Jessica describes a transition in M&A from bank-led deals to Fintechs as buyers “as fintech reaches relative technical maturity, and traditional business models unravel at an even faster pace”.
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Thursday, Patrick Kelahan @insuranceeleph1 our US-based Insurtech expert, wrote Always something new to learn under the insurance sun
For the common good the policyholders will corporate with each other.
The contribution of the policyholders is considered donations.
To help those who need assistance, all their policyholders will pay their share.
The liabilities are shared according to the pooling system of the community and losses are divided.
According to compensation and subscription, there is no uncertainty.
Those are the principles of Takaful Insurance. They sound like the latest Insurtech P2P venture but they have actually defined Insurance in the huge Islamic market for a long time.
Editor Note: Pat goes beyond the 30,000 foot view to look at a practical example of an Insuretech using Takaful principles in auto insurance in UAE. Takaful insurance could have profound implications for Insurtech globally
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Friday, Arunkumar Krishnakumar @karunk our UK-based Fintech investor, wrote Tala’s $110 Million raise – late stage VC feels like a House of Cards
Micro lending requires patience and a focus on both repayment and interest rates that are good for poor people. Those needs have in the past conflicted with the hot money late stage VC game. The $110m raise by Tala, a California based micro-lending venture touting “cutting edge data science” raises concerns in this area.
Editor Note: Arun raises an important issue. If MicroLending simply becomes another way for lenders to get high interest rates in a negative yield world, it can hardly be called financial inclusion. The growth of late stage mega funds driven by global quantitative easing + investor hunt for yield in a NIRP world + the virtue signalling of lending in the developing world is a potent cocktail that may lead to a nasty hangover.
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