This week our experts brought you the following insights based on their experience as investors, entrepreneurs & executives.
Monday Ilias Hatzis our Greece-based crypto entrepreneur (Founder & CEO at Kryptonio a “keyless” non-custodial bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallet, that lets users manage bitcoin and crypto, without private keys or passwords and Weekly Columnist at Daily Fintech) @iliashatzis wrote Is bitcoin Revolut’s path to profitability?
Neobanks and digital wallet providers like Revolut, Paypal, Robinhood and Square are already offering cryptocurrencies on their platforms. Millions of potential bitcoin buyers get access to crypto markets via PayPal, Robinhood, Square’s Cash App and Revolut. Bitcoin meteoric rise has spiked their cryptocurrency trading volumes and the number of new customers on their platforms. To illustrate this, Square’s CashApp traded $1.8 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in the fourth quarter of 2020 alone. Robinhood cryptocurrency service has added 6 million funded accounts in the first two months of 2021 only, when its total customer count was 13 million users a year ago. Revolut has never been profitable, at least not on an annual basis, but it’s always seen positive months when bitcoin’s price skyrocketed. Since November 2020, it’s been profitable every month.
Editor note:Revolut is becoming a full service bank and catering to crypto demand is one thing that full service banks do. Look out for Coinbase to get a lot of competition.
——————————————-
Tuesday Bernard Lunn, CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy wrote: DeFi Part 2 Investor Beware says Eeyore
At a decentralised conference entitled The Pooh Corner Debate on DeFi, Eeyore kicked off (having won the coin toss) by pointing out 7 points that investors considering DeFi should think about:
Editor note: If you thought Eeyore was being too negative, tune in next week for DeFi Part 3. If it is broke then fix it says Tigger.
Wednesday Alan Scott Managing Director EMEA at 24 Exchange @Alan_SmartMoney wrote his weekly roundup of Stablecoin news.
Note, this week The Economist featured Govcoins on their cover. Daily Fintech subscribers have been shared of this curve for a while.
——————————————-
Thursday
Rintu Patnaik, an Insurtech expert based in India, wrote: In a Tumultuous Year for Auto Insurance, Customers Seek Better Value
Latest customer survey findings on auto insurance trends during the last year show largely similar after-effects in most world regions. In the US, a JD Power 2021 Insurance Shopping Study revealed that the pandemic caused a 55% decrease in number of miles driven, inducing auto insurance customers to shop around for more personalized and cheaper policies. In UK, the Confused.com Car Insurance Price Index in association with Willis Towers Watson revealed that comprehensive car insurance premiums fell by 14% since the first quarter of 2020, the biggest annual drop since 2014.
Editor note: this is how innovation is supposed to work, digital claims mean lower costs which means lower prices/policies.
Christian Dreyer @x3er, the Swiss based CFA who focusses on how XBRL changes our world wrote his weekly roundup of XBRL news.
——————————————-
Friday Howard Tolman, a well-known banker, technologist and entrepreneur in London, wrote: his weekly roundup of Alt Lending news.
——————————————-
To continue receiving ‘This Week in Fintech’, the weekly recap of our articles, you will need to fill this form to give us consent to send this to you. Please note that Daily Fintech requires your organizational email address (e.g. corporate, educational or government) and your LinkedIn URL. This information is required for subscribers who want ‘This Week in Fintech’ for free. If you prefer to not provide this information, you can still receive all our content by becoming a paying member.