General News

February 18, 2021 @ 8:09 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Blockchain platforms Qtum and Blockpass have teamed up in order to deliver on-chain (or blockchain-based) Know-Your-Customer (KYC) services. As part of the agreement, Qtum will be providing subsidies to “specific” members looking to achieve regulatory compliance through Blockpass’s On-chain KYC solutions. Adam Vaziri, CEO at… Read More

February 18, 2021 @ 5:41 pm By JD Alois  |  

The attack of the retail investor targeting highly shorted stocks is causing institutional money to exit short positions, according to a report by S&P Global Market Intelligence. As has been widely reported, certain subreddits helped fuel trading in shorted shares where retail investors purchased stakes… Read More

February 18, 2021 @ 11:58 am By JD Alois  |  

The confluence of an ongoing pandemic, social strife, high taxes, and governments that are anti-business, has compelled a good amount of people to depart San Francisco and New York for South Florida and other locales. A recent report looks to provide additional insight into the… Read More

February 18, 2021 @ 8:10 am By Omar Faridi  |  

After disrupting the world of finance, particularly how cross-border transactions are settled, TransferWise Co-founder Taavet Hinrikus says he wants to develop solutions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Hinrikus confirmed that he’s launching a new startup called Certific, which will be focused on improving the overall… Read More

February 17, 2021 @ 9:03 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

TrueNorth, a global fintech software development company, recently announced it has formed a new partnership with Codat, a technology company that connects the internal systems of small businesses to financial institutions, including fintechs. According to TrueNorth,  the collaboration provides Codat’s FI clients with direct access… Read More

February 17, 2021 @ 8:35 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Israel-based Mirato, a company that has developed an AI-enhanced third-party risk management platform (TPRM) for financial services providers, has secured $9 million in capital. Mirato’s investment round was led by Grove Ventures along with contributions from Janvest Capital Partners (co-leader), American Express Ventures, iAngels and… Read More

February 16, 2021 @ 7:41 pm By Lee A. Schneider  |  

Fellow DeFi adherents, let’s slow down on the outrage about GameStop (NYSE:GME) and the traditional finance system (TradFi).   Blockchain and DeFi offer lots of advantages over TradFi, but TradFi is not completely broken and DeFi is not necessarily vastly superior.  Two core characteristics make… Read More

February 16, 2021 @ 12:31 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Fireblocks, an enterprise-grade platform providing the infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets, announced on Tuesday it has joined forces with payments platform First to create a secure wallet and infrastructure for financial institutions to connect to the Diem network to facilitate transactions, enabling clients to utilize… Read More

February 16, 2021 @ 10:33 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

  UK challenger bank Monzo announced on Monday it is asking the UK government to make are the country’s citizens may have access to gambling blocks. According to Monzo, around two million people in Britain are experiencing harm caused by gambling, which includes getting into… Read More

February 16, 2021 @ 9:38 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

  Propertybase, a U.S.-based real estate software provider, announced on Tuesday it has acquired Cross Media, LLC, producer of Unify, a full suite mortgage-specific business growth platform. According to Propertybase, Unify offers a “turnkey platform with the richest” set of tools to identify and concert… Read More

February 16, 2021 @ 8:20 am By Omar Faridi  |  

iwoca, an established European small business lender, has announced its UK-first integration with leading SME platform Xero. Integrating iwocaPay – iwoca’s invoice checkout – into Xero’s platform, will “for the first time provide small businesses with a Pay Later option for their business customers,” according… Read More

February 16, 2021 @ 8:19 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

    Atom Bank, a UK-based mobile bank, announced on Tuesday it has joined forces with UK fintech Plaid  to roll out open banking services to its customers, beginning with offering small business owners a new loan application journey and speedier decisions. “Initially Plaid will… Read More

February 15, 2021 @ 9:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Payments platform Adyen (AMS:ADYEN) notes that the COVID-19 outbreak has accelerated consumers’ adoption of digital platforms and services. Technically “timid” grandparents have also become a lot more comfortable with video conferencing in a post COVID world, the Adyen team writes in a blog post. People… Read More

February 15, 2021 @ 5:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Amsterdam has reportedly managed to overtake London as the largest share trading center in Europe. Industry analysts have noted that the symbolic blow may be followed by London losing many more jobs and business opportunities due to Brexit. Amsterdam, which was once the sixth-largest European… Read More

February 14, 2021 @ 10:42 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

  UK-based challenger bank Tide recently announced its Tide Charity has donated £175,000 to small businesses that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Tide, the charity launched in November 2020 in partnership with the Daily Mail, Karren Brady, and The Federation of Small Businesses. Its mission is… Read More

February 14, 2021 @ 1:40 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A $150 billion Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) investing division, which is well-known for its ability to select growth or high-potential stocks, is reportedly looking into whether it should add Bitcoin (BTC) to its investment strategy. Counterpoint Global, a division of Morgan Stanley Investment Management that has… Read More

February 13, 2021 @ 2:41 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Thrasio, a company that acquires and then aims to quickly grow third-party sellers on Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has finalized $750 million in new funding, raising the firm’s valuation to around $3 billion to $4 billion. The investment round was led by current investors Advent and… Read More

February 13, 2021 @ 9:50 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Consumer sentiment regarding Bitcoin (BTC) as a legitimate payment method has changed significantly following the historic crypto market bull run, which is truly unprecedented. With BTC prices reaching all-time highs (briefly hitting $49,000) on the heels of Elon Musk’s tech firm Tesla’s announcement that they’ve… Read More

February 12, 2021 @ 1:20 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Tiger Global is reportedly leading a $200 million investment round in Public.com, a Robinhood competitor. at around a $1.2 billion valuation (quadrupling the firm’s value in only 2 months). Public.com’s management noted that their massive $200 million round would give the firm a $1 billion… Read More

February 12, 2021 @ 9:37 am By JD Alois  |  

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is going all-in on Bitcoin as he announced via Twitter that he has requested the city manager to research a vendor to facilitate Bitcoin payments as well as paying employees in Bitcoin. Crypto insiders quickly embraced the move with Anthony Pompliano… Read More