Global

April 18, 2021 @ 11:00 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

We recently connected with Danial Daychopan, CEO and Founder of UK-based Plutus, a financial services provider that aims to bridge the gap between traditional fiat currencies and “upcoming” cryptocurrencies. Plutus says it offers the “best of both worlds,” which includes centralized fiat and non-custodial crypto,… Read More

April 18, 2021 @ 7:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The founder of digital banking challenger Revolut is reportedly planning a new round of funding that could value the Fintech at over £7.2 billion (appr. $10 billion). Sky News reports that the digital bank may be looking to work with  FT Partners, the US-headquartered Fintech-focused… Read More

April 18, 2021 @ 6:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

MENA region startups secured $170 million in capital during March 2021, which is reportedly a 6% increase month-over-month, across 43 different deals, according to local sources. This notably takes the total funds raised during Q1 2021 to $396 million across 125 different deals, which is… Read More

April 18, 2021 @ 5:51 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A senior Bank of Japan (BoJ) official has stated that China’s digital renminbi will not be able to pose a threat to the US dollar’s dominant position as the global reserve currency. As reported by Bloomberg, Kazushige Kamiyama, who heads the BoJ’s payment systems division… Read More

April 18, 2021 @ 5:27 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

BNPL Fintech Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) notes that last year’s holiday shopping season set many digital commerce records, including in its “volume of purchases” made through Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services. Affirm cites Salesforce data which reveals that BNPL transactions surged 109% when compared to the… Read More

April 18, 2021 @ 2:07 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Cathie Wood’s ARK funds has reportedly acquired additional shares of digital assets firm Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN). ARK reportedly made the purchase on Friday (April 16, 2021). The company also sold some of its Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares. ARK acquired 187,078 shares of Coinbase, which… Read More

April 17, 2021 @ 5:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The team at Riskified, provider of an “all-in-one” e-commerce fraud prevention solution and chargeback protection service for “high volume and enterprise merchants,” notes that digital commerce businesses spend most of their budget on “customer acquisition, focusing on getting consumers to hit the ‘buy’ button.” While… Read More

April 17, 2021 @ 4:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Earlier this week, Online Payment Platform, the Netherlands based payment services provider, chose Banking Circle to help it support global marketplaces As confirmed in a release, Online Payment Platform selected payments specialist and licensed bank, Banking Circle, to “enhance its marketplace offering.” As mentioned in… Read More

April 17, 2021 @ 3:39 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

  The team at BitPay, a leading cryptocurrency payments platform, notes in their regular monthly update report that it has been another busy month in the world of digital currencies. BitPay writes in a blog post that they continue to welcome new merchants while offering… Read More

April 17, 2021 @ 11:00 am By Omar Faridi  |  

On April 15, 2021, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 16 individuals and 16 entities for “attempting to undermine and influence the 2020 US presidential election,” blockchain security firm CipherTrace noted in a blog post. CipherTrace also mentioned… Read More

April 17, 2021 @ 10:55 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Leading crypto exchange Binance notes in its weekly report that it completed a record-breaking Binance Coin (BNB) token burn. The weekly report (April 10 – 16, 2021) from Binance reveals that the digital assets firm burned “a record $593 million in BNB.” The digital currency… Read More

April 16, 2021 @ 7:09 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Nitin Gaur, Founder and Director of IBM Digital Asset Labs, recently looked into how businesses may be able to absorb “disruptive” impact and start integrating new business models (NFTs) in existing and “new streams” of business opportunity. Gaur writes in a blog post that non-fungible… Read More

April 16, 2021 @ 5:27 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Financial Services TechnoVision, currently in its third year of publication, aims to offer businesses with a “robust” and “proven” foundation for technology adoption. It provides thought leadership to assist firms with navigating the “complex yet critical technology environment.” As noted in the report, “agility” and… Read More

April 16, 2021 @ 8:45 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Manish Kohli, Global Head of Payments and Receivables at Citi (NYSE:C), notes that at the leading banking institution, they’re using APIs to facilitate payments, to digitize the “client experience” and “ultimately to help change our client’s evolve to real-time, 24×7 direct to consumer business models.”… Read More

April 16, 2021 @ 8:24 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Dr. Joshua Ellul, Chairman of Malta Digital Innovation Authority; Expert Evaluator at European Commission; Director of Centre for DLT at University of Malta, has shared a preprint for a paper that his team plans to present in June 2021 on a “pragmatic” approach to the… Read More

April 16, 2021 @ 8:16 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Lloyd’s Lab has announced its sixth cohort with a special focus on “product simplification” and climate. Lloyd’s revealed on April 15, 2021 that the next eleven insurance technology (Insurtech) startups joining the sixth cohort of the Lloyd’s Lab innovation accelerator program will aim to develop… Read More

April 16, 2021 @ 12:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Ten of the United Kingdom’s leading Fintech companies are now working with Big Four auditing firm PwC in order to showcase how the future of banking will focus on both collaboration and innovation, along with greater personalization. After 3 years of ongoing development, the 10… Read More

April 15, 2021 @ 9:45 pm By JD Alois  |  

Switzerland-based METACO, a provider of security-critical infrastructure for the digital asset ecosystem, has launched METACO Harmonize, an “end-to-end digital asset orchestration system for institutions.” So what exactly is “digital asset orchestration”? METACO explainst that it is a system of applications to manage a range of… Read More

April 15, 2021 @ 11:32 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Dr. Leemon Baird, Founder and Chief Scientist at Hedera Hashgraph, an ecosystem focused on developing enterprise-grade business applications, has revealed that they’ve just hit their first billion transactions on the Hedera Hashgraph mainnet (in only 19 months). Baird also noted: “And it keeps accelerating. A… Read More

April 15, 2021 @ 11:30 am By JD Alois  |  

Accelerated Payments, an invoice financing platform, reports that it has now advanced €300 million worth of financing to SMEs across the UK, Europe, and North America since its inception. Founded in 2017 and based in Dublin, with offices in London and Toronto, Accelerated Payments has… Read More