De-Fi & The Winklevii
Did the Winklevoss twins get the last laugh against Mark Zuckerberg? I did some investigative reporting to find out.
Bitcoin. Are you in or out? Are you team HODL or are you waiting for its inevitable downfall?
Depending on who you follow on Twitter, Bitcoin might be the world-changing technology that will skyrocket to more than $400,000 (It’s 41.5k as of January 8, 2021), or it will become the next Tulip Mania disaster. We already know how Warren Buffet feels about it. Hint: he thinks Bitcoin is Rat Poison squared.
The Winklevi, aka the Winklevoss twins, aka the people that Mark Zuckerberg stole the Facebook idea from are VERY bullish on Bitcoin. In 2013, Tyler Winklevoss predicted that Bitcoin will get up to $40,000, and he turned out to be right.
But, let’s not forget they run Gemini, a platform for buying and selling cryptocurrency. So, let’s say they are just a little biased. It’s not like more people buying Bitcoin will make him richer than he already is. Oh, wait, nevermind.
Here’s a quirky fact about the Winklevii. When Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher were casting the Winklevoss twins for the Social Network film (arguably the best film of the 21st century), he couldn’t find two tall, handsome, 6’5 twins to play the part. So they actually filmed two different people and superimposed one of their faces on the other one. All I can think about is the poor guy who gets the role of a lifetime only to find out that his face won’t be in it, just his body. He was a body double.
Is there anyone we can trust in this place?
And before we get to our regularly scheduled programming, Cameron Winklevoss posted this tweet which is totally just an FYI, in-case you wanted to know, just going to leave this here type of thing, he announces that Bitcoin is more valuable than Facebook. Did they just get the last laugh against Mark Zuckerberg?
Too early to tell, but this was a good tweet.
Anyway, I digress.
Fintech is still on fire and decentralized finance is leading the way.
There are some huge deals that are being processed. I believe 2021 is going to be an even bigger year than 2020 for fintech as a whole.
You have titan companies like Western Union investing hundreds of millions overseas in fintech companies. Intuit, which is already a behemoth sized enterprise is poised to grow even larger with its acquisition of the popular company, Credit Karma. The race continues on how to figure out efficient regulations for huge companies like the ones previously mentioned and the rapidly growing startups.
I expect Fintech will continue to be an interesting sector to watch for.
Here are some stories that are worth reading.
Intuit continues to grow its massive footprint in the consumer finance management industry
Intuit and Credit Karma previously announced that they will be merging and they passed another important threshold. The Department of Justice has given their clearance for Intuit to acquire Credit Karma. Additionally, Credit Karma announced it will be divesting its tax business to Square. With that deal being contingent on Credit Karma being acquired by Intuit, we may be looking at one of the most important deals in Fintech closing soon.
Western Union invested $200M into the Saudi mobile wallet company, Stc Pay
Stc Pay is now worth $1.33B. The mobile wallet offers a variety of financial services to its users such as peer-to-peer transferring, QR codes payments at partner stores and payment of utility payments. Stc Pay is a subsidiary of Saudi Telecom Company. While the investment may seem like a bit of a surprise. Western Union and Stc Pay have been partners since early 2019. With their investment Western Union now has a 15 percent stake in the company.
Popular neobank Current raises $131M in a Series C and now has a valuation of $750M
What started as a debit card that parents could control for their children has grown into one of the leaders of the new fintech space. Last fall they have 500,000 users and now they’re up to 2 million. According to the company, revenue has increased by 500% year-over-year. The fact fintech companies are getting huge investments and expanding their customer base wildly is clear sign of the time and the new trend in finance.
Payments Startup Stripe in Talks for Funding at $70 Billion Valuation or More
While my siblings and I can’t get along enough to decide what to get our parents for Christmas, brothers John and Patrick Collison founded private financial technology business Stripe Inc. in 2010 and is poised to receive a valuation of $70-100 billion. Like other fintechs, Stripe started a card-issuing services for U.S. clients during the pandemic, further showing how businesses must be able to pivot during hard times if they want to stay afloat.
The race to regulate fintech
While fintech is surging ahead and disrupting the financial institutions that have been around for centuries, regulators have struggled to keep up with the rapid pace of technological advancement. We may soon be facing larger IPO issues similar to the infamous Ant Group debacle, if regulators continue to force companies to slow down.
That’s all for this week.
Here’s a picture of Josh Pence who played one of the Winklevoss twins with nothing to show for it. Good looking guy, but falls a few Bitcoins short of the Winklevii.
