Ian Low ACMA, CGMA

There's a lot of buzz about stablecoins in the fintech community right now. But we're just scratching the surface of what fintechs will achieve. If the opinions of this cohort of leaders are anything to go by, stablecoins are back on the agenda. In this report, we spoke to leaders at different points in the payments value chain: stablecoin issuers like Paxos, embedded banking providers like ClearBank, B2B payments fintechs like Freemarket and VCs like General Catalyst. We asked: how are you thinking about stablecoins and what progress will be made this year? Here are a few things they told us: - Market timing is a challenge we need regulators, banks and governments to come on board. But with stablecoins we’ll find the next category-defining business. - Traditional financial institutions (FIs) are experimenting. When they see clear ROI, they’ll start rolling out stablecoin rails to other countries – this will be a pivotal moment for market readiness. - Stablecoins will reach a market cap of $250bn by the end of 2024, growing 2-3x the pace of the crypto market overall. - Providers with the right licences will be in a stronger position to launch stablecoin products and offer those to other FIs. - By the end of 2024 we’ll see some marquee partnerships where traditional fintechs are launching a full stablecoin solution, wallets pay-ins and payouts. For those thinking about adding stablecoins to their tech stack, I hope this collection of views, along with summaries of use cases, can provide some useful perspectives. https://lnkd.in/dh7ZAfg2

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🌐 Isn't it ironic? 🌐 China's government, the very entity that propelled WeChat Pay to become a giant in the mobile payment industry, is now asking Tencent to *reduce* WeChat's market share! 😲📉 Imagine nurturing a tech giant, watching it dominate with 94% of the market alongside Alipay, only to turn around and say, "You've grown too big, time to scale down!" 😂 This comes as WeChat Pay continues to innovate with tech like palm payments, making transactions seamless and cashless. Yet, the government wants to ensure no single entity holds too much power over our digital wallets. 🖐💳 It's a balancing act between fostering innovation and preventing monopolies. What's next? Maybe they'll tell Alibaba to slow down on those amazing Taobao deals? 🤷‍♂️ #Irony #TechNews #WeChatPay #DigitalEconomy #China #MobilePayments #Tencent #Alibaba #Fintech #Innovation

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Messari's State of Filecoin Q1 2024 report is out: #FVM #growth + #adoption highlights by the numbers:  - "TVL on FVM surpassed $600 million in Q1’24, up almost 2x QoQ"  - "Over 3,400 unique contracts were deployed on the FVM, up 26% QoQ" #Filecoin #web3 #blockchain #DataStorage #VirtualMachine #SmartContracts #DePin Filecoin Foundation Shoutout to Mihai Grigore, PhD for pulling it together https://lnkd.in/dEmHW9Nn

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🚀 𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐊𝐨𝐧𝐠'𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞: 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐄𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞 🌐 The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), along with leading industry players and regulatory bodies, is pioneering an impactful initiative named "𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐄𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲." This community is set to explore and enhance asset tokenization, which could significantly revolutionize investment landscapes and financial transactions. 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: 🏆𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞: The HKMA announced on May 7 the formation of a community comprising industry leaders and regulators to establish standards in tokenization. 🔦𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬: The initiative will first focus on interbank settlements of tokenized deposits via wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDCs). 👥𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬: Notable participants include regulatory bodies like the HKMA and the Securities and Futures Commission, alongside private sector giants such as HSBC, Standard Chartered Hong Kong, and technology partner Microsoft Hong Kong. ⏳𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐛𝐨𝐱 𝐈𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞: Slated for mid-2024, the Project Ensemble Sandbox will facilitate further research and test real-world applications of tokenization in financial transactions. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐈𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: Asset tokenization uses blockchain technology to represent real-world assets digitally, enhancing liquidity and potentially unlocking a myriad of investment opportunities across sectors. HKMA's initiative isn't just about technological advancement but enabling interoperability among banks and financial institutions, paving the way towards seamless & global financial operations. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺-𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘒𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘙𝘞𝘈 (𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭-𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘵) 𝘵𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 $16 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘺 2030. 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐝 ! #HKMA #Blockchain #Tokenization #Fintech #DigitalCurrency #Innovation #FinancialMarkets #Bitcoin #Crypto #Compliance #RegTech

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Prior to recent news of a $545M profit, and that it was seeking an updated $40bn valuation, Revolut added a number of new features to its app. Here is how these features compare to competitors: Source: FXC Intelligence - https://lnkd.in/eyMwjEei Find this helpful? [ 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 ] Anything to add about this subject? [ 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 ] Nice story, Marcel. Next! [ 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 ]

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Another great podcast by Aaron Bush at Naavik, this one with our good friend Josh Ye on China's game market. A few take aways: - Completely agree that the challenging domestic regulatory environment has focused China's game developers on the global market. In fact, that is why we are launching a game law conference on July 26th in Shanghai at China Joy. Registration is open: https://lnkd.in/gM72ik7i - Also agree that US (and increasingly EU) investment screening under CFIUS and other rules has pushed the China giants away from M&A and toward building studios from zero, which (currently) doesn't trigger review. - True again that game approvals are up in 1H 2024 compared to 1H 2023, which is a positive trend. Not mentioned in the show, but the December 2023 draft regulations that crashed China game stocks have NOT reappeared. Also positive. - Josh also discussed Tencent (lead sponsor of the game law conference!) WeChat mini-game platform strategy, NetEase Eggy Party success, ByteDance's evolving game strategy and more. #chinagames #chinatech https://lnkd.in/gpqJSbBz

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Gemini 1.5 Flash’s 1 mllion token context window, low latency, and cost efficiency have quickly made it a favorite among our customers. Check out the advantages of Gemini 1.5 Flash over comparable models like GPT 3.5 Turbo: ⚡ Gemini 1.5 Flash's 1 million token context window is approximately 60x bigger than the context window provided by GPT-3.5 Turbo ⚡ On average, Gemini 1.5 Flash is 40% faster than GPT-3.5 Turbo when given input of 10,000 characters ⚡ Gemini 1.5 Flash is up to 4X lower on input price than GPT-3.5 Turbo, with context caching enabled for inputs larger than 32,000 characters. Learn more about Gemini 1.5 Flash—now generally available on Vertex AI ↓

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Korea to trial digital vouchers based on CBDC-based deposit tokens #stablecoin #CBDC #DigitalPayment #banking #DigitalCurrency  #Cryptocurrency #digitalPound #fintechnews #cbdccommunity  #blockchain #AI #finance #currency #regulatory #DigitalAssets #data #london #US #digitalmarketing #digitaleuro #Fintech #SecurePayments  https://lnkd.in/dVuEcNpX

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So far this year... - Bitcoin ETF’s launched with BlackRock's $IBIT being recognized as the most successful ETF launch ever - Ether ETF approval, with #Ethereum and #Bitcoin ETF’s launching in Hong Kong just the month prior - Stripe returns to web3 after a 6 year hiatus and embraces it by enabling users to accept crypto as payments - TradFi like Franklin Templeton and JPMorgan are actively building on crypto rails, powered by Chainlink - Public companies like Semler Scientific buy $40M worth of Bitcoin as part of their treasury strategy. - #Crypto becomes a major issue for both parties in the upcoming 2024 US Election. Working in #web3 sometimes feels like a pie eating contest, where if you win, the reward is eating more pie. But there is an undeniable belief that we are working on things that have society changing impact. For those thinking about working towards greater impact, now is an opportune time to explore. Dynamic is hiring across all functions, check us out!

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Binance's Legal Troubles: A Tech Dilemma? 🚨 What's your take on balancing crypto freedom with regulatory needs? 🤔 Share thoughts!

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Navigating the Ripple Effect: Tech in Finance 💼🌐 How do you view the impact of tech on society and finance?

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Top Crypto Degen Countries (By Global Interest Share)! ➡ USA is sprinting ahead with a whopping 16.8% of global crypto enthusiasm. ➡ UK follows with a significant 6.16%, reflecting its robust crypto infrastructure. ➡ From the bustling markets of the Philippines to the dynamic landscapes of the UAE, the globe is pulsing with crypto energy! 👉 Each percentage point reflects more than interest; it shows where the future of finance is heading, where innovation thrives, and where the crypto community is strongest. P.S. Which country's crypto culture fascinates you the most? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is Adil Ashfaq. I elevate Web3 brands with my content and strategy. I regularly post educational content about Web3. Follow for more! #blockchain #cryptocurrency #technology #innovation

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Crypto update: Today's focus is on the 50MA/4hr, crucial for short-term trading. $BTC, $ETH, $RNDR, $FET test its support. Will it hold? $ETH's resilience is encouraging for altcoins.

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Monzo Bank 🆚 Revolut #Crowdfunding #investors in these #FinTech’s are sitting on Millions💸: 🚨 Spoiler alert: 300x and 27x returns. The #UK has created some of the world’s leading FinTechs, and thanks to platforms like #Crowdcube, it’s not just #VCs who have the opportunity to invest in them. #Monzo and #Revolut both decided to raise money through Crowdcube, enabling their users as well as retail investors to buy shares in their companies. Both have since seen their valuations skyrocket into the billions, meaning retail investors are sitting on some insane returns. 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁 A year after being founded Revolut offered Crowdcube investors the opportunity to buy up to 2.4% of the business: 🚀 £40m valuation 🚀 120k of revenue 🚀 £1.68 share price 🚀 433 people invested an average amount of £2,152 The latest share price is $609.78 (£482), meaning that investors are currently sitting on a roughly 300x return. That £2,152 would be worth over £600k. There were several investors who invested a lot more and have £1m+ holdings in the company. 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘇𝗼 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸 Monzo recently announced a £600m fundraise which valued the business on a pre-money basis of £3.6bn. However, back in 2016 Monzo offered Crowdcube investors the opportunity to buy up to 3% of the business: 🚀 £29m valuation 🚀 £5k of revenue 🚀 >2000 investors bought shares Monzo went on to raise more money through crowdfunding. This is how much ��1,000 of shares would be worth today if you had invested it at each Crowdcube campaign: 2016: £28,054 2017 (R1): £14,317 2017 (R2): £6,102 2018: £1,870 That's 28k from a 1k #investment. Investors still need to exit for any gains to be realised but when they do they’re in for a big pay day. Shoutout to Crowdcube and Seb Johnson (👈 follow this guy for more great insights and updates like this one👌) for providing the data on this! Find this helpful? [ 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 ] Anything to add about this subject? [ 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 ] Nice story, Marcel. Next! [ 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 ] www.isap.investments iSAP Group Investments ltd iSAP Exchange FZCO

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