Well, what a week that was. This time last week Sam Bankman-Fried was worth more than $16 billion and FTX was one of the most respected brands in crypto. Now, SBF has lost almost his entire fortune, FTX is in bankruptcy and he is no longer CEO of the company. Of course, there was other news but the fast-moving FTX crash dominated the headlines all week. Here are what I consider to be the top ten fintech news stories of the past week.
FTX Files for Bankruptcy, CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Resigns from The Wall Street Journal – This was probably the fastest-moving story in the history of fintech and it ended Friday with news that the number three crypto exchange, FTX, was filing for bankruptcy with CEO and Founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigning. It is the largest crypto-related bankruptcy ever.
Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Drained From FTX Overnight in ‘Unauthorized’ Transfers from Decrypto – The FTX saga continued through Friday night and this morning with reports that hundreds of millions of dollars were flowing out of FTX wallets in what the company called unauthorized transactions. What a way to cap off the worst week in crypto history.
Both the DOJ and SEC are probing potential criminal activity, securities offenses at FTX, source says from Fortune – Not really a surprise with all the revelations this week that both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating possible criminal activity inside FTX.
Op-ed: Crypto markets need regulation to avoid more washouts like FTX, says Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong from CNBC – Brian Armstrong was quite vocal this week about the differences between Coinbase and FTX and he has called on regulators to act so that crypto services can be offered in a safe and transparent way. The lack of clarity is driving crypto operators away from the U.S.
Elon Musk details his vision for a Twitter payments system from TechCrunch – There is a lot of disarray inside Twitter right now but once the dust settles the company could be getting into fintech in a big way. The company has filed registration paperwork with FinCEN that would allow it to process payments. Elon Musk outlined bigger plans beyond payments with Twitter potentially expanding into digital banking and other areas of fintech.
FedNow gives fee holiday in 2023 from BankingDive – FedNow is on target to launch in mid-2023 and the Federal Reserve has revealed pricing for its service. The Fed will charge customer credit transfer and customer credit transfer return fees of $0.045 per item and a participation fee of $25 per routing transit number per month. But it will waive all fees giving banks a few months to try out the service.
How Upgrade became a ‘marketing engine’ for deposit-hungry banks from BankingDive – Upgrade has long been a fintech leader in credit cards and personal loans but is now getting into deposits. It has launched a new savings account with a 3.5% annual percentage yield and will be leveraging the same marketplace approach, working with 200 community banks and credit unions providing them with deposits.
Marqeta lands new client, faces questions on Block from PaymentsDive – Marqeta reported earnings this week and announced a partnership with One, the new Walmart-backed fintech. Block accounted for 72.5% of Marqeta’s revenue as the Cash App card continues to grow users.
Upstart CEO: The pain for lenders is far from over from Protocol – Upstart also reported earnings this week, coming in below analyst expectations with a 31% decrease in revenue and a net loss for the quarter of $56 million. CEO Dave Girouard also said that he expects the worst is yet to come on the economy.
Is decentralization just a pipe dream? from Fintech Nexus – In this long read, our own Isabelle Castro dives deeply into decentralization in a financial world that continues to become increasingly centralized. But the challenges of this week in crypto came from centralized platforms.
Every Thursday afternoon, the Fintech Nexus News team and a special guest discuss the news of the week live on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. We have now made the show available in podcast format – click on the audio player below.