Innovation in the First Fintech Cycle
A framework for thinking about uncertainty, risk, valuations, upside, “smart money,” and incumbent positioning, built through an analysis of the First Fintech Cycle, circa 2007-2023.
Insights
Fintech as Consumer Discretionary & Why It Matters
One framework I have for thinking about fintech involves three simple categorizations: fintechs as financial institutions, fintechs as tech companies, and fintechs as consumer discretionary businesses.
This framework is particularly useful for consumer & SMB fintech, but it can often be extended to B2B, too.
Depending on the audience, market
Silicon Valley Bank and the Implications for National Currency
I, many friends, our entire industry, and perhaps you are reeling from the rapid collapse of three US banks serving the broader tech & crypto sectors: Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate and Signature.
Much fantastic analysis has been done on the causes and impacts of the bank failures themselves, including some
Analyzing the Banking-as-a-Service Value Chain
Listen to this article in podcast form:
Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) has been the subject of much excitement in fintech over the past few years, together with the related but more general concept of embedded finance. The proliferation of APIs capable of connecting disparate data and services means digital product offerings can
Financializing NFTs & Why It Matters
I’m not a financialization maxi.
Without a doubt, financial innovation and responsible and appropriately supervised financial engineering unlock tremendous value for society that wouldn’t otherwise be available, like buying important, expensive things, investing for the future, expanding production and ownership, hedging risk and much more. Finance is a
Fintech Valuations in a Macro Hurricane
Fintech valuations have gotten crushed over the past few months, with growth capital availability and public market comps plummeting due to macro conditions.
If you're a publicly traded fintech like Robinhood, Coinbase, SoFi, Square/Block, MoneyLion, Payoneer, Dave, Remitly, Nubank, PayPal or many others, you're feeling
Deep Dive: NEAR Protocol
Setting the Scene
Before digging into NEAR specifically, let's start with the higher level question of how L1s should be evaluated. NEAR isn't a company or a platform, it's an open source protocol and developer community. How should we think about its potential and