Wade Arnold

Earning with Stablecoins in the TON Ecosystem (Part 1) Latest Update as of June 11, 2024 (https://lnkd.in/e-4UK6P5) I've never been full of love and admiration for the TON network, largely due to the lingering disappointment from the ICO era of 2017-2019, when 99% of projects failed to deliver on their promises to small investors. Telegram official Wallet (specifically its CeFI component) offers an opportunity to earn 50% annual interest for the first 2 weeks and 25% for the following 2 weeks. Restrictions: 1️⃣ KYC Requirement: Prepare your passport or driver's license; it will take SumSub about two hours to review them. 2️⃣ Maximum Deposit: 3000 USDT. 3️⃣ Rewards: Paid in TON, with a minimum withdrawal amount of 1 TON (equivalent to $7). 4️⃣ Minimum Deposit: $240 (since earning 1 TON is required to make a withdrawal). 🎁 Maximum Profit Calculation: With a deposit of 3000 USDT, the potential earnings are: $86.53 = 3000 * 0.5 / 52 * 2 + 3000 * 0.25 / 52 * 2 #ton #ton_wallet

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The bankruptcy of Synapse, where $100 million of customer funds is missing, raises serious concerns about bank-fintech partnerships and the need for rigorous due diligence. This situation underscores the immediate need for banks to reassess their partnerships and prioritize consumer protection. Stricter regulations and enhanced oversight could become the norm, ensuring only fintechs that can withstand scrutiny will thrive in the financial ecosystem. #Fintech #AI

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XST Capital Group LLC Featured in Episode 135 of Betting Startups Podcast - Investor Vibe Check Great to join host Jesse Learmonth along with Evan Meyer and Paris Smith to share perspectives on the digital gaming landscape. 🎲💰 In this episode, we discussed: • Investment journeys and current focus areas within real-money gaming • The recent consolidation among micro-betting tech providers and its impact on industry dynamics • Why legacy media struggles with betting content while startups are making it work • The greater impact of new media strategies on player behavior • Brazil’s market expectations post-regulation and opportunities for startups • Insights on the sweepstakes model and its attractiveness to investors • Advice for founders seeking mentorship from industry veterans https://lnkd.in/g7Gg2g4g #sportsbetting #onlinecasino #dailyfantasy #sweepstakes #capitalraising

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Block, the parent company of Square and Cash App, aims to leverage its dual ownership to create synergy between its point-of-sale software and peer-to-peer payments app. Jack Dorsey, Block's founder, highlighted the advantage of having relationships with both merchants and consumers, stating it's a rare position in commerce and payments. Ryan Budd, Cash App's head of financial products, hinted at plans to integrate a small business experience into Square and incentivize Cash App users to engage with Square merchants. Block is focused on connecting Cash App's consumer base with Square's merchant network, aiming to transform Cash App into a consumer app for interacting with Square merchants. This move aligns with Block's strategy to dominate various aspects of the consumer ecosystem and potentially monetize consumer spending data for advertising purposes. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/eh-8KS9V Eugene Tsay Wade Robison John O'Beirne Emily C. Chiu Eileen Wiens Jim McKelvey Branded Hospitality Ventures #innovation #venturecapital #hospitality #technology Owen Jennings (OBJ) Brooke Ellis Jamie (Russo) HicksMing-Tai Huh

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Small, focused fintechs are shaking things up in banking and payments. Payments remain the crown jewel of fintech, pulling in $21.4 billion in H1'24. But beyond the headline numbers we're seeing a shift towards fintechs that excel in specific, high-value areas: → Payments insurance → Unsecured lending → Insurance claims These companies are succeeding by tackling real issues with smart tech, not just adding bells and whistles. I've seen this shift coming and it's exciting to see it materialize. There is also increasing investor attention on emerging markets like Africa, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Places that were off the radar are now hotbeds of innovation due to massive unmet needs and leapfrog potential. The generalists had their day in the sun. For those of us who've been in the game a while, we know that the next big winners will be the specialists who can execute flawlessly in their niche. If you're in the trenches of specialized fintech I’d love to hear about what you’re seeing firsthand. Leave a comment.

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Wherever you go, Peter Piatetsky, bankers and regulators should follow! If you are a #RegTech or #FinTech founder like Peter and Julian Vasilkoski (offering the fastest, most accurate, and most reliable financial crime risk screening solution), Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator wants to meet you! Applications are now OPEN for ERA's Winter 2025 cohort (details below). Or, maybe you're like Ralph Nanad, CPA and Bhav Bhela (using AI to streamline your corporate reporting), Baptiste Bouvier (building the future of regulatory intelligence), or Max Klein and Chuck Blake (AI-powered productivity for wealth management), let's talk - or apply to ERA now! ✍ Apply: https://lnkd.in/dqz985D 💰 Companies selected to participate in the four-month program will receive an initial investment of $150K on a 6% post-money SAFE and the potential for follow-on funding. 🗽 ERA is New York City’s leading technology accelerator and early-stage venture capital fund. Since its founding in 2011, ERA alumni companies have raised more than $2 billion in investor capital and collectively exceed $10 billion in market capitalization. 🗓 Deadline: November 4, 2024 📅 Program start date: January 13, 2025 #venturecapital #technology #funding #startup Castellum.AI 10clear DiploAI LEA (getlea.io)

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Startup neobank Mercury is taking on Brex and Ramp with new bill pay, spend management software "...Digital banking startup Mercury is layering software onto its bank accounts, giving its business customers the ability to pay bills, invoice customers and reimburse employees, the company has told TechCrunch exclusively. The additional features puts the company in even more direct competition with the likes of Brex and Ramp, two rival fintechs that have for years been fighting for market share in an increasingly crowded space..." #billpay #spendmanagement #neobank #fintech _____________________________________________________ If you want to immediately see new content that I curate 👉🏻 Ring my bell (🔔) and follow #informationbanker or if you want to get the posts that got noticed in my weekly What’d I miss newsletter, subscribe here: "https://lnkd.in/d5_KvWwu"

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I posted about Robinhood's earnings report and how it's lending company in Q1. Here's an update on Q2 (even more true today). Robinhood is $16 billion mkt cap and their revenue growth is coming from...lending. On top of the new credit card which is continuing to grow, Robinhood Gold (which has been around for years) drives most of their revenue growth and Gold monetizes primarily thru lending. They already have margin lending, which is increasing more than 30% yoy. Their new credit card will monetize not on interchange (giving 3% cash back means no net interchange revenue). So how will the credit card monetize? Lending. Net interest income on revolvers (ppl who carry a balance). Lending at Robinhood could be as big as rest of their business combined. So I'll say it again. If you invest in fintech, your best companies will one day monetize thru lending even if they don't start there, because lending is one of the most important monetization levers in financial services. https://lnkd.in/ggpfwWWQ

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Twelve developer-first startups were involved in transactions last week 👨🏻‍💻 💰 Here is what happened the week of November 18th, 2024: On the fundraising side, 5 seed, 1 Series A, 1 Series B, 2 Series C and 3 Series D+ rounds were announced, totalling a staggering $5.2 billion! 🇺🇸 San Francisco-based Anthropic, developing reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems, including the Claude AI assistant, expanded their partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), including a new $4 billion investment. This brings Amazon's total investment in Anthropic to $8 billion while maintaining its position as a minority investor. Congratulations to the other companies that announced fundraising last week:  🇺🇸 LogicMonitor 🇺🇸 Kong Inc. 🇺🇸 Spectro Cloud 🇺🇸 Lightning AI 🇺🇸 Roboflow 🇺🇸 Wordware (YC S24) 🇧🇪 Apideck 🇩🇪 Pruna AI 🇺🇸 marimo 🇫🇷 Eden AI 🇫🇮 Delta Cygni Labs That’s all for last week. If you know a startup that should have been included in this list, please ping them in the comment section.

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Here's a list of 450+ Vertical Software companies (or VSaaS). VSaaS is the future of fintech, since financial services should be embedded into your day-to-day operating system (you shouldn't have to drive to a bank branch or login to an outdated system). I'm excited both to - invest in VSaaS companies directly - invest in fintech companies that embed into VSaaS Both are huge opportunities. This list by Matt Brown is a great way to get acquainted with just how much is happening in the space! https://lnkd.in/gTeGCSh5

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Politicized reg of banks: no fintech. Fear of ruin makes banks compliant: no crypto. Bank compliance officers are paid to be risk averse: no upside for innovating. Fintech and crypto startups are unbanked & underbanked. Incumbents benefit. Donate to build more chokepoints.

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New FDIC proposed rule on brokered deposit reshaping the #BaaS model: For now: ▶️ Deposits viewed as brokered if a #fintech program uses multiple bank partners ▶️ But if the fintech program is partnered with one bank, the BaaS deposits can be considered core due to the "exclusive deposit placement arrangement" exemption But new rule eliminating the above exclusivity exception, threatening the existing BaaS model In addition: ▶️ New rule also bringing in concerns about liquidity and balance sheets of banks (https://lnkd.in/gyyDPmi2) ▶️ Several trade associations and observers have publicly opposed this new rule-making, including ICBA (https://lnkd.in/g8es5q9w) #digitalbanking #corebanking #bankingsolutions #payments #fintechsolutions #digitaltransformation #fintech #baas #neobanks #challengerbanks #embeddedfintech #creditunions #communitybanks #embeddedfinance #nichebanking #bankasaservice #creditunions #communitybanks #startup #banktech

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2025 State of Fintech report from Simon Taylor just dropped! 113 pages. Covers a lot. My biggest take away is that fintech is still so early. Fintech has ~1% market share of the $30 trillion financial services market...but so many things are still early. - Hyperscalers are just getting started. There are 5+ companies worth $30+ billion (think of Stripe, Revolut, Nubank, Robinhood). But many are just getting started and are agressively expanding products. 5 years ago, it seemed impossible one of these could be worth more than JPM or VISA. Now, it's doable. Look at Robinhood. 5 years ago their average account balance was $2k. A tiny customer no incumbent cared about. Today, the average account balance for a transfer is $81k (this is happening due to the 1% match). 40x higher. That represents a mass affluent customer, something banks very much care about! -RTP is just getting started. Great adoption of PIX / UPI abroad, but they are just starting to innovating w/ putting credit on top of real time rails. And RTP in the US is really only now getting going. -AI is just getting started. Of the $30 trillion of revenue in financial services,. 90%+ goes to humans doing labor. Now software can do what humans used to. This creates amazing opportunities not just for efficiency, but rebundling. - Stablecoins are just getting started. Stripe make their largest every acquisition, Bridge, for $1 billion. And Stablecoin transaction volumes are ramping. I could go on, but you get the point. Fintech is young and more is up for grabs than ever. Enjoy the report. Oh and Simon and I recorded a live discussion, we'll have that out this weekend, stay tuned! https://lnkd.in/gRjSnkQ7

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645 Ventures’ first fund was a scrappy $8 million seed round announced in 2014. In late 2022 the firm raised its largest funds ever with $350 million across two; a $195 million fourth flagship fund and a select fund of $153 million. Seed- and early-stage venture is a network-driven business. However, what differentiates 645 Ventures is that it has also built its own software to source investments at the seed stage.

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LF Decentralized Trust, which will encompass the growing portfolio of Hyperledger projects and host new open source software, communities, standards, and specifications that are critical to the macro shift toward decentralized systems of distributed trust. Great initiative Daniela Barbosa Julian Gordon The Linux Foundation Hyperledger Foundation Hyperledger India Chapter #blockchain #hyperledger #decentralisedtrust #distributedtrust

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Crusoe, a startup transitioning from crypto to AI infrastructure, has raised $686M of an $818M funding goal, as per an SEC filing. This would bring its total funding to ~$1.5B in equity and debt. Key highlights: - Investors include Founders Fund and Felicis Ventures. - Reportedly eyeing a valuation surpassing $3B, doubling its prior valuation. - Recent $3.4B joint venture with Blue Owl Capital to build a Texas data center leased to Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI. For the latest secondary coverage and trading SaxonWeber | ShareWell #secondaries #saxonweber

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If you're building a fintech startup, you likely know of this investor, but just in case... This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Neil Kapur from TTV Capital. He: 🛫 Is based in SF & Atlanta 💲 Has spent time at Google in consumer-facing payments & at two fintech startups  🏔️ Loves alpine mountaineering and has climbed Kilimanjaro, Denali, Rainier, and more!! Amongst founders, Neil and the team at TTV Capital , including Gardiner Garrard, Mark Johnson, Sean Banks, Lizzie Guynn, and Laney Lewis are known for saying “lift, not lean.” They believe that their job as investors is not to create work for founders, but instead ask the right questions and help navigate to the best outcomes. Knowing Neil well personally, he's not only my go-to person for anything related to fintech but I can also highly recommend having him on your cap table - he's the kind of human you want to have in your corner during both good times and bad. Make sure to: ✉️ Pitch him at [email protected] ➡️ Follow TTV Capital on LinkedIn For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with TTV Capital's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

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Stablecoin Issuers Now 18th Largest Holder of U.S. Debt. Stablecoin issuers, including Tether and Circle, now hold over $120 billion in U.S. Treasury notes, making them the 18th largest holders of U.S. debt, surpassing countries like Germany and South Korea. Tether holds $91 billion, while Circle holds $29 billion. Although stablecoin legislation has not yet passed, there is optimism it will become law soon. Source: businessinsider In my opinion, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the potential impacts and complexities of stablecoins as their growth continues. #blockchain #stablecoins

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