Uncle Sean's Update - February 26

Happy Friday – we made it!!!!

Can you believe that February is essentially over?  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 2/26/21:
 

• Monday of this week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen signaled interest in backing digital-dollar research.  The very next day, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell commented on the possibility of launching a “digital dollar” calling it a high-priority project for the Federal Reserve during testimony provided at the US Senate Banking Committee.  Chairman Powell returned Wednesday for the House side and reiterated that 2021 is going to be an important year for the Fed initiative on CBDCs as they will be engaging with the public including forthcoming events that he did not want to announce at the hearing.  He also mentioned that they are working with central banks around the world on the CBDC initiative and added that they may need “legislative action” and the Fed will be engaging with Congress.  Not coincidentally, the Federal Reserve released a report this week outlining preconditions for a general-purpose central bank digital currency.

 

• Check out this CNBC Closing Bell interview with Vast Bank CEO Brad Scrivner this week - Vast Bank (Tulsa, OK) states that they “are the first national bank to enable the seamless purchase and sale of crypto currency from a single bank account.  We are also the custodian of those digital assets which means we are managing and protecting those digital assets on behalf of our customers.  Coinbase and SAP are partners in providing this service.”  Currently this service is only offered internally to the main shareholders in a beta, but they plan to roll the service out to the general public in the next 60 to 90 days.  Mr. Scrivner goes on to state that there has been significant interest in the bank offering; and that they have been working on this for about five years.  To be fair, Vast Bank first announced this story on 2/4/21 as a press release on their website; but the fact that a privately held family owned bank made it on CNBC Closing Bell is significant.

 

• Coinbase files for IPO via direct listing and will list its shares on the Nasdaq under the stock ticker "COIN."  They reported net revenue of $1.14 billion in 2020, up from $483 million the previous year; and reported net income of $322 million for the year after posting a loss in 2019.  If you really want to get weird, you can read the entire S-1 Registration Statement.

 

• Apex Clearing, which was Robinhood’s clearing house until it built its own a few years ago, issued a press release announcing they are going public via SPAC merger with Northern Star Investment Corp. II. The transaction is said to be valued at $4.7B.  Apex has more than 200 clients including Stash, Firstrade Securities, SoFi, and Marcus.  Check out their Investor Deck for more details – it’s pretty cool.

 

• U.S. bank software provider Alkami is reportedly planning an IPO at $3 billion valuation later this year per this Reuters article.

 

• TransferWise announced their name change to Wise ahead of an expected IPO sometime this year.  Their new name is no doubt an inconvenience to the existing business banking app wise.us.  Maybe not so “wise” after all?  LOL

 

• LinkedIn Wallet?  Microsoft owned LinkedIn has announced that it is developing LinkedIn Marketplaces (set to launch in September), a place where freelancers can seek out their next gig.  With over 740M members, LinkedIn hopes to bite into a major slice of the gig economy pie.  What’s even more interesting is that LinkedIn is also developing LinkedIn Wallet as an embedded finance solution - a tool that will enable the company to facilitate transactions between the employer and the freelancers. This all-in-one ecosystem is likely to present an attractive alternative to all gig economy workers. 

 

• Credit card fintech, Petal, closes $125M debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank and Trinity Capital.

 

• Digital asset bank Anchorage, fresh off of their recent conversion to a National Trust, raises $80M Series C round.  The TechCrunch article mentions that in addition to custody, Anchorage now offers several financial products, such as staking, crypto lending, etc.; and wants to become a one-stop shop for institutional investors.  Anchorage also wants to become a crypto-banking-as-a-service sponsor institution as the preferred crypto partner for both challenger banks and traditional banks.

 

• Thrivent becomes second company in a week to apply for a bank charter via Utah ILC.  Follows Brex just last week. 

 

• BNPL fintech, Affirm, announces the launch of a debit card and claims to be the first U.S. debit card to have direct access to pay-over-time functionality.  This becomes unique in that the new card does not require merchants to opt in to a BNPL agreement.

 

• And more BNPL headlines - Klarna is rumored to be close to finalizing a $1 billion funding round that would give the Swedish fintech company a valuation of $31 billion.  Cha-ching!!!!

 

• SoFi announced the launch of their SoFi Credit Card.  Cardmembers receive 2% back on all eligible purchases when redeemed to pay down SoFi student or personal loan debt, save in SoFi Money, or invest with SoFi Invest accounts.  Similar to setting up autopay, members can enable automated redemptions into their choice of eligible SoFi accounts.

 
Random Uncle Sean Stuff:
I ran across a slew of Dad Jokes recently – enjoy!!!!

• Aunt Patty asked me if I could clear the dining room table.  I had to get a pretty good running start but I made it!
• I stopped at a roadside stand that said lobster tails for $2.  I happily paid my $2 and the guy looked at me and said, “once upon a time there was this lobster….”
• If you ever get locked out of your house, talk to your lock calmly….  Because communication is key.
• Do songbirds think that hummingbirds are useless because they forgot the words?
• How does Moses make his coffee?  Hebrews…
• Tall people sleep longer…
• What do you call a Hippie’s wife?  Mississippi….
• My wife yelled from the other room, “Do you ever get a shooting pain across your body like someone’s got a voodoo doll of you and they’re stabbing it?”  I said, “No….”  She responded: “How about now?”
• If you see a crime in an Apple Store, does that make you an iWitness?
• And an instant family classic – I named my horse Mayo.  And sometimes Mayo neighs…  LMAO!!!!!!

 
Have a GREAT weekend and please stay safe!!!!
 
Uncle Sean
 
Sometimes known as Sean Mayo – contact me directly for scope and pricing of custom reports / analysis projects at smayo@fedfis.com | 214-604-6961 – or you can contact FedFis Sales Team at 512-960-0911 | info@fedfis.com #FedFisHasTheData FedFis
 
FedFis, LLC disclaimer – The views and opinions of Uncle Sean are of his own and may not necessarily represent the views, endorsements, and/or opinions of FedFis, LLC – we all know he’s a little bit different; but that’s why we love him.