Issue #368 - Investors At A Crossroads June 16th, 2022

Despite the market downturn, people are more interested in cryptocurrencies, a recent survey conducted by Bank of America found: people want to buy, and don’t want to sell.

The Fintech Islands Experience (FIX) will be an important catalyst for fintech innovation and transformation across the Caribbean. The three-day conference will focus on bringing global thought leadership, best practices and best-in class solutions to the Caribbean’s banking and financial industry, while introducing this largely untapped market to the fintech world.

Attend the premier conference for data & analytics leaders in North America – Chief Data & Analytics Officers, Fall on October 10-12, 2022 in Boston, MA. New this year is a personalized learning and networking track for data & analytics executives serving the Financial Services industry. Join your peers who understand your challenges and celebrate your successes when it comes to the nuanced intricacies of data & analytics. Qualified data & analytics folks can attend at no cost with a VIP pass.

According to Michael Aboott, “the metaverse is the next frontier for banking”. Banks should put money into the metaverse to exploit the opportunities offered by the digital world and blockchain technology.

Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, addressed the issue with Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals on Monday. Some minor hardware problems simply delayed transactions, which were broadcasted to the network after the issues with some nodes were solved.

The crypto market downturn also affects crypto-related companies – and their employees. Crypto.com and BlockFi join the list of those companies that plan to cut hundreds of jobs.

Thousands of traders are getting their positions liquidated. This is the result of the drop in ETH prices, which reach a 14-month low. In just 24 hours, over $521 million worth of open positions were simply liquidated.

According to CoinShares, the crypto market crash could be explained by looking at the Federal Reserve's rhetoric. The report by the investment company shows that over $100 million worth of cryptos exited the US market during the past week: investors may have closed their positions in anticipation of an aggressive monetary policy designed to combat the impressive levels of inflation.

During these chaotic times for finance and markets, Goldman Sachs launches a new derivative product. Its underlying asset? Ether (ETH).

JPMorgan wants to enter DeFi protocols – but in an institutional way. As Tyrone Lobban, head of Onyx Digital Assets, said during the Consensus 2022 conference, the company is planning to tokenize trillions of dollars to make them available for DeFi pools.

Scroll wants to revolutionize homeowners’ finances: the fintech firm has built its own lending platform, and its partnership with Modulr will allow homeowners to get real-time decisions on loans and payments in a few days.

HSBC, the popular financial service institution, partners with Oxford to create a FinTech course for employees: the program will be based on the Oxford Fintech Program, and will help employees to better understand the fintech space – including cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.