Issue #403 - Is The US Missing An Opportunity? February 16th, 2023

Paxos, the crypto firm that cooperates with the top centralized exchange to issue Binance’s stablecoin, announced that it will stop issuing new BUSD from February 21. This news comes after US regulators ordered the company to halt its production.

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Regulators also hit Kraken, another big player in the crypto sector. The centralized exchange decided to pay the fine imposed by the SEC after US regulators revealed that the staking services offered by Kraken can be considered as unregistered securities.

In the meantime, crypto firms in the US are in trouble. It seems that the Fed is increasingly widening the barrier between banks and crypto firms. One of the most recent actions taken by regulators was the rejection of the membership application of Custodia, a bank that wants to act as a bridge between the traditional financial system and the blockchain-based financial system in the US.

Also the fintech giant PayPal halted its projects related to cryptos. After all the actions taken by regulators, the fintech company stopped its projects related to the creation of its stablecoin.

Fintech constantly grows: users prefer fintech companies because, as it emerged from a The Harris Poll’s survey, they help to save money, time and avoid financial stress. But banks see all this as a threat.

In the meantime in Hong Kong, the centralized exchange LBank is ready for new listings: on February 16, the platform will list Entropy (ENT) – which will be available for trading in the ENT/USDT pair.

The fintech space thrives and expands, especially in emerging markets, even if the blockchain sector is in trouble. InsurTech is making headlines: in India, the insurtech InsuranceDekho has just raised $150 in a funding round led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

TechCrunch analyzes the fintech failures of the last 10 years: some ideas didn’t go mainstream, some just picked the wrong time.

In the US, Fidelity National Information Services, which acquired Worldpay in 2019, announced the spin off of the payment business. The fintech group acquired Worldpay for $43 billion, but didn’t manage to integrate the business.

Regulators became more severe for what concerns crypto regulation, but it’s important to consider that blockchain is not only used for cryptos. The whole sector is about to face another impressive growth in the next decade: according to ReportLinker, the fintech blockchain sector will reach a 40.66% CAGR by 2032.