In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin try to make sense of GameStop and WallStreetBets, the aftermath of the failed Plaid-Visa deal, who might buy Monzo, a Cambrian explosion at the intersection of money and society and RIP Hammerin’ Hank Aaron.
This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals.
MAIN STORIES WE COVERED:
What the Hell Is Going On With GameStop’s Stock? (Slate, 26-Jan-21)
What does it mean for the future of publicly traded equities where you have groups like WallStreetBets, who on a whim, can turn against you and drive the stock up or down? When a market is 24/7, whether that’s in crypto or with after-hours trading on public equities, you’ve got to get your head around all of these new channels where market sentiment is effectively created and observable in real time.
The hedge funds need to get smarter, because the crowd now has the ability to move the price, almost on its own whim.
European fintechs spy opportunity in Visa’s failed Plaid deal (Sifted, 20-Jan-21)
From a Plaid perspective, they’re pretty happy about this. The market is moving so fast, tech is moving so fast, revenue growth is on fire, especially in the digital world, and Plaid is now likely worth multiples of the $5.3bn they agreed with Visa 12 months ago.
Some people are saying that the Plaid founders left a lot of money on the table by walking away, but they would’ve left a lot more money on the table by doing the deal. Are all of these banking infrastructure players getting too big where any incumbent that tries to buy them will have their deal struck down for anti-competitive reasons?
Monzo founder Tom Blomfield is departing the challenger bank (TechCrunch, 20-Jan-21)
Who would buy Monzo? Not a big bank, they’d just kill it, and one of the big tech players wouldn’t find Monzo deal compelling enough. It might be the next tier of tech players, someone looking to pick up a banking solution as part of a wider play.
Visa have loads of money to throw around now that they’re not buying Plaid, maybe they’ll buy Monzo? Could you take the assets of the Monzo tech stack itself, and turn that into a product licensed on a banking-as-a-service basis?
OTHER STORIES WE MENTIONED:
What DeFi Has in Common With Cubism (Lex Sokolin, CoinDesk, 27-Jan-21)
Baseball mourns death of long-time home run king Hank Aaron (The42, 28-Jan-21)
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