The Week in Fintech
My top three highlights from the last week in fintech
A recent report shows that the focus of Gen-Z investors is shifting from meme stocks to companies in areas such as electric vehicles and the metaverse. The top stock held by this demographic in 2021’s fourth quarter was Tesla Inc. Big names in the metaverse such as Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms and Roblox saw a significant rise in popularity, while meme stocks like GameStop and ContextLogic saw a drop. Payment companies like Paypal also saw rising interest from young investors. This reflects the pulse of the market and the rising enthusiasm around the metaverse. It is also a show of faith by the youngest of investors in what they believe to be the defining technologies of the future.
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Payments giant Paypal is exploring a branded stablecoin to expand the platform’s growth and revenue from crypto payments. Stablecoin, which is a cryptocurrency pegged to the value of a fiat or reserve asset, is rapidly gaining popularity. Paypal’s announcement comes as the Facebook-affiliated Diem stablecoin nears its launch. These tech companies can give stiff competition to banks in the stablecoin race. As experts suggest, the stablecoin market could follow a similar route as mobile wallets with banks accepting payments through third-party vendors against a participation charge. ???
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Switzerland's central bank has successfully settled transactions involving five commercial banks using digital currency. The project, titled “Helvetia”, took place over three days towards the end of 2021 and demonstrated the possibility of instantaneously executing payments ranging from 100K to 5 million Swiss francs, without counter-party risk. This is the latest trial of the technology which takes Switzerland a decisive step nearer to having a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Central banks throughout the world have stepped up their efforts on CBDCs, in part to improve the efficiency of existing payment systems and to address the threat posed by cryptocurrencies.