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3Forge’s Robert Cooke Claims Banks are Wasting Resources as Significant Bank IT Spend Goes to Fixing Legacy Systems

  Robert Cooke, CEO of 3forge, recently shared some interesting insights with CI. The team at 3forge pointed out that currently, global banks run on billions of lines of legacy code, some even written half a century ago, and nowhere is that inheritance more visible… Read More

Deliberate AI Strategy Positions Credibly As Market Leader

  Credibly’s strategy for incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its underwriting system provides a blueprint for companies wishing to smoothly adopt transformative technologies. It’s a deliberate, well-thought-out plan, dating back several years. Chief revenue officer MJ Jiang said she immediately saw AI’s potential to change… Read More

Shutdown, IRS, Stablecoins and More: Web3 Thoughts of the Week

Washington DC Capitol At Night Red Light

Government action, including the shutdown and a welcome IRS decision, along with market analysis and stablecoin talk, dominated Web3 minds this week. Growing Ethereum stablecoin volume a good sign “While we continue to see some negative sentiment around ETH due to its decline from nearly… Read More

Everything App: Elon Musk Says Money is on the Way for X

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, SpaceX, and owner of X (formerly Twitter), has posted that X has just released a new communications stack that includes encrypted file transfers, messages, and audio/video calls. Musk has long messaged that X’s goal is to be the Everything App. A… Read More

UK Investment Crowdfunding Deals Tanked in 2024. Why Did this Happen?

Perennial crowdfunding poster Clive Reffell recently posed a pertinent question. In the UK, the number of securities crowdfunding deals tanked in 2024. Reffell asked why this happened. “Is it too hard for retail investors to work out a required ROI?” Valid question. Reffell referenced data from… Read More

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent Anticipates Stablecoin Market at $3 Trillion

In comments delivered today at the Treasury Market Conference, held at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent speculated about the looming growth of the stablecoin market. “Payment Stablecoins,” as defined under the GENIUS Act, are expected to boost… Read More

Webull’s Anthony Denier Says Expanding into Corporate Bonds Is Next Step in Fixed Income Strategy

Anthony Denier, Group President and U.S. CEO of Webull, has shared some insights with CI. Webull (NASDAQ: BULL) had recently introduced corporate bond trading for U.S. customers, enabling investors to purchase and sell individual corporate bonds directly via Webull’s desktop and mobile platforms. This expansion… Read More

Cybercrime as a Service: SIM Swap Scam Shuttered in Europe, CEO of Kidas Comments on the Extensive Fraud, Shares How to Avoid SIM Swap Traps

Last month, Europol announced that it had arrested seven individuals who were allegedly perpetrators in a SIM Swap scam operation. Described as a Cybercrime-as-a-Service operation, enforcement agencies took down five servers and seized 1,200 SIM box devices and 40,000 active SIM cards. Thousands of SIM… Read More

The Clarity Act: Senate Reveals Draft Legislation for Digital Asset Market Infrastructure Bill

While the CLARITY Act passed the US House of Representatives eons ago, the legislation has been parked in the Senate as policymakers hash out their version of the digital asset market infrastructure bill. Yesterday, the Senate Agriculture Committee posted a bipartisan “discussion draft” of the… Read More

How Community Financial Institutions Successfully Differentiate: A Conversation With Market Mentors President Michelle Abdow

In an era shaped by financial meltdowns and record-low trust in large financial institutions, community financial institutions are perfectly positioned to differentiate themselves as important and lasting parts of the communities they serve. Market Mentors helps them do that by focusing on authenticity, accountability, and… Read More

Web3 Thoughts of the Week: Amazon/OpenAI Cloud Deal, Bitcoin Thresholds, & Developer Interest in Solana and Ethereum

OpenAI and Amazon’s $38 billion deal had Web3 tongues wagging, but other topics also caught their attention. Read on to find out which ones. Bitcoin good “October is over, and what a disappointment it was for crypto investors expecting the customary rally. Bitcoin closed October… Read More

Private Markets are Hot: Schwab Acquires Forge in $660 Million Deal

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW), the eponymous brokerage, has acquired private markets platform Forge (NYSE:FRGE) for $660 million. Once again, bespoke Fintech investment bank FT Partners served as financial advisor on the deal for Forge. FT Partners has been a long time partner with Forge, assisting in… Read More

Centrifuge’s Martin Quensel’s Bullish on Tokenization

  Martin Quensel has spent nearly a decade pursuing tokenization. The co-founder of Web3 native asset manager Anemoy, which is built on the Centrifuge protocol (which he also co-founded), Quensel believes in tokenization as the future of finance. His career has been preparing him for this… Read More

New York City Has Been Losing New Finance Jobs for Some Time. The Election of Zohran Mamdani Could Accelerate the Escape from New York Trend

With today’s Mayoral election in New York City, many observers are worried about the consequences of a potential socialist or communist taking office to manage the world’s most vibrant city and top global financial center. Neophyte politician Zohran Mamdani has seen his poll numbers tighten… Read More

Global Digital Finance Reports Results of Tokenized Money Market Funds Initiative

Global Digital Finance (GDF) has reported the results of an initiative to test the viability of Tokenized Money Market Funds (TMMF). As part of the working group 30 firms participated in the GDF Industry Sandbox, powered by Ownera, the firm which operates the FinP2P routers… Read More

Rate Cut, Gold & Crypto: Web3 Thoughts of the Week

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and rate cuts dominated Web3 thoughts this week, but some still had time to weigh in on gold and crypto. Speaking of rate cuts… “The Federal Reserve’s rate cut was widely expected, though it comes at a unique moment… Read More

Senator Elizabeth Warren Slams Idea to Allow Retirement Accounts to Hold Private Securities, Crypto

The Trump administration has set a policy to expand options for individuals’ 401(k) retirement accounts, as outlined in an Executive Order. This will mean that savers will be able to expand their investments into alternative assets such as private securities and crypto. Financial analysts see… Read More

Crowdcube: Over 2 Million Investors

Crowcube, the first securities crowdfunding platform in the United Kingdom, is reporting over 2 million investors. Crowdcube was incorporated in 2009 and launched in 2011 by co-founders Luke Lang and Darren Westlake. Since that time, Crowdcube has enabled over £1.5 billion (almost $2 billion) in… Read More

EquityZen Acquired by Morgan Stanley

Secondary market platform EquityZen has been acquired by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), the global investment bank and brokerage. Details of the transaction were not immediately available. The deal is expected to close in early 2026. Shares of Morgan Stanley were little changed on the news. EquityZen… Read More

BitGo CEO Slams Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Rant Against CZ Pardon

In recent days, Senator Elizabeth Warren took to X to criticize President Trump’s decision to pardon Changpeng “CZ” Zhou, Binance founder and former CEO. Senator Warren is a longtime critic of digital assets and financial services firms in general. She sits on the key Senate… Read More

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