NCFA Canada | Sep 28, 2018

Ep11-Sep 28:  How Amazon Bank is Dominating and Risks of a Digital Bifurcated World

About this episode:   On this weeks episode our host Manseeb Khan sits down with Paul Schulte Founder & Editor of Schulte Research, whose insights have reshaped the finance world for the past 30 years. They talk about how Amazon is the biggest bank in the world, China being 2 generations ahead compared to the West, and what his next book could be about it. Enjoy!

Host: Manseeb Khan, NCFA, Fintech Fridays show host

Guest: PAUL SCHULTE, Founder and Managing Editor, Schulte Research (LinkedIn)

Bio:  Paul Schulte is founder of Schulte Research, set up in 2012 researching financial institutions and financial technology. He has spent 3 decades in research on financials. He has worked for all 3 branches of US government, including the NSC at the White House. He currently teaches in 3 universities, has written 3 books and authored hundreds of articles. He has worked for the Number 1 investment bank from US, UK, Japan, China & Switzerland starting in 1990.  He has taught on 4 continents. His focus is technological change in banks & insurance. He has been a source for the WSJ, NYT, Bloomberg, Nikkei, FT, Economist, Barron’s and Forbes. His clients include some of the largest sovereign, pension, mutual and hedge funds globally.

Subscribe and tune in each Friday to check out the latest movers and shakers in fintech.

Listen to more Fintech Fridays podcasts here

Transcription of Interview

Manseeb Khan: Hey everybody how are you today. Manseeb Khan here and you are tuning in to another episode of Fintech Fridays. Today I have an incredible guest. He is a veteran in the industry. He's been in the industry for over 30 years. We have Paul Schulte. Paul thank you so much for making here today. I know I'm catching you in the middle between flights so thank you so much for taking time today to sit down with me and to chat.

Paul Schulte : You're welcome.

Manseeb Khan: So, Paul just for the audience could you just for a minute give us a little bit about who you are and essentially what your research firm does?

Paul Schulte : So, what I do is we look at we've been looking at financials and financial institutions, banks, insurance, broker dealers, investment banks for like 14 years and then about four years ago I wrote a book about that called a revolution in financial technology that's coming, and we decided that this was extremely important. So, I've been really taking a big turn and focusing much more on the ways in which financial institutions are being disintermediated by the explosion and financial technology especially of the Far East.

Manseeb Khan: So, could you talk a little bit more of what your research firm does. Are there any current trends that you guys are currently focusing on?

Paul Schulte : So, we work for. I work for sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds,  mutual funds, insurance funds and we do two things really work the boards of directors in terms of understanding their own needs for technology but also, I look at public equity of private equity activity and you know advise on you know what's hot. what's not. what's good. what stinks and you know what is. You know looks iffy. What is you know very interesting? And so, at the moment we just finished some work on the way in which Ali Baba, Tencent, Amazon and Wal-Mart are heading into India in a very aggressive way looking at you know where the winners and losers in India are. The sort of this big battle royale for the financial activity for payments, ecommerce, lifestyle, lending and so forth in India but also in Southeast Asia.

Manseeb Khan: Oh yes so kind of like how Wal-Mart recently acquired Flipcart to start making moves in the industry right.

Paul Schulte : So, looking at the strategies of Wal-Mart and Amazon and Ali Baba really are the three big players against each other. They're all doing slightly different things but they're going down of course very, very rapidly. And I think once again catching the banks by surprise.

Manseeb Khan: Why do you think that is. Is it because of because you were previously you did work with institutions. You have a very extensive background of being part of that world. Why do you think they're going to beat banks to the punch?

Paul Schulte :  I've worked with you know Credit Suisse and ING and Lehman Brothers, and then you know went Nomura bought Lehman Brothers. I worked with Nomura as well. Fundamentally I think it is an issue of shareholders. the shareholders of banks expect and want and will not tolerate anything other than a dividend you know of somewhere between 3 and 5 percent. And this means that the banks have to pay out 30, 40, 50 percent of their profits get paid out in dividends. and Amazon and Ali Baba pay out zero. And so, you're looking at you know billions of dollars in extra R&D you know investment spending that these guys have relative to the banks. So, if the banks really want to get serious about competing they have to go to their shareholders and say we're just not going to be able to have a payout ratio of 30,40, 50 percent of profits. The second thing is that you know banks fundamentally aren't allowed to collaborate and are not allowed to collaborate because of regulators. So, it's good to be regulated because you're sort of a cartel, you're a protected cartel. But on the other hand, you miss out the capacity to change quickly to collaborate to open up your ecosystem to the outside world where regulators are very you know hypersensitive. So, banks are coming out of a period where they've been in the doghouse because of all this bad behavior 10 years ago. And so, the regulators are putting them on a very short leash. So, these are all the reasons why the banks are having a very difficult time adjusting to these new realities. And then it just tends to be a sense of you know entrenchment and legacy. You know history institutional inertia that also work against you.

Manseeb Khan: So that they're just taking  advantage of it essentially. You recently posted a video on how China is pulling ahead of the U.S. in the battle of AI. Could you explain a little bit more the reasoning behind it and it is because like what people think of AI they don't China's not the first place that really comes to mind. Right. And secondly how do you see Canada's role in this battle being that it's there's been a lot of buzz that Canada does have a booming AI market.

Paul Schulte : Yeah Canada does Canada that was one of the first people to do quantum computing that there was a very active you know great stuff going on in Toronto. I think the smart city initiatives the Toronto house are great. So yeah, I think Toronto's fantastic. But West has you know a lot of things against it. The West has a 50-year-old legacy system of credit cards and  sort of antiquated payments that were there to put all these fancy apps on top of that. So, this is always going to be a problem with us. Regulators Attorney General upstate and the FCC. and we know  Washington D.C., regulatory bodies, and lobbyists you know who don't want this to happen. So, you know I was giving a talk to one of the well with the Minneapolis Fed group and you know what I was talking about China and all the stuff that China is doing. You know the guy stopped me and said hey wait a minute you know we're still trying to get people stop using paper checks. So you need to slow down here in terms of trying to think of what the U.S. can do to catch up to China. China is one the two generations ahead and payments, e-commerce. the integration of payments and e-commerce to civic activity like people paying tickets, fines, entertainment travel, movies ,lifestyle, leisure, venture, travel all of this has been integrated into one stop shopping for the entire system. And this is, and this also includes insurance, peer to peer lending, money market invested in  tax. It's all that everything is online and everything's integrated and everything's in one place and people have the choice of looking at Alibaba or WeChat. But Ali Baba tends to have the one of the best integrated platforms and this is the way in which we're seeing this go into you know Southeast Asia now and  Alibaba so all these problems going into Paytm in India. It's going into Tokopedia, Masada and Indonesia and so Alibaba is really gluing itself into you know another country with a billion people and another country with 350 million people. And so, you're looking at having a pretty good chunk of the world. you know covered in you know you know India Southeast Asia; China the U.S. hasn't done any of this.

Manseeb Khan: Yeah that's kind of what I want to touch on next. How do you see the western world kind of adopting? Right. would be like working with regulators would be working with lobbyists and lawmakers and everything would it be more of like hand-holding situation?

Paul Schulte : No. No, I don't think that's the case. We should have expected that. But I think Amazon's done something that's really unique and brilliant. They just said we're just going to go outside the US. We're going to start and do all this in a country called India and so Amazon has been laying out billions of dollars in very aggressive impressive expansion both in terms of indigenous internal organic R&D implementation of different types of structures for services for MSR customers but also making a lot of acquisitions in the last 18 24 months. So, from a standing start two years ago where Amazon was nowhere and was being highly criticized for being the. you know as I should be the biggest bank in the world two years ago it was nowhere. Two years later in India it has a compared to Amazon offerings to the standard chartered India offerings and quite frankly standard Amazon has everything a standard traveler can offer or basically 18 months and so from a standing start Standard Chartered can't hold a candle to what the offerings of Amazon. I believe Amazon has very aggressive ambitions to export that to many other emerging markets and potentially export that back into the U.S. This is what I am thinking.

Manseeb Khan: You did recently write an article. the article's title fintech is emerging with the internet of things that aim to challenge banks. How entrenched interests can prepare. Banks are not only the western world banks and institutions are not only losing opportunity in the expanding markets like China and Indonesia and India like you've mentioned. how unprepared are they in terms of A.I like we're hearing institutions starting to earmark for crypto and block chain? How prepared are there for this whole AI revolution?

Paul Schulte : Well I think I think it's getting a little bit better. You know I believe HSBC has at least a dozen and could be up to 20 plus blockchain initiatives currently. I think the one bank who gets it you know better than anybody else is Goldman Sachs. I think you know Citibank and JP Morgan  are pretty much rushing ahead. I think the European banks just don't have the capital or the spending power to be able to engage in this right now and so banks like Deutsche Bank are barely standing on two feet. And so, they're being knocked out of the game. And then you have you know some of the other banks that just are where they need to be. You know Barclays and so some of the regional banks are just not in a position to be able to spend. You have to spend a lot of money on this stuff, if you just want to do nickel and diming you're going to get left behind.

Manseeb Khan: Do you think it's more of like a is it because more of like a legacy thing that they're not nickeling and diming it or is it. They don't really believe the hype. What's your take on that.

Paul Schulte : Well you know I was reading this book chapter 7. They called the innovator's dilemma. It's the Christensen book and in chapter 7 it talks all about how the corporates of the 70s 60s and 70s with America were like these mighty engines of innovation and you know technological growth. top line growth. And they just stopped doing that. He was talking about corporates and then I when I read that article I was so struck because this is just absolutely applies to banks and so there's just it's institutional inertia. There are fewer positions are available people today and they just are becoming yes men because there's fewer promotions available. So, they shut their mouths and they don't know, and they don't dare innovate because if they make a mistake they get fired because there's always an excuse to fire people and try to reduce costs. And so, when you go down that rabbit hole of trying to reduce costs as your number one goal rather than improve innovation you're dead. And I think a lot of banks are going down this road. So, this is a problem right where you have a terrible return on capital. You have shareholders demanding a very high dividend and you just don't have a lot of money left over in absolute dollar terms or a dollar stand against Alibaba which has like a billion dollars to spend. Amazon is spending in India alone which is spending 5 billion dollars. And so, you're looking at a tremendous capacity for spends and a lot of different areas. Plus, Amazon is also moving into a farm to market food distribution as well. So, when they start to get all these different businesses you've got a tremendous synergy of business of agricultural, financial, lifestyle and civic activity together which gives you know a real unbeatable combination.

Manseeb Khan: So essentially, it's very much a evolve or Die mentality when it comes to compare to banks and to Amazon and Alibaba and all the other companies like that right.

Paul Schulte : Yes, exactly that system and that's life that we all we all have to do that even as adults in our 30s and 40s we have to keep on learning if we don't keep on learning where we're in real trouble. I think the times of getting a four-year degree or getting an MBA is that those times are over. Right. There's a constant need for learning and it's painful and I say to people I have two jobs. I'd have my old job which is looking up financials but also, I have another job which is learning to understand financial technology which has been exhausting but also very stimulating and exciting and interesting.

Manseeb Khan: I totally agree that it's kind of funny because I just came back from writing my accounting exams was kind of hilarious that we talked schooling. You’re probably a little bit more closer to understanding AI and seeing its evolution other than just in the banking space. Where else do you see it just making a massive impact?

Paul Schulte : In the area of Block Chain  is all about digitizing assets and only a very tiny portion less than 1 percent of the physical asset world in digitized. So, what we have is a world where when you digitize assets you do three things you turn it into a provenance right and then that's the whole foundation of auctions. auctions and auction houses whatever they are Kristie. Sotheby's big banks guarantee that this thing is true and real and is owned by X is being sold to Y. That's what blockchain does for physical assets. Number two it's a sense of collateral. collateral is what you use to create a loan. And number three and most important of all one of the greatest things that we can Digitize and one of the greatest values we have is that our parents spent you know between 500000 and 1 million dollars to get us to become 22-year-old educated people our body. And this is the area of insurance. And so, I think that insurance is probably the most it is going to be disrupted more than anything else. As more and more of the parts of the human, our cells become digitized and become a real value. so, we can be given the identification independent of government. We can be given Providence we can be given a sense of collateral and we can include 1 billion people who currently don't even have an identification or a bank account or you can include millions of that SME's on by three four five people you know all across the world who previously had to go to loan sharks to fund themselves. So, the possibilities are endless and of course lastly and most importantly in terms of our lifespan in terms of current kinds of things that we can learn about our bodies to employ preventative medicine to improve our life expectancy and to get you accurate pricing on insurance for physical movement and for our life.

Manseeb Khan: Yes, speaking of Insurance I should remind my dad that I need a life insurance policy. So, thank you for reminding me of living.

Paul Schulte : You are going to live to be 100 don't worry.

Manseeb Khan: Could we. Other than the articles and research papers that you say they produce regularly are we expecting a book anytime soon. If so what would like what are the topics that are frequently passing through your head that you'd probably want to put on paper or digital paper in this case.

Paul Schulte : Well we're yeah to a book with Professor David Lee in Singapore who is one of the leading thinkers in the world. Block Chain and we're doing some work on blocking insurance. We're doing some work on the movement of these Chinese financial technology companies out into the outside world into Southeast Asia and South Asia and we're doing an update a deep dive into what PingAn's doing. PingAn is  I think one of the most innovative companies in the world and we're also going to write a chapter on something that's very important which people need to be paying attention to. Right about now which is quantum computing because the cyber security implications of quantum computing are very important.  And last but not least we are looking at something that's really important. I think it's going to be the most core issue of 2019 and that is the way if the US increasingly goes on its own and sort of alienates Canada and alienates you know Europe and alienates China is it going to go along a road trying to bifurcate, trying to cut the digital world to have a Qualcomm. Qualcomm, Amazon, Google, Apple world, a Huawei. Amazon, Tencent digital world. And I don't think it's possible to do that. But trying to do so could be quite destructive know example I would give you is that Microsoft and Amazon have 31% market share in the cloud business in China. What if says you know you've invited out Huawei and you were basically expelled Ali Baba out of the U.S. Well how come we're letting Amazon and Apple. I'm sorry Amazon and Microsoft have you know a 31 percent market share in the cloud business for AWS and of Azure. and I think questions like this come up and so this is going to become problematic if this thing continues down a road of increasing tension between China and the U.S. So very important topic I think it's the number one topic of 2019.

Manseeb Khan: Right and that's you have mentioned in the past that's why you're seeing companies starting to enter emerging markets just in case something like that happens. They have remote offices they have remote sites, subsidiaries just in case those kinds of things may happen right.

Paul Schulte : Yeah pretty much. I think that's right. And I think that Amazon is truly an international company. Right. So, I don't know what political weight. They pull in Washington D.C. but I'm sure that there are  opposition forces at play in Washington D.C. to counter this desire for the U.S. to isolate itself. I think that's a minority opinion and it's not part of the mainstream and yet it seems to be having an immense cast has immense momentum right now. And so, it's very disturbing to watch this. You know what was played out yesterday at the U.N. and especially when you look at it from the Far East people are aghast at why the U.S. is doesn't have you know America first policy it's basically America alone policy. And I think there's no people who are more like gob smacked by this than the Canadians. And so, we've got to be very careful about where this is all going. If power is some of the powers in Washington want to bifurcate the digital world because I think it's impossible to do that. I think we've gone down we've gone too far down the road on this. And so, I'm just wondering what this all means. I think the physical bifurcated world has already occurred right the manufacturing world is already the supply chain already been broke about past tense but the digital world is a very different world that just doesn't lend itself to being broken into.

Manseeb Khan: Right. Because the whole the world the whole the pull for is the whole globalization rights that everybody is on the same team. We're here to help everybody and if a country is going to try to isolate itself from everybody else then it's going to be kind of hard of work with them. It's kind of like work like everybody playing in the sandbox where we have the one kid that like we're trying to include you doesn't want to come with us. It's kind of hard to like feet won't we'll can ask him so much.

Paul Schulte : Yeah that's right. That's right. That's right. Well thank you so much free time I have to jump on a plane. I'm going to a retreat with actually people from Monash University to discuss this topic in terms of the future of education. OK so this is important. This is an important topic for universities as well as universities risked being sort of cut out. Well if they don't change faster. And so, I personally have a similar problem with the banks.

Manseeb Khan: That's interesting. Well  Paul thank you so much again for your time. Enjoy your flight enjoy your treat. I'm very excited to see what you've learned, and I can't wait to have you on the show again.

Paul Schulte : OK. Thank you so much.

End of Podcast

Subscribe and Listen to more Fintech Fridays podcasts here

Join NCFA's weekly Podcast series 'FINTECH FRIDAY$' where we sit down with the incredible people in the Fintech community and talk about leading fintech products innovations developments and challenges!

Interested in getting involved as a partner or participant? info@ncfacanada.org

The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org

IRS Crypto Rollback Raises Questions for Canada

April 15, 2025

Crypto Regulation | April 15, 2025 Trump Repeals IRS Crypto Reporting Rule. Here's Why Fintechs in Canada Should Pay Attention On April 10, 2025, U.S. President Trump signed a bill cancelling a key IRS crypto reporting rule that would have required decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms to report customer transactions to the tax agency. See:  UK FCA Plans Full Crypto Licensing Regime by 2026 The IRS' rule was called "Gross Proceeds Reporting by Brokers That Regularly Provide Services Effectuating Digital Asset Sales", which expanded the scope of traditional broker definitions to include DeFi apps like Uniswap and Metamask, and had an effective date of February 28, 2025.  However, the IRS provided a transition period given the reporting complexities involved, so the rule was set to apply to digital asset sales occurring after January 1, 2027.  But with Trump's bill nullifying the IRS rule, the implementation is now cancelled and the rule is officially gone. What does this mean for fintechs, crypto startups, and regulators in Canada? What Changed? The IRS crypto reporting rule was part of a broader push to increase tax compliance among crypto users but industry argued that it wasn't manageable because DeFi platforms don't control their user's data.  ...

Read More

Insights from Jamie Dimon’s 2024 Letter to Shareholders

April 15, 2025

Markets and Economy | April 15, 2025 Jamie Dimon’s 2024 Letter Outlines Global Risks and Advice for Leaders On April 7 2025, CEO Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase published his annual 2024 letter to shareholders (58 page PDF), which is widely read by business and policy leaders around the globe.  This year's edition, his messages are especially urgent.  He describes a world of rising risks, and big decisions ahead with profound implications that stretch beyond simply Wall Street.  Below are 5 insights that fintech founders, investors and Canadian decision makers need to know: 1. The U.S. Dollar’s Strength is At Risk “History has shown that as countries become weaker, their currency loses reserve currency status.” Dimon issued a clear warning that's rarely said out loud by execs of America’s biggest banks.  That is the U.S. dollar’s global dominance is fading because it's strength relies on TRUST in U.S. institutions, alliances, and policy, BUT that trust is now eroding. Last week, the U.S. dollar dropped significantly reaching a 3 year low against major global currencies.  The decline is largely due to the Trump administration's escalating tariffs and trade tensions on imports from several countries, such as China, Canada and European nations.  ...

Read More

Plaid Raises $575M to Scale Fintech Infrastructure

April 14, 2025

Financing | April 14, 2025 Plaid’s $575 Million Series D Signals a Deeper Strategy in Fintech Data and Embedded AI Financial infrastructure provider, Plaid, announced on April 3 2025, that they raised $575 million Series D at a valuation of $6.1 billion valuation led by Frank Templeton, BlackRock, Fidelity, and others including existing investors such as NEA and Ribbit Capital.  While the valuation is significantly lower than it's 2021 peak of $13.4 billion, Plaid's latest round is a story of consolidation of it's role at the heart of embedded finance, and not of decline. Plaid is a backbone of embedded finance with a footprint that spans more than 8,000 apps, including many widely used fintech tools and providers in Canada and the U.S.  For Canadian fintech companies, this raise hints at where industry is heading and who will control its most critical pipes. A Profitable Platform in a Tough Market Unlike most fintech firms still chasing break-even, Plaid finished off 2024 with positive operating margins, strong ash flows and a 25% yoy revenue increase.  In Plaid's letter to shareholders, 2025, CEO and Cofounder Zach Perret explained that it has a usage based billing model where Plaid earns revenue when an ...

Read More

Strengthening Resilience and Leading Through Uncertainty

April 14, 2025

Leadership | April 14, 2025 Why Embracing Uncertainty Can Help Founders Gain Insight (During Chaos) In an economic climate where geopolitical tensions are high and markets volatile with inflation spikes and policy u-turns, founders and innovators that embrace uncertainty can gain an edge.  Uncertainty isn't a side effect of innovation, it's the starting line.  Inspired from Deepak Chopra's recent article on the power of uncertainty, this article looks at the impact of embracing the unknown and how it can sharpen decision-making, unlock creativity, and help build resilience during times of rapid change and uncertainty. Key Actionable Insights 1. Uncertainty Isn't the Enemy...It's the Edge Chopra argues that trying to eliminate uncertainty kills creativity.  When everything is 'the exact same', it breeds complacency.  We've all experienced this.  During some routine periods, a founder may feel that time is passing by very quickly.  Yet during times of great change, novelty, innovation, a founder may feel that time is going by slowly.  Fintech leaders who stay agile during times of ambiguity can separate themselves from those who stall in the face of uncertainty.  Put differently, successful founders don't just survive during chaos, they scan for signals of change/chaos that others can miss, often ...

Read More

Navigating SEO for Effective Crowdfunding

April 14, 2025

April 14, 2025 If you’re running a crowdfunding campaign, visibility is key. Without the right SEO strategy, potential backers may never find your project. Below is a practical, research-backed guide to improving your campaign’s visibility through SEO. 1. Understand Your Audience First Start by knowing who you’re targeting. This helps shape your keywords, content, and messaging. Build a profile of your ideal backer Use keyword research tools like Google Trends or Ahrefs Read forum discussions and questions from your audience The more specific your understanding, the more relevant your content becomes. 2. Focus on Search Intent, Not Just Keywords Group your keywords based on what users are looking to do: Informational: “how to launch a crowdfunding campaign” Transactional: “support [campaign name]” Navigational: “[brand name] Kickstarter page” Use these keywords naturally in: Headings and subheadings Meta descriptions Blog updates and campaign FAQs Image alt text Write for people first, then optimise for search engines. For more insight into how keyword strategy aligns with intent and structure, consider following this website, which outlines foundational SEO practices that support long-term visibility. 3. Build a High-Converting, SEO-Friendly Landing Page Don’t treat your landing page as just a pitch. Make it SEO-ready: Clear, keyword-rich headline ...

Read More

OneVest Closes $20M Series B to Lead Wealthtech

April 11, 2025

Financing | April 11, 2025 OneVest Secures $20M in Series B to Build the Future of WealthTech in North America On January 29, 2025, Calgary and Toronto-based fintech firm OneVest announced the close of a $20 million Series B round, led by Salesforce Ventures and joined by Allianz Life Ventures, TIAA Ventures, and returning backers like OMERS Ventures, Deloitte Ventures, Fin Capital, Luge Capital, and Pivot Investment Partners. See:  OneVest’s Rapid Expansion Powered by a $17M Funding Round led by OMERS Ventures OneVest estimates that $84 trillion of wealth will be passed down from Baby Boomers to Gen X and Millennials over the coming decades, creating a massive opportunity and challenge for financial institutions. OneVest's platform is positioned to offer financial institutions, such as banks, insurers, asset managers and RIAs, a module tech platform to build or upgrade their wealth management services.  Companies ca upgrade outdated infrastructure by plugging in only the components they need, reducing time and cost to market. Amar Ahluwalia, CEO of OneVest: “We are tackling massive challenges in an industry that’s been traditionally slow to adopt new technologies. Having such esteemed investors solidifies our position to reimagine wealth management technology for enterprises across the U.S. and ...

Read More

SEC Issues Covered Stablecoin Statement, Risks Remain

April 10, 2025

Regulation | April 10, 2025 SEC Says Some Fully Backed, Payment-Only 'Covered Stablecoins' Aren’t Securities On April 4, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a statement that clarified some U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins may not be considered securities.  While the statement was welcomed and creates some breathing room for crypto and fintech projects, the announcement ignited an internal debate at the SEC and many are wondering what's next. Covered Stablecoins The SEC said certain U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins (referred to as 'Covered Stablecoins') are not considered securities if they have all of the following characteristics: Stablecoin must maintain a 1:1 fixed value equal to the U.S. dollar, without fluctuations Each stablecoin must be fully backed by an equivalent amount of high quality assets such as U.S. Treasury bills, cash, or cash equivalents that can be redeemed on demand. These assets must be held in custody and verified regularly No expectation of profit - cannot be promoted as an investment or marketed in a way that leads buyers to expect profit from simply holding the token See:  U.S. Senate Moves to Regulate Stablecoins No voting rights, control over the issuer, or shares in any profit or management decisions (no governance) ...

Read More

Data Shows Tariffs Are Threatening Early Stage Innovation

April 10, 2025

Funding | April 10, 2025 Regulation Crowdfunding Markets Show Tariffs Straining Innovation Economy Regulation Crowdfunding (RegCF) has proven to be a resilient market for early stage entrepreneurs and investors alike.  When uncertainty strikes, it's often traditional venture capital that pulls back, while the community-driven model continues to offer early stage start-ups access to capital allowing them to innovate.  However, just in from Sherwood (Woodie) Neiss, NCFA Advisor and Principal at Crowdfund Capital Advisors, data shows that tariffs are starting to strain RegCF markets - from March 10 to April 9, 2025: RegCF investment volumes declined by 24% (yoy) to just $57.48 million New campaign launches dropped over 40% Number of investor checks also declined by 15% Average capital raise size dropped to $720,000 (from $1.2 million) Sherwood Neiss, Principal at Crowdfund Capital Advisors: “We’re seeing the first real signs of pullback in what has otherwise been a resilient funding ecosystem.  The numbers tell a story not of panic, but of pause. Investors and issuers alike are waiting for clarity—on costs, on policy, and on risk.” Tariffs Introduce New Risks for Early-Stage Companies In a volatile environment where U.S. tariffs are levied one day, and then paused the next, founders must now face ...

Read More

Trump’s Tariff Pause Leaves Canada in the Cold

April 10, 2025

Economy | April 10, 2025 Trump Temporarily Halts Tariffs for Most Countries But Keeps Pressure on Canada, Mexico, and China On April 10, 2025, President Trump announced a 90-day pause on most of the newly implemented global trade tariffs after market backlash and political pressure.  The break was extended to countries in Europe, Asia, and parts of South America, but Canada, Mexico, and China are still under tariff pressure. Strategic Pause, Not for Everyone While Trump paused the most recent tariffs for over 75 countries, U.S. tariffs still apply to Canada and Mexico primarily on cars and auto parts (25%), steel (25%), aluminum (10%), and some agricultural products like dairy, grains, and processed foods, and continue to affect cross border trade in manufacturing and farming sectors. Trump's pause also didn't apply to China  In fact, Tariffs on Chinese good were raised to 125%, as China hit back with an 84% tariff on U.S. goods and filed new complaints with the World Trade Organization. See:  Klarna Delays IPO As Markets React to Trump’s Tariffs After the tariff pause was announced, markets surged with the S&P 500 exploding 9.5%, the largest one day gain since World War II, according to Business Insider ...

Read More

Tailscale Raises $230M to Power Identity-First Networking

April 9, 2025

Funding | April 9, 2025 Toronto’s Tailscale Secures $230M and $2B Valuation for Identity-First Networking On April 8 2025, Toronto-based Tailscale announced that they raised $230 million CAD Series C (about $160 million USD), valuing the company at approx $2 billion CAD.  The round was made up of U.S. investors, led by Accel, CRV, Insight Partners, Heavybit, and Uncork Capital, along with some prominent individual investors notably George Kurtz CEO of CrowdStrike (returning investor) and Anthony Casalena CEO of Squarespace.  New funds will be used to grow product and engineering teams, expand globally, and improved support for fast scaling customers. Tailscale - A Shift from IP Addresses to Identity Tailscale was founded in 2019 by former Google engineers Avery Pennarun, David Crawshaw, David Carney, and Brad Fitzpatrick, and officially launched in April 2020 to help users connect devices and apps securely without relying on traditional VPNs, IP rules, or firewalls. Tailscale uses a technology called WireGuard which is easy to setup and lets devices connect directly to each other, safely and privately.  What's unique about Tailscale is its approach to solving networking challenges.  Instead of relying on where a device is located (IP address), it focuses on who or what is connecting. This ...

Read More