Trump's Crypto and AI Czar
You could be forgiven for saying "Who?" when President-elect Trump nominated Paul Atkins to be SEC chair. But with the naming of David Sacks as his "White House Crypto and AI Czar," we've got ourselves a much more familiar figure to those in fintech.
"He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the U.S.," the President-elect announced on social media platform Truth Social.
Who is David Sacks? Referred to as an "early evangelist for cryptocurrency," Sacks was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and immigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was a child. Formerly the COO of PayPal, Sacks was part of the so-called "PayPal Mafia" along with other tech entrepreneurs like Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, and Elon Musk.
Sacks co-founded early-stage VC firm Craft Ventures in 2017 where he is a general partner. As an angel investor, Sacks has invested in companies such as Facebook, SpaceX, Palantir, and Airbnb.
Reactions to Sacks' appointment range from excitement to high anxiety. That said, for many in the fintech and financial services space, the simple fact that there will be a Crypto and AI Czar when none had existed before is reason enough for optimism.
(To that end, take a look at Finovate Senior Research Analyst Julie Muhn 's speculation on what an AI Czar could do for AI in America ...)
Count me in that camp. I'm David Penn with this week's edition of Finovate Weekly!
Weekly News
Moneyhub and Marygold & Co UK team up to launch wealth app.
BioCatch integrates with Q2 's digital banking platform.
Courtesy of its collaboration with Microsoft , ThetaRay launches its GenAI Financial Crime Detection Suite.
5 Tales from the Crypto: Meet the Nominee for the SEC
This week we learned who President-elect Trump has selected as his White House Crypto and AI Czar. Last week, in 5 Tales from the Crypto, we looked at Trump's nominee for the SEC Paul Atkins and how his opinions about crypto might influence policy.
Fighting Financial Crime and Identity Fraud
What are the most challenging fraud threats faced by banks and other financial institutions in the age of AI? Perhaps more importantly, what tools and tactics are available to help them deal with these threats successfully?
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We interviewed Gus Tomlinson , Managing Director, Identity Fraud, with GBG Plc . In our conversation, Tomlinson discusses threats such as Synthetic Identity Fraud (SIF) and other AI-powered fraud challenges, and shares ways that businesses can better defend themselves and their customers.
Pause Button: Market Milestones in History
Bitcoin's $100,000 milestone last week - and the Nasdaq's 20,000 milestone this week - got me thinking about other famous financial market milestones in history - and what happened afterwards.
Gold tops $1,000
The price of gold surpassed $1,000 for the first time on March 13, 2008. If that date seems both familiar and unsurprising, it was during the global financial crisis which began in the fall of 2007.
Interestingly, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which stood at just over 12,000 in March 2008, was nearly cut in half over the next year, reaching its lowest point on March 9, 2009. The price of gold remained elevated and, save for a retracement during the second Obama administration, has continued to trend higher.
The Dow surpasses 10,000
The Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 10,000 for the first time on March 29, 1999. You'll need to be a little older to remember this one; it was during the heyday of the dot-com boom. Even as the milestone in the Dow Jones made headlines, in those days it was the NASDAQ where the excitement truly was.
The Dow Jones would continue higher for several more months, gaining more than 15% before topping out in January of 2000.
The Finovate Podcast: Is Fintech Overcrowded?
The conversation continues with Greg Palmer and the Finovate podcast. Check out this interview with Kamran Ansari of Kapital Ventures.
The two engage in a high-level examination of the fintech ecosystem, asking whether the industry has become "too crowded." They also look toward the future to see where fintech goes from here.