Industry Insights

Transform Your Business into a Serial Innovator

Research has demonstrated that companies doubling down on innovation during downturns outperform in the long run, by using this time as an opportunity to invest and position themselves for recovery. However, to perform this successfully, articulating a clear innovation strategy is required, as well as the ability to recognise and seize the best opportunities both quickly and decisively.

a16z Closes $515M Crypto Fund

a16z closes the Crypto Fund II, a $515M fund dedicated to cryptocurrency and blockchain projects, including the next generation of payments, decentralised finance, new monetisation models and decentralised internet.

BitPay Launches First Mastercard Prepaid Card in the United States

Mastercard has partnered with BitPay to offer the first prepaid card for the virtual asset community in the United States. The BitPay Card offers a safe, smart and efficient way to convert various virtual assets into fiat currency. The fiat currency is loaded onto the card and can be spent anywhere Mastercard debit is accepted around the world.

The Future of Contactless Payments

The COVID-19 pandemic has ignited public concerns regarding the transmission of the virus through cash. Many new developments suggest digital payments are the future and the shift towards accessible and resilient central bank digital currencies could be accelerated.

Refocus, Rediscover, and Reorient Your Business

While COVID-19 continues to spready globally, CEOs have started to consider retooling their firms. Bain highlights three messages that CEOs are sharing with their companies and their commitment to refocus, rediscover and reorient.

Cartan Connections Issue #7

The Banque de France has reported that it has used an in-house developed blockchain that used a central bank digital currency to settle an issuance of digital financial securities. Zoom has purchased identity management firm, Keybase, to strengthen the security of their video communications platform. Finally, according to the FATF, there has been an increase in COVID-19 related crimes, such as fraud, cybercrime, and exploitation of government funds.

Economic Substance and the Emerging Distributed Company

According to the Oxford English dictionary, substance can be defined as any of the following:

1. A type of solid, liquid or gas that has particular qualities;
2. The quality of being based on facts or the truth; or
3. The most important or main part of something.

Cartan Connections Issue #6

Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest stock exchange and capital markets technology company, has partnered with blockchain solutions platform, R3, to build virtual assets marketplaces. In the Cayman Islands, a proposed set of bills was published to form a regulatory framework pertaining to virtual asset service providers in order to promote the development and use of innovative financial services. Meanwhile, Bitwise Asset Management demonstrates empirically how an allocation of Bitcoin to a traditional 60/40 portfolio almost always increases the value of the entire portfolio.

Cartan Connections Issue #5

According to Marc Andreessen, what we haven't done and are failing to do now specifically is the widespread inability to build. There are outstanding people everywhere that can build directly, or help other people to build, or teach other people to build, or take care of people who are building. Every step of the way, we should be asking the question: what are you building?

Cartan Connections Issue #4

As today's workforce becomes more cloud-centric and mobile, a zero trust network security model may be more appropriate. PwC completes its third CFO pulse survey since the beginning of the lockdown. Alliance members of Financial Innovation Now become approved to distribute U.S. Government loans to small businesses.