Q|T: The FinTech Times – Is CPPI out on crypto?
Plus: Plaid lays off 20%, Delphia makes acquisitions.
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AI-powered investment startup Delphia acquires Fathom Privacy to increase user data transparency (BETAKIT)
On Thursday, Delphia announced that it had completed the acquisition of New York-headquartered Fathom Privacy, a data rights company that packages data collected from consenting users into an easy-to-interpret format to streamline data sharing across apps.
Exclusive: Canada’s largest pension plan, CPPI, ends pursuit of crypto investments (REUTERS)
Canada’s largest pension fund, CPP Investments, has ended its efforts to study investment opportunities in the volatile crypto market, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The reasons behind CPPI’s abandonment of crypto research were not immediately clear. CPPI declined to comment, but said it has not made any direct investments in crypto. It referred to previous comments about cryptocurrency by CEO John Graham in which he was cautious.
Fintel Connect Closes $4.8M CAD to Help Financial Institutions Drive Cost-Efficient Growth (BETAKIT)
Self-funded and founded by Senyard in 2002, Montréal-based Income Access helps online gambling companies with digital customer acquisition. After an “overnight success of 14 years”, Income Access was acquired by Paysafe in 2016 for $40 million CAD.
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Crypto firm blockstream seeks funding at a lower value in a tight market (BNN BLOOMBERG)
Blockstream CEO Adam Back declined to comment on the size of the funding round or the valuation, but said the money would be used to expand its capacity to host crypto miners.
Plaid lays off 20% of employees (TECHCRUNCH)
A company spokesperson did not disclose how many engineers are affected, saying that “teams across the company” were affected. She added that as Plaid “adjusts to updated headcounts, teams like recruiting are affected more than others.”
BC appoints Brenda Bailey as new Minister of Innovation in Cabinet (BETAKIT)
Premier David Eby on Wednesday unveiled a new cabinet of 23 ministers and four premiers naming Bailey the province’s new minister of jobs, economic development and innovation.
Coinbase CEO sees revenue fall 50% or more on crypto route (BNN BLOOMBERG)
The rapid fall of FTX capped what was already a brutal year for the cryptocurrency industry, with speculators retreating as prices of some of the most traded tokens fell. Coinbase’s shares have fallen more than 80% in 2022, and the company’s third-quarter revenue was about a quarter of what it was in the last three months of 2021, when the price of Bitcoin peaked.
Harvest Builders Announces Graeme Harrison as New President (BETAKIT)
Harvest said they chose Harrison because they were looking for someone with an entrepreneurial background who could build partnerships with other leading ecosystem players, such as other venture funds and startups across Western Canada and beyond
FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Said to Face Market Manipulation Inquiry (THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried manipulated the markets of two cryptocurrencies this spring, leading to their collapse and creating a domino effect that ultimately caused the implosion of his own cryptocurrency exchange last month, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Crypto.com CEO Has History of Red Flags Including Bankruptcy and Quick Exits (CNBC)
Crypto.com, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, may well be healthy. Following the FTX collapse, the company published its unaudited, partial proof of reserves. The release revealed that nearly 20% of customer funds were in a meme token called shiba inu, an amount only dwarfed by the bitcoin allocation. That percentage has dropped since its initial release to about 15%, according to Nansen Analytics.
Cross-border payments startup Buckzy takes the smart money in scaled-down $19.5 million CAD Series A (BETAKIT)
Buckzy’s founder and CEO Abdul Naushad told BetaKit in an interview that this capital will extend the startup’s runway by 12 months and help it reach cash flow breakeven by this time next year.
Exclusive: Goldman Sachs on the hunt for cheap crypto firms after FTX fiasco (REUTERS)
Goldman Sachs plans to spend tens of millions of dollars buying or investing in crypto companies after the collapse of the FTX exchange hit valuations and dampened investor interest.
