SALT New York and FinovateFall: Comparing the fintech events
Good morning, and welcome to Protocol Fintech. This Wednesday: SALT and Finovate compared, Celsius’ comeback plan and BitGo versus Galaxy Digital.
A tale of two conferences
It’s been a long time since I’ve been in New York City – so long that the extension of the 7 subway line to Hudson Yards hadn’t opened yet. If it weren’t for that tongue of the MTA sticking out in the general direction of New Jersey, I don’t think I would have been able to commute back and forth so seamlessly between SALT New York and FinovateFall. The two conferences, which both opened on Monday and ended today, embodied different axes of the modern fintech industry.
SALT became full Web3. Founded by Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital in 2009, the conference series returned to New York this year with a huge crypto presence.
- FTX was a presenting sponsor, with CEO Sam Bankman-Fried as a keynote interview. It soon turned out that he was more than that: FTX Ventures has taken a 30% stake in SkyBridge, with an option to buy a majority stake. (The SALT conference itself will presumably bring it.)
- Blockchain.com provided a coffee shop dishing up dirty matcha lattes and macchiatos. Solana was also a top sponsor. Panels delved into NFTs and digital assets. I moderated a discussion on sustainable approaches to bitcoin.
- But the seats were often empty in group rooms. The action took place in the hallways, with people gathered in pairs or trios talking deals — or plans for the evening, much of which involved packing into Hudson Yards venues overlooking the Javits Center and the waterfront.
Finovate was more practical. The view was mostly of the Marriott Marquis’ soaring atrium and dizzyingly fast elevators.
- If you were a bank shopping for technology or a startup selling it, the show floor was the place to be. Even champagne flutes didn’t seem to distract from the technical briefings.
- Protocol Fintech’s Ryan Deffenbaugh took a very technical lunch briefing by the CFPB on the collection of mortgage collection data. Lenders seemed eager to give regulators a run for their money about the headaches their rules were creating.
- Only a handful of crypto companies, such as NYDIG and CryptoFi, presented. The city center dominated traditional finance.
Both events had an air of frenzy to the deal. “That’s three years of FOMO packed into three months,” one colleague commented on the busy conference season. Zoom has its charms, not least avoiding bacteria. But SALT and Finovate both made it clear that there is a hunger to get out and push the meat. No risk, no reward.
– Owen Thomas (e-mail | twitter)
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On the money
Citadel, Fidelity and Charles Schwab are planning a new crypto exchange. The envisioned entity, to be called EDX Markets, is a sign that Wall Street continues to see opportunities in digital assets despite this year’s downturn.
Celsius bets on crypto deposit for a comeback. The bankrupt crypto lender outlined a plan — codenamed Kelvin (get it?) — to employees last week.
Traders’ reaction to the federal inflation report sent FTX reeling. The cryptocurrency exchange was unusable for some customers on Tuesday around the time of the closely watched financial report. The company acknowledged that services were slower for some users, but did not crash.
Fintech firms rallied on Wall Street after the inflation report. Shares of AI lender Upstart, “buy now, pay later” provider Affirm and Block fell sharply on Tuesday after federal data showed a surprise monthly rise in inflation.
BitGo strikes back
BitGo has made good on a promise to sue Galaxy Digital for abandoning its plan to buy the crypto asset custody and management company for $1.2 billion.
BitGo said on Tuesday that it had filed a lawsuit against Galaxy Digital. It accused the crypto-finance company of “improper repudiation and willful breach of the merger agreement,” the company said in a tweet. BitGo said it is seeking more than $100 million in damages.
Galaxy Digital hit back, saying in a statement that BitGo’s claims are “without merit and we will vigorously defend ourselves.” Galaxy reaffirmed that the company abandoned the takeover bid because BitGo “did not provide certain BitGo financial statements that Galaxy required for its SEC filing,” a spokesperson said in an email.
Read the full story at Protocol.com.
—Benjamin Pimentel (e-mail | twitter)
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Thanks for reading – see you tomorrow!
