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Binance’s British battering

Hello and welcome to Protocol | Fintech! This Tuesday: the U.K. cracks down on Binance, Payoneer goes public, and Elon Musk gets a statue.
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The Financial Conduct Authority, the U.K.'s financial regulatory body, moved to restrict access to Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange by volume.
The authority said Saturday that Binance is "not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the U.K." It also warned consumers against doing business with Cayman Islands-based Binance Holdings and London-based Binance Markets Limited.
Crypto regulation is still evolving, so Binance, like many other crypto firms, operates in a gray area. Binance's current crypto exchange isn't based in the U.K., so U.K. residents can still buy and sell crypto.
Regulators worldwide are cracking down on crypto. But Britain's move is a significant escalation in moves by regulators — particularly in Western countries — to crack down on the crypto industry.
But regulators are especially focused on Binance.
There's likely a reason for the special attention. An analysis by crypto firm Chainalysis found that more funds tied to criminal activity went through Binance than any other crypto exchange.
— Tomio Geron
Andreessen Horowitz hires a Goldman exec as its newest fintech partner. David Haber had founded a fintech startup whose team joined Goldman, where he served as a vice president for strategy.
Protocol talked to Ripple's top lawyer. He said the company is fighting for the crypto industry in its battle with the SEC.
Recently, Micron announced new memory and storage innovations across its portfolio based on its industry-leading 176-layer NAND and 1α (1-alpha) DRAM technology. But what does "1α" mean, and just how amazing is it?
What fintech trend are you most excited about?
Fintech innovations around real-time payments, "buy now, pay later" and lending have proved very beneficial to helping small businesses through the pandemic, but I think that was just the tip of the iceberg. As the economy reopens, there will continue to be an opportunity to help small businesses with better financial solutions and experiences, especially as many of these businesses — and their customers — embrace technology in ways that weren't as prevalent before the pandemic.
What fintech trend is most troubling for you?
Across the board, 2020 was a huge year of growth for fintechs and we've seen that continue into 2021. We're continuing to see a lot of direct-to-consumer or direct-to-business companies being funded at extremely high valuations, but the fact is that not all of these companies will succeed and I'm skeptical about their long-term business models. This feels especially true for neobanks, which are seeing much of the growth and funding. In reality, neobanks are just community banks with poor business models.
What fintech company have you been most impressed with this past year?
Helping banks and customers get access to cryptocurrencies and making it more mainstream through rewards-based programs is a growing area of interest. Our friend Patrick Sells is doing just that over at NYDIG. Until now, bitcoin adopters have relied on apps from a new generation of fintech players like Robinhood, PayPal, Square or Coinbase. But banks are realizing that there's a huge opportunity for them to allow customers to wager on crypto within their existing bank relationship rather than sending dollars to Coinbase and other crypto exchanges, and I think this is a pretty exciting space to watch.
Recently, Micron announced new memory and storage innovations across its portfolio based on its industry-leading 176-layer NAND and 1α (1-alpha) DRAM technology. But what does "1α" mean, and just how amazing is it?
The projected value of cross-border payments globally by 2027, according to Finextra's "The Future of Payments 2021."
Thanks for reading — see you Friday!
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