Bitcoin ETF, Digital Rupee , HSBC Zing, Jack Ma's reducing clout and the Funding Winter
Fintech Newsletter January 2024, Volume 1
RBI, the Indian Central Bank, has been experimenting with digital currency, or eRupee for over a year now. A digital rupee pilot was launched on December 1, 2022, and eight banks participated in the pilot. The Reserve Bank of India had set a target of 1 million transactions per day for December 2023. While the daily average transaction was INR 25000, some of the banks that were part of the pilot transferred employee benefits to Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) wallets instead of salary accounts., helping RBI meet its daily transaction target of December 2023. The Indian digital rupee is built on blockchain.
Blackrock, the largest asset management company in the world, along with other fund management companies such as Grayscale and Fidelity, are getting ready to launch Bitcoin ETFs, provided they receive approval from the US Security and Exchange Commission (US SEC). The SEC is expected to announce its decision on whether to approve or reject bitcoin ETFs between January 8 and 10, 2024. While Bitcoin (BTC) is considered a liquid asset, investing in an ETF would simplify its holdings. Coinbase is emerging as the favourite custodian for Bitcoin ETFs.
To better compete with companies such as Wise and Revoult in the international money transfer business, HSBC is launching its own app, Zing. The app is expected to be available in the App Store and Play Store in a couple of days. 10 international currencies will be available; however, the app will be available only to customers in the UK.
Jack Ma, the billionaire entrepreneur, made media appearances regularly prior to 2020. As the plans for Ant Group's IPO were scuttled, he has rarely appeared in the media since then. As per the latest reports, his influence has been further cut to size by shrinking his voter rights from 53.46 percent to just 6.21 percent. Jack Ma’s voting rights have now been divided among nine other investors.
Globally, the year 2023 witnessed a slowdown in startup investments. The funding winter was more severe in the case of India. According to the latest report by the data collection platform Tracxn, in the first 11 months of 2023 (until December 5), start-ups in India received $7 billion in funding, the lowest in five years and down 72% from the record $25 billion in 2022.