🔫 The great crypto showdown

Coinbase was issued a serious warning | Accenture announced thousands of job cuts | [TOGETHER WITH]( Hi {NAME}, here's what you need to know for March 24th in 3:09 minutes. 🗓 If you’ve already abandoned all your resolutions for 2023, here’s your do-over opportunity. Join Moneybox’s Brian Byrnes for [How To Build Wealth In The New Tax Year]( on April 18th, and get your ISA ready for what could be a bumper twelve months. [Get your free ticket]( Today's big stories - The SEC closed in on Coinbase, with a legal showdown looking likely - A gloomier outlook has fund managers sitting on cash – [Read Now]( - Consulting giant Accenture lined up 19,000 jobs on the chopping block SEC You In Court [SEC You In Court] What’s Going On Here? The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued Coinbase a warning letter on [Wednesday](, sending the stock plummeting. What Does This Mean? It’s no surprise that the SEC's been keeping a close eye on cryptocurrencies ever since the spectacular collapse of FTX last November. And the fact the authority has issued Coinbase a so-called “Wells notice” – a final warning before a legal battle kicks off – shows that the watchdog has got bite as well as bark. The bone of contention here is whether crypto’s technically a security or nothing more than a currency of exchange: after all, it’s only securities that feel the intense glare of full SEC regulation. The authority’s doggedly insisting that Coinbase lets crypto be used as a kind of investment vehicle, while the firm’s saying crypto’s a whole lot closer to a commodity. Looks like one for the lawyers to battle out... Why Should I Care? Zooming out: Bad and good. Coinbase's stock took a nosedive when the news broke. See, shareholders are worried that a regulatory defeat could lead to a wave of profit-slaying compliance costs. And tighter oversight could scare away crypto enthusiasts drawn by anonymity, and that tamped-down demand would drive down prices. But there might just be a silver lining: if the SEC comes out on top, Coinbase could rebrand crypto as a bona fide “investment”, and that just might endear it to some naysayers. The bigger picture: Winner takes most. Bringing buyers and sellers together has been the bedrock of countless success stories: think of Amazon Marketplace, Booking.com, or even the Nasdaq. What makes these marketplaces such good businesses is that they enjoy something called a [network effect]( – the more people who join, the more attractive joining becomes to other people, and so on. Exchanges like Coinbase work in the same way, and as the only publicly traded crypto exchange left in the US, that could work out well for the firm – provided crypto has staying power. You might also like: [We could be dangerously close to a “Minsky Moment”.]( Copy to share story: [( 🙋 [Ask a question](mailto:questions@finimize.com?body=Ask us a question: Where are you writing from? Let us know and we'll mention it when we reply.&noapp=true&subject=SEC You In Court&utm_campaign=daily-global-24-03-2023&utm_source=email) Analyst Take Flight To Cash For Fund Managers As Economy Fears Grow [Flight To Cash For Fund Managers As Economy Fears Grow]( Sentiment among professional investors is [close to 20-year lows](, as fear around the solvency of regional banks in America spreads through markets. Bank of America’s latest [survey of global fund managers]( shows that contagion risks across US regional banks drove investors out of the sector at the fastest pace since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That’s today’s Insight: [where fund managers are putting their money now, as economic worries accelerate.]( [Read or listen to the Insight here]( SPONSORED BY REAL VISION The investing course that’s got everyone talking The [journey to financial freedom]( can be full of pitfalls, challenges, and misinformation. You have to [learn from the world’s best investors]( without blindly copying them, and apply textbook knowledge to the less predictable real world – all while sidestepping the charlatans. But it’s a heck of a lot easier to find your way if you have [a complete and clear guide]( at hand. Well, join [The Real Investing Course by Real Vision](, and you’ll [unlock thousands of hours’ worth of research in just ten hours](. It’s essentially your Google Maps for the investing world. It’s really got folks talking: one customer said they received “exactly the kind of high-quality, grounded, and honest market education that brought them to Real Vision in the first place.” And as a loyal Finimize reader, you can [get 40% off The Real Investing Course through this link](. [Find Out More]( Ax-enture [Ax-enture] What’s Going On Here? Consulting behemoth Accenture is wielding the headcount ax this time around, chopping 19,000 jobs according to news out on [Thursday](. What Does This Mean? Accenture makes its money by offering brains-for-hire to firms planning major system revamps. Over time it's evolved into a top-tier adviser for cutting-edge tech endeavors, like helping firms transition to the cloud – and that means this round of layoffs is well worth watching. See, while Accenture's only trimming 19,000 employees from its colossal 738,000-strong workforce, this move marks a stark reversal of its recent direction: the firm’s filled out its ranks by an extra 50% over the past two years, driven by fierce competition to conquer the cloud. So whether this decision suggests a slowdown in demand or simply a pruning of underperformers, there’s bound to be something behind this sharp about-face. Why Should I Care? Zooming out: On cloud four and a half. As first-quarter results loom, tech investors are left pondering one super-important topic: just how bad the cloud slowdown will be for giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet. Remember, those players fessed up to seeing, ahem, clouds gathering when they reported their fourth-quarter earnings – but the economic outlook has improved in recent months, and AI’s burst onto the scene making all kinds of grand promises. That’s lifted Big Tech titans’ share prices, which has investors hoping that the cloud doesn’t rain on their first-quarter parade. The bigger picture: Along for the ride. Investors have been casting around for ways to hitch their portfolio to the AI train ever since ChatGPT’s grand debut – and there's no shortage of prospects out there. IT services companies and consulting firms like Accenture could be one way to catch a ride: they’ve tended to thrive during past big tech shifts, and a bunch of companies could well look at AI, scratch their heads, and turn to the experts for help. You might also like: [Finding a stock is good, but finding a whole industry is golden.]( Copy to share story: [( 🙋 [Ask a question](mailto:questions@finimize.com?body=Ask us a question: Where are you writing from? 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