Disruptiv Newsletter: Coinbase 🤑 OpenAI 💻 Crypto 💰 and more

Welcome to the Disruptiv newsletter! You're about to get this week's top tech and innovation insight that we saw this week. Enjoy! [disruptivflow-header] Hello FlowBankers Welcome to the Disruptiv newsletter! A weekly aggregate of relevant tech-focused quick takes. Saturday 27th January, 2024 [Start trading](113/cXx8Z04/VVDy6F8wm6M8VYCmDY45_3XRW8VsNl159CKdDMDyKmx2-ZVTW6N1vHY6lZ3lGW29WKj24vl9RGW8n_ymv8CsjskW5_NLCG2SXQqzW7sMCCv4rtljNW8GNTKz6rhyzvW3S4dxf2185wXW1x_hg-7Jrh13VkzD8M7pH_hjW8c5jpj4d6gXqW7jT5Qh37mC3SW7rhWg01p087BVwkgXH4wW9qbW8xNCwH1Zv36VV3sWgv1thLrLW4b9WHY6Jc6qwW7lr_HS7zw3H-N7tx5NTfT8dWW48zccY3S4vcrW6g6NnG5P0RrvW14NmTn2RKNLFVw2TDH3-j9DWW8w6bb75fSkYlf5XSs2d04) FlowBank tech articles 📚 Bitcoin ETFs: The New Opportunity [shutterstock_2327473803](113/cXx8Z04/VVDy6F8wm6M8VYCmDY45_3XRW8VsNl159CKdDMDyKlY2-ZVTW5BW0B06lZ3p1W90v_4661jVJXW3WFQ_Z47l7gnW84JNbX5gqQc3W3c2s2-3DF4nnM4tG212LPVyW5W-f6g1BZmScMFt8PmJCNT_W7hG3rp3r_ShsW8TfWxQ5Xbzp6W33TPS26JvP3_W6QMz_Z8jVz0mN5RFXcTVkl4cN37vmWxtZ-q2N5LdwQfSll5qVz6-Vv5Mdv8LW475KkS2wbV0_W1SB6sJ4tmsPbN6rqqCWmZYwcf8NqKpv04) Finally, a cash Bitcoin ETF has been approved by the SEC but what does it mean for the adoption and price of cryptocurrencies? [Read me](113/cXx8Z04/VVDy6F8wm6M8VYCmDY45_3XRW8VsNl159CKdDMDyKlY2-ZVTW5BW0B06lZ3mHW1mvdRl2Gr1FYW6KlTZr11NrY0W7wHMKL3Q4X4_N8MrbPX744lyW76Qy_v3BR0WNW65tG9K2-KT5sW7xZV455_gFm7W1lwqk52G8rYCW1Csp3b6fNn9nW6r_mdY4hSY4kW4JtWYk4DdTzSW7vf47S2J1XxzN3l6dQ2nHJZlW4l7MDB7XgLPXW3H-pwN7MQ6jMN3vXClg8lwq-W98n1l63fp1ShW2YNnpw1MCFS1f4V7FBq04) Big Technology 🍎 - Coinbase's Q4 earnings soared, with a 12% stock jump in premarket trading, marking its first profit in two years at $273M. Revenue hit $905M, up nearly 50% from last year, fueled by crypto enthusiasm and the SEC's nod to bitcoin ETFs. Despite higher volumes, CFO Alesia Haas says fees remained steady, with a notable 79% jump in consumer trading revenue to $493M. - OpenAI unveils Sora, a cutting-edge AI for crafting high-def video clips from text or images, aiming to rival Meta and Google's offerings. Sora, generating videos up to a minute, underscores OpenAI's push for multimodal AI experiences. Currently in limited testing, it features a detection tool for spotting AI-made content, with more details and a technical paper forthcoming. - Jeff Bezos liquidates $2.03B in Amazon stocks, totaling over $6B this month, his first major sell-off since stepping down as CEO in 2021. Following a November trading plan, Bezos could offload up to 50M shares. Post-sales, his Amazon stake drops to 952.26M shares. Bezos, eyeing a Miami move, remains the third-richest globally with a $191.4B fortune. VC + Startups 🎯 - MeVitae secured €1.7 million in a seed round led by Apex Black. The fresh funds will serve to propel innovation and fuel its rapid expansion across the United States. Currently situated in the innovation hub of Harwell, Oxford, MeVitae offers a comprehensive DE&I ecosystem of HR tools meticulously crafted to detect and mitigate cognitive and algorithmic bias, empowering organizations to enhance their hiring processes, facilitating smarter, faster, and fairer hiring decisions. - - Life Inside, a SaaS company re-imagining video marketing by helping businesses automate the collection and publishing of interactive video testimonials from employees and customers, announced €350k in funding to focus on expansion. The funding came from a group of angel investors, including Stefan Magnusson, seed investor in Evolution Gaming, Jonas Brogårdh, Sweden’s former Secretary of Commerce in the UK, and Houman Ashrafzadeh, who co-founded Padium UK with Spotify founder Martin Lorentzson. - London startup Koalaa, whose world-first soft prosthetic arms are aiding independence for individuals with limb differences around the world, has closed a funding round of €1.1 million. The round was initiated by existing investor British Design Fund and includes £200k secured from the Imperial College Enterprise Fund II (ICEF), which invests in startup companies that have a strong connection to the University. Crypto 👾 - In the US, five spot bitcoin ETFs have crossed the $1 billion asset threshold, with Grayscale Investments' GBTC leading at $23.8 billion. BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC are also top performers. This success has intensified competition for other market participants. - The unofficial GameStop meme coin on Solana experienced a significant drop, losing over 70% of its value since last week. Despite the notorious volatility of meme coins, this one has made an unexpected recovery in recent hours. Currently, it's trading at just under $0.004, as per CoinGecko. Although it has significantly fallen from its peak of $0.135 on February 7, the coin's value has more than doubled in the past 18 hours from below $0.002. Unlike typical viral meme coins that surge and plummet rapidly, the GME token on Solana, launched in late January, has shown relatively more longevity. Law and regulation 🕵️ - At a House Financial Services Committee hearing, U.S. Rep. French Hill criticized exaggerated claims about cryptocurrency's role in terrorism, emphasizing the value of blockchain transparency for law enforcement. Financial experts discussed the use of stablecoins by terrorists and the challenge of offshore illicit activities, highlighting the importance of regulatory compliance. The discussion also touched on the need for increased funding for regulatory bodies to combat crypto-related crimes, amid concerns about overregulation and the misuse of emerging technologies. - Prabowo Subianto, with his pro-crypto vice president Gibran Rakabuming Raka, won Indonesia's presidential election with 60% of the votes, signaling a likely continuation of crypto-friendly policies. The incoming leaders plan to enhance tax compliance in the stock and crypto sectors and foster the growth of blockchain and cryptocurrency specialists, building on the current administration's economic strategy leveraging crypto interest. Disruptiv Figure 📊 Tech Titans vs. Average Joe: A Snapshot of Earnings Disparity The chart illustrates the GAMAM tech giants' earnings, with a combined net income of $290 billion from $1.6 trillion in revenue over the last year. Despite a post-pandemic dip, restructuring and job cuts helped them rebound. It highlights earnings per second, showing Apple's top spot at $3,074, followed by Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon. This is contrasted with the median U.S. household income of $75,000 in 2022, underscoring the vast earnings gap between these corporations and the average American family. Source: Statista [Screenshot 2024-02-16 140213] [INSTAGRAM](113/cXx8Z04/VVDy6F8wm6M8VYCmDY45_3XRW8VsNl159CKdDMDyKlY2-ZVTW5BW0B06lZ3ntW5jtyFm8C9XbDW8nDNkn4p5FkkW7B08Jx43LY2kN92g6RkW31QFN6938TK4YFqwW8TP4H84rPbwFW3Vq_3y4XLSYKW28pQ3h2KLn5rW6GrdWV9dvhxZW6hCKtB1pKLKrW7lZM8J7_cXlqW497wkk3F8DbZN143ZCk9j4m5W6Cn6Kf2g0yyxW7VpFQv4mFqbvW1hy1R88pfRXPW5PP-LQ3zd5QgN9g7c_pTYrb3f10gdBq04)Highlights Click [here](113/cXx8Z04/VVDy6F8wm6M8VYCmDY45_3XRW8VsNl159CKdDMDyKlY2-ZVTW5BW0B06lZ3nkW14JSkq1qdGzrW7ZL22k5qw9g0W6Hz8WL4WMSRwN862M_tg7LxSN7h2XMKVgbNWW6ZLM5_2T9gSrW3j6Dk21L2Hp2VFG0M23jbk2sW5bpxHV48dTBHW4wQyC56btrT4W1pGL5_91Cjq4W6gQsQY37WhRbW1jxZV261pdzVW2DKn9h5-YbqmW96gT8n1_4JklW4stgtL9jbSmkW24y69T1fzXbwW1xDgf88gvCMtf2xv8lH04)to see our page. [ambass] Don't forget to... 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