CRYPTO

Wall Street Opens Bitcoin Trading Account

Wall Street's stages of coping with cryptocurrency, adapted from the Kübler-Ross model:

1. Criticism: "It's worse than tulip bulbs. It won't end well," JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said in 2017. 
2. Bargaining: Some variant of "cryptocurrency may not be useful, but the underlying blockchain technology is." 
3. Experiment: Pilot digital currency initiatives or buy some bitcoin. 
4. Acceptance: “Well, crypto’s not going away, so we might as well make some money off of it.” 

JPMorgan is at acceptance

The bank has taken Coinbase and Gemini on as clients, the WSJ reported yesterday. With 30+ million customers, Coinbase is the largest crypto exchange in the U.S. Gemini, a smaller exchange, was cofounded by the Winklevoss twins. 

Both exchanges emphasize know-your-customer verifications and anti-money laundering measures. Those early moves to play nice with regulators helped both companies receive money services and money transmitter licenses across multiple U.S. jurisdictions.

The bank POV?

In the past, traditional financial institutions have hesitated to do business with cryptocurrency companies. When banks don't want you as a customer, it's no fun—just ask the cannabis industry. Bankers don’t necessarily think all cryptocurrency businesses are laundering money through the Ozarks, it's just that they're worried about liability and illicit uses of bitcoin or more anonymous cryptocurrencies. 

• JPMorgan put Coinbase and Gemini through an extensive vetting process prior to approval, sources told the WSJ. Since the exchanges have already jumped through regulatory hoops, the vetting was likely easier for all parties.

What does it mean for the crypto movement?

Many of cryptocurrency's early adopters flocked to the decentralized, “trustless” system because they were disillusioned with central banks and fractional reserve banking. 

But the crypto movement became a big industry, and in the past few years, exchanges have been the on-ramp for less tech-savvy (and perhaps less ideological) users. For Coinbase and Gemini, working with mainstream institutions like JPMorgan can help them scale and bring more nocoiners into the fold. 

Zoom out: Macro investor Paul Tudor Jones recently said his hedge fund will trade bitcoin futures. Jones sees bitcoin as a hedge against future inflation spurred by central banks printing more money during the coronavirus crisis. That sounds a bit like Satoshi in 2009…

AV

Riding Out the Storm

Yesterday, Waymo announced roughly $750 million in new external investment, bringing the total amount raised to $3 billion. The Alphabet self-driving unit is resuming limited testing in Arizona this week. And GM said it's still on track to mass produce the Cruise Origin robotaxi in late 2021/early 2022.

That's about it for positive industry news, as COVID-related obstacles pop up left and right for self-driving companies. Some startups may not have enough runway to ride out the storm. And testing cars in simulators isn't a perfect substitute for real-world driving, execs told the NYT.

What about consumers?

Half of Americans plan to reduce or eliminate their use of ride-hailing and public transit after the pandemic, according to a recent IBM survey. Most companies’ go-to-market strategies focus on autonomous ride-hail services, rather than personally owned vehicles. GM and Ford have both recently said they will research consumers' changing mobility preferences.

My takeaway: The self-driving field will likely consolidate as well-capitalized players push forward. Rather than people, packaged goods could be the first to hitch a ride with larger fleets.

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Keep Score of the Streaming Wars

There’s a pretty good chance you’re streaming an episode of your favorite series as you read this sentence right now. That’s because the streaming wars are still on, and Connected TV is growing in the US. 

Integral Ad Science (IAS)—the global leader in digital ad verification—tells us that free streaming services are currently growing at more than 2x the rate of paid services.

They even conducted an entire study on the matter and found while both models of streaming services are growing, there is significant demand for free, ad-supported connected TV options.

In fact, almost 50% of respondents in the study added a free service since the start of 2020.

As paid and free streaming services go head to head in this stay-at-home climate, hit pause on that nature doc for a second and check out IAS’s study on the second wave of the streaming wars.

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VC

Fundraising During COVID-19, Ed. 5

The big news first: Yesterday, Intel Capital announced a $132 million investment in 11 tech startups mostly focused on AI and chip design. Intel’s venture arm has been staying busy.

• Last year, it sunk $466 million into startup investments. This year, Intel Capital says it's on track to invest between $300 million and $500 million. 
• Also this week: Intel Capital led a $25 million Series B in Lilt, an AI translation company. 

Call center bots: At the beginning of May, AI call center startup ASAPP announced $185 million in Series B funding. 

Virtual people: Ziva Dynamics, a Hollywood startup that develops character simulation software, announced a $7 million seed round yesterday. Game of Thrones and Captain Marvel used Ziva's "character authoring" tool.

Watch this one: Covariant AI came out of stealth in January with pick-and-place robots that could tackle tasks that typically require human touch. Last week, it announced $40 million in Series B funding.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: In April, Facebook says it put warning labels on roughly 50 million pieces of COVID-related content. Since March 1, the social network has removed 2.5+ million posts related to the sale of masks, hand sanitizers, disinfectant wipes, and test kits. Keep in mind that AI systems are handling the vast majority of the flagging and takedowns. 

Quote: "I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus. Everything."—Quibi cofounder Jeffrey Katzenberg to the NYT. The short-form mobile streaming service, which launched in April, hasn't been successful out of the gate. 

Read: Tech analyst Benedict Evans chalks up the so-called "VR Winter" to niche gaming apps, narrow industrial use cases, and the limited mass market appeal of head-mounted devices.

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Twitter told its 5,000 employees that nearly all of them can WFH "forever" if they'd like.
• Facebook reached a $52 million settlement with content moderators who developed PTSD on the job. 
• Amazon is building UV robots for disinfecting Whole Foods stores. 
• Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 768G, an upgraded 5G processor. 
• Clear, the biometric ID company you may have seen at airports, is introducing a new product for businesses that links employees' personal health data to verified IDs, Axios reports.
• Apple has been snapping up cloud computing engineers.
• Twitter added Stanford professor and former Google AI chief Fei-Fei Li to its board.

FROM THE CREW

First virtual event: Next Monday at 4pm ET, I'm hosting a panel on COVID-19 and the future of AI—for consumers, citizens, and corporate boardrooms. Tune in to hear more about who's in the driver's seat, the startup challengers, and what it means for the rest of us. 

Joining the chat: Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute, who literally wrote the book on our AI future, and Giles Whiting, partner at SoftBank Group, one of the world's largest investors in AI companies.

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TECH THINGAMABOBS

For wireless geeks: The Verge writes about the new crop of CEOs at T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. 

For those missing concert lineups: Epic Games is putting on "In The House," a three-day star-studded festival on the Houseparty app.

For the organized: Google Lens rolled out a new feature to let you copy text from paper notes and documents to your computer.