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Hi all, Julie here.

Not gonna lie, getting back into the swing of things has been rough. Apparently astrology has something to do with this as well. I can’t remember the specifics of which moon season we’re in right now and stuff, but we’re just gonna go with that. I also told Jordan last night that we can’t get pregnant next month since our baby would be a Scorpio and Lord knows I can’t handle a Scorpio for a child. Y’all are fierce.

Anyways, it’s a nice day again here in Austin so I’m excited to meet up with a friend from Lithic at Cosmic Coffee later. Hope you guys are hanging in there this week!

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Company News

Justworks IPO Info

The fintech startup released an updated IPO filing that provided fresh financial results and a look at what the company may be worth when it debuts (more than $2B). Initially filing to go public during our holiday break, the HR/Payroll startup is selling 7M shares priced between $29 and $32 apiece on the Nasdaq.

Funding and Deals

OpenSea’s New Round

Nice work from my former colleague Eric Newcomer with this scoop. OpenSea raised a new round at a $13B+ valuation led by Coatue and Paradigm, with participation from Katie Haun’s new fund. Not bad considering the NFT platform is only four years old.

Blockchain As A Service

I love nothing more than writing about an Austin based company doing well. Cion Digital just announced a $12M seed round led by Green Visor Capital and 645 Ventures. The fresh capital will be utilized to expand R&D resources and accelerate the rollout of crypto financing and payment solutions tailored for financial services companies and big ticket retailers and to expand the capabilities of the firm’s proprietary Blockchain Orchestration Platform for other industries.

Crypto Watch

Bitcoin Trading and Internet Troubles

Soooo, Bitcoin trading might never stop, but if your internet goes out, you’re in trouble. Kazakhstan's government cut off internet access amid escalating protests, and the country's Bitcoin mining operations saw a huge drop. According to a comparison of mining pool hashrates from half a day ago (prior to the shutdown) and now, the situation is notable given that Kazakhstan is home to as much as 18% of the world's Bitcoin hashrate, as estimated last fall by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.

That’s A Lot of Apes

Speaking of OpenSea, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has now generated more than $1B in total sales, according to data site CryptoSlam. Demand for the collection of coveted non-fungible tokens (NFTs) was especially strong among rappers at the end of 2021. Ian would know more of these people than I do, but Martin Garrix, Post Malone, Diplo and DJ Khaled are some of those that got in on the action.

Together With Fintech Meetup

Jumpstart your 2022 with Leads, Deals, Partnerships, Funding and more at Fintech Meetup (online, March 22-24)! It’s the world’s largest fintech meetings-only event! No speakers, no content, just 30,000+ double opt-in online meetings to get business done.

Here are just some of the 500+ organizations already signed up:

• Fintechs including Akoya, Alloy, Alviere, Argyle, Autobooks, Azimuth, BitPay, BlockFi, Botdoc, Certa, Checkout.com, Circle, FISPAN, MANTL, Novi, Nuance, Nymbus, Onyx, Ripple, Signal Intent, Sila, Socure, Synctera, Urban FT, Zero Hash (to name just a few!)
• Banks including Bank of America, Citi, Federal Reserve, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Santander, Wells Fargo & 75+ others
• Neobanks including Dave, First Boulevard, Revolut & Varo Bank and more
• Credit Unions (125+ of them already signed up!)
• Investors including Bain Capital, Commerce Ventures, General Atlantic, Mosaik Partners, Next Level Ventures, Point 72 Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners, Vestigo Ventures & more
• Networks including American Express, Discover, Mastercard & Visa
• Plus Solution Providers, Community Banks, Tech Cos, Retailers & Merchants, Media and more!

Online, March 22-24. Startup rate available for qualifying cos. Get Your Ticket Now!

​Senior Product Manager at Stilt

Stilt (YC W16) is building a bank focused on 45M immigrants in the US. Immigrants are traditionally shut out of the financial system because they lack a financial identity. We are building technology to democratize access to financial services. In this role, you will be the first PM for Stilt and will be instrumental in defining the product culture and future direction of the team. Stilt is based in San Francisco but is open to remote employees. If you want to help improve access to financial services for everyone, especially for the underserved and immigrants, apply above!

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Julie VerHage-Greenberg is the co-founder of Fintech Today, where she focuses on editorial content and brand. Prior to joining, she was Bloomberg’s first fintech reporter, covering Robinhood from before it was a billion dollar company, breaking the news that Plaid was acquiring Quovo, and interviewing executives on Bloomberg TV and at several large conferences.

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