FTX sells off subsidiary at 95% discount (TWIF 2/18)

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Please find another week of fintech exits and deep reads below. (👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know!)

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📖 Reads of the Week

Most of this week's top reads are on payments and – specifically – stablecoins, which helped drive 78% YoY growth in Coinbase's 2023 revenues.

CardsFTW #92: Traditional Programs, Modern Platforms

Plus, why did Expensify send me a card?

CardsFTWMatthew Goldman

☯️ Exits

🤝 M&A - Fintech

Enterprise blcokchain and crypto provider Ripple announced that it has agreed to acquire Standard Custody & Trust Company, a regulated platform for digital assets, to expand its licenses.
Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX's debtors estate filed to sell its subsidiary Digital Custody, which it acquired in 2022 for $10 million, to CoinList for $500,000.
Israeli HR management platform HiBob will acquire the UK's Pento, which specializes in cloud-based payroll systems, for $40 million in stock and cash.
Avenu, a provider of revenue recovery and administrative solutions for state and local governments, will acquire Judicial Innovations, a provider of cloud-based payment and case management solutions.
Private equity firm Nordic Capital will acquire Zafin, a Canadian core modernisation and transformation SaaS for banks and credit unions.
Virgin Money will take full ownership of its own digital wealth management platform, buying out joint investor abrdn for £20 million.
American global electronic payment services provider Euronet will acquire Infinitium, a digital payments company and provider of risk management and payments authentication services based in Singapore.
Global consulting firm Oliver Wyman reached an agreement to buy Innopay, a leading consultancy specialised in digital transactions.
Stockpile, a financial learning platform for kids and parents, acquired the tech and IP of Investables, an alternative investing platform.
Carbon, a pan-African banking provider for small businesses, acquired Vella, an American provider of cross-border payments, crypto transactions, and SMB banking for Africans.
American payments provider Global Payments is close to acquiring Takepayments, which provides payment services for UK merchants, and which generated revenues of £52.7 million, for over $250 million.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

UK bank Barclays is in the early stages of considering a bid for Société Générale's UK private bank.

Great report and happy to see more leaning into digital commerce. Disagree with the order of payments fundamentally driving commerce, but the context is well laid out.

On the high end of optimism for some of the trends, but refreshing.

h/t @j0sephbens0n https://t.co/CHiXvJiVQE pic.twitter.com/O8HBbigX6A
— Stephen Deng 邓广藻 (@mrstephendeng) February 13, 2024

Just saw some data from @sytaylor a few days ago on financial fraud growing 30+% YoY, and here's more stats from Nasdaq:
Out of US$3.1T in illegal funds notable items include an estimated $346.7B in human trafficking and $782.9B in drug trafficking activity, as well as $11.5B in… https://t.co/jTEqnpxHvT
— Max Vishnevski (@max__vish) February 15, 2024

Coinbase $COIN: 2023 subscription and services revenue was $1.4 billion, up 78% Y/Y. Growth was largely driven by stablecoin revenue, interest income, and blockchain rewards, as these revenues benefited from higher interest rates and higher staked balances. pic.twitter.com/6bjmaa1cl3
— Jevgenijs Kazanins (@jevgenijs) February 15, 2024