The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | August 22nd

By Gaia Lamperti

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

Big announcements in the crypto world

FTX made a billion dollars in revenue during last year’s crypto craze while it was expanding its global footprint with new acquisitions, according to internal documents recently leaked, reports CNBC. The documents, which offer a glimpse into the company’s finances, show that the crypto exchange grew its review from $89 million to $1.02 billion in 2021. FTX saw a net income of $388 million last year, up from just $17 million a year earlier.

‍⚖️ The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has called for more comprehensive crypto regulation in developing countries, after outlining the “risks and costs” of cryptocurrencies to emerging nations. The UNCTAD presented crypto as a potential threat to financial stability, the allocation of capital and resources and the security of monetary systems within developing countries, especially as citizens of emerging nations, such as Kenya, Venezuela and India, are disproportionately more likely to own digital currency. The conference called on western countries to introduce robust regulation of crypto exchanges, digital wallets and other aspects of decentralised finance.

New partnerships

Currencycloud has teamed up with Future FinTech Labs (FTFT Labs) to launch the remittance app Tempo, allowing US-based immigrants a secure, cost-effective and streamlined way to send money. Tempo currently serves money transfers to North America (Canada, Mexico), Europe (Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the UK), India and the Philippines. The Tempo app is a remittance service with in-app customer support for users to buy and trade currencies and easily add funds to the digital wallet.

Mastercard and Atome have partnered to launch the Atome Card in the Philippines. The card can be used to pay online and at in-store retailers. Atome launched in the Philippines in October 2021, when it also announced its celebrity brand ambassador, K-pop group ASTRO. The Atome card provides cardholders with an Atome line of credit that can be used to pay online and in-store retailers by simply presenting their Atome Card during check-out.

Where is the buzz