WORKWEEK

Instacart Launches Credit Card With Chase

I’ve been working on a thesis over the last few months about how the bear market/recession economy and how it’ll affect fintech. Part of it is that tech platforms will be adding more fintech products because they’ll be looking at ways to increase engagement, retention, and revenue on a per user basis. Growing and acquiring new users is getting harder and more expensive, so as a business, converting users into a financial product that generates revenue and adds value for users too. 

So, this new credit card by Instacart, in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, makes a ton of sense. The perks are pretty great—the first 10,000 sign ups get $200 in Instacart credit and free Instacart+ for a year, then the offer drops to $100 in credit. It also features 5% cashback on Instacart purchases, travel purchases through Chase Travel Center, 2% on restaurants and gas stations, and 1% on everything else. 

What’s interesting to me is that big tech platforms like Instacart are opting to work with established banks and institutions, as opposed to fintech platforms. Most likely its because banks can handle all the heavy lifting while Instacart can merely share their brand without having to do a lot of legwork of getting a card up and running. However, as smaller brands entertain launching debit or credit cards, there’s an opportunity for fintech companies to help remove the friction on starting these programs. More on that soon.

Coinbase Hit With Insider Trading, SEC Says 9 Tokens Are Securities

Ok well this is a pretty big deal.

A PM from Coinbase, his brother, and his friend were charged with insider trading, violating SEC anti-fraud rules, wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy. According to the complaint, Ishan Wahi, the Coinbase PM, tipped off his brother Nikhil and a friend, Sameer Ramani, about tokens that were going to be listed on Coinbase. From June 2021 to April 2022, the complaint alleges that Nikhil and Ramani made more than $1 million in profit. 

One critical element to the case is that the SEC says that it deems that the 9 crypto tokens that these dudes were trading are “securities,” contrary to what many VC’s and politicians have been saying. “We are not concerned with labels, but rather the economic realities of an offering,” SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal said, according to Bloomberg.

If the SEC determines that tokens are securities, then there are massive implications for the crypto industry as a whole, not just Coinbase and listing exchanges but for token issuers and crypto startups alike. 

My guess? Things are gonna get a lotttt worse.