BC TECH
Saved by @CodyyyGardner

1/ The big story for #FinTech in 2021?

⏩ Alt Goes Mainstream ⏪

How did we get here? Who are the players? Where do we go next?

Thread 🧵below 👇

And check out Substack for how the confluence of a number of trends will change investing as we know

 2/ FinTech has ushered in new waves of access to different types of alternative investments.

Over the past decade, we witnessed a groundbreaking era of democratized access to alternative investments.

Not long ago, it seemed unthinkable that individual investors could ...
3/ 💳 invest in fractions of a loan. @LendingClub
made that possible.

💸 invest $20 alongside Sand Hill Rd VCs into a fast-growing startup. @joinrepublic made that possible.

🏦 invest alongside endowments into a top private equity fund. @icapitalnetwork made that possible.
4/ We have now hit the era of alt alt assets.

People can now invest in everything from classic 🚗 to 🎨 to 🏀 & 🏈 cards thanks to democratized access to investing in real things.
5/ The hype is real.

If there's any cohort of people who view culture as a financial asset, it's Millennials and Gen Z.

https://t.co/ERJjxfR9gJ
6/ You can go on @OnRallyRd and buy a fraction of a classic car or if you're a @chicagobulls fan, you can buy a piece of their 6 Championship Rings.

https://t.co/8pStWRHmFM

You can go on @stockx and buy or sell a rare Air Jordan shoe just like you'd do with a stock.
7/ You can go on @OnlyAltOfficial to manage your trading card collection and invest into funds that enable you to access an emerging and outperforming trading card asset class.

https://t.co/QeIt5cCy5q
8/ 2020 created the perfect storm for alts to take center stage in investors' minds as a viable, return-generating asset class.

The culmination of a number of trends in private markets has made it palatable for investors to put money into alternative assets.

👇👇👇
9/ ⏩ Technology Innovation ⏪

Online investment platforms like @RobinhoodApp made one-click investing seem normal.

Alts platforms like @joinrepublic, @icapitalnetwork, @AngelList, @FundersClub have made alts both investable - and even tradable in some cases.
10/ ⏩ Favorable Regulatory Environment ⏪

Crowdfunding regulations have enabled investors to access private markets.

The JOBS Act enabled private companies to complete securities offerings that allow them to raise up to $1 million from non-accredited investors.
11/ ⏩ Low Rate Environment ⏪

We've been mired in a low interest rate environment since the Great Recession.

Where do investors go in their search for yield? Alternative and uncorrelated assets that might be higher risk, but can also be higher reward investments.
12/ ⏩ New Names to Trade ⏪

Other than cloud stocks & a few other companies, the equity markets were relatively boring for individual investors pre-COVID as passive ETF investments became the norm.

The market responded by bringing forward timeline for attractive IPOs & SPACs.
13/ ⏩ Value Capture Shifted to Private Markets ⏪

Private companies staying private longer has shifted the value creation event for investors to private markets.

Investing at Microsoft's IPO? 4,800x return.

Investing at Facebook's IPO? 7.6x return.
14/ ⏩ Marrying Interests with Investments ⏪

Never before have investors been able to marry their interests with their investments in such a direct way.

Chicago Bulls fan? Go @OnRallyRd & invest in 6 Bulls Championship Rings. And stack gains too 💸📈

https://t.co/8pStWRHmFM
15/ ⏩ Put Your Money Where the Movement Is ⏪

We are seeing a rise in influencers - athletes, creators, artists.

These influencers are able to direct their followers to buy, use, or invest in things they promote, which is now likely something they are also invested in.
16/ Long gone are the days of a 60/40 portfolio, particularly for Millennials and Gen Z.

Alts are as palatable an investment to Millennials and Gen Z as stocks and bonds have been to Baby Boomers.
17/ Retail ⏩ Institutionalization.

One of the most interesting features of alt platforms is that platforms which aspired to democratize access ultimately ushered in new forms of institutionalization over time.

Retail is usually at the forefront of these new asset classes.
18/ They generally start out with individual retail investors before bending towards the arc of institutionalization as more capital flows into the asset class.

Then, institutional participation begets more retail demand.
19/ What's the difference this time around?

The first wave of alt investment platforms democratized access to assets that were already the domain of institutional investors.

This wave of alt alt assets have had very little institutional investor participation to date.
20/ So, how will these new asset classes institutionalize without historical precedent?

👀 Crypto and #Bitcoin to see what the arc of institutionalization will look like w/ trading cards and collectibles.
21/ With @Fidelity, @massmutual, @MicroStrategy, @michael_saylor putting $$$ into #BTC, crypto is finally hitting the mainstream.

So, could we expect a similar story to play out with cultural assets?
22/ Think abt this: over $10 trillion of investable assets in the US is held at wealth management units of firms like @MorganStanley & independent platforms like @DynastyFP.

HNW community remains structurally underallocated to alts. HNW have 1-5% to alts vs 20% for institutions.
23/ The issue of underallocation for advisors and their clients has previously come down to access. Now, these alternative investment platforms have solved the access problem.

We will soon see financialization and institutionalization of alt alt assets.
24/ It may be a few years before we see a @Fidelity @stockx ETF, but it won't be at all surprising.

When it happens, these platforms will have democratized access to another asset class - & paved the way for institutionalization of alt alt assets

That's why Alt Goes Mainstream

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Torn between "I think losing $100 million when someone beats you at security research is pretty much exactly what you signed up for doing yield farming" and "Maaaaaaaybe not the future of finance you were expecting, huh."

How to put this in regular finance terms...

Suppose hypothetically you have an account at a brokerage with some valuable asset in it. You take a margin loan against that asset to fund your normal spending, or pay a tax bill, or maybe buy something at another brokerage.

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Recently, the @CNIL issued a decision regarding the GDPR compliance of an unknown French adtech company named "Vectaury". It may seem like small fry, but the decision has potential wide-ranging impacts for Google, the IAB framework, and today's adtech. It's thread time! 👇

It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details): https://t.co/PHkDcOT1hy
• Their high-level legal decision: https://t.co/hwpiEvjodt
• The full notification: https://t.co/QQB7rfynha

I've read it so you needn't!

Vectaury was collecting geolocation data in order to create profiles (eg. people who often go to this or that type of shop) so as to power ad targeting. They operate through embedded SDKs and ad bidding, making them invisible to users.

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What an amazing presentation! Loved how @ravidharamshi77 brilliantly started off with global macros & capital markets, and then gradually migrated to Indian equities, summing up his thesis for a bull market case!

@MadhusudanKela @VQIndia @sameervq

My key learnings: ⬇️⬇️⬇️


First, the BEAR case:

1. Bitcoin has surpassed all the bubbles of the last 45 years in extent that includes Gold, Nikkei, dotcom bubble.

2. Cyclically adjusted PE ratio for S&P 500 almost at 1929 (The Great Depression) peaks, at highest levels except the dotcom crisis in 2000.

3. World market cap to GDP ratio presently at 124% vs last 5 years average of 92% & last 10 years average of 85%.
US market cap to GDP nearing 200%.

4. Bitcoin (as an asset class) has moved to the 3rd place in terms of price gains in preceding 3 years before peak (900%); 1st was Tulip bubble in 17th century (rising 2200%).
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People sometimes ask me what my vision of DeFi is. This is a very tough question. DeFi is very messy with thousands of experiments happening. But high level, I think DeFi will go through 2 phases:

During the 1st phase (next 2-5 years), we'll continue to build games, casinos, and speculative products.

This sounds uninspiring. But it has two main important consequences.

1) This will ultimately lead to hundreds of millions of users to install wallets and get uncomfortable with the UX.

2) This will force the tech (especially scaling) to mature.

Once we've achieved these two goals, phase 2 begins. In phase 2, products that serve real economic activities / integrated with the real economy will be built and flourish.

Right now, such products barely exist. @terra_money comes to mind. But this is the kind of products that I really look forward to. They are more economically sustainable, and create more value.
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Recently, the @CNIL issued a decision regarding the GDPR compliance of an unknown French adtech company named "Vectaury". It may seem like small fry, but the decision has potential wide-ranging impacts for Google, the IAB framework, and today's adtech. It's thread time! 👇

It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details): https://t.co/PHkDcOT1hy
• Their high-level legal decision: https://t.co/hwpiEvjodt
• The full notification: https://t.co/QQB7rfynha

I've read it so you needn't!

Vectaury was collecting geolocation data in order to create profiles (eg. people who often go to this or that type of shop) so as to power ad targeting. They operate through embedded SDKs and ad bidding, making them invisible to users.

The @CNIL notes that profiling based off of geolocation presents particular risks since it reveals people's movements and habits. As risky, the processing requires consent — this will be the heart of their assessment.

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आइए आज जानते हैं महाभारत कथा में वर्णित कुछ श्रापों के बारे में।

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