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Simon Taylor
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#Fintech Geek. Ranting @ http://sytaylor.substack.com
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Simon Taylor
03-04
🚨 BREAKING: Kraken just became the first crypto-native firm to get a Federal Reserve master account. 5.5 years after applying, the Kansas Fed has approved according to @WSJ But this isn't the same as what most big banks have. It's a "skinny master account" --- A standard Fed master account gives a bank direct access to the Fed's payment rails, reserves, and lending facilities. It's the foundation of the US banking system. Kraken got something narrower. A "limited-purpose" version — designed by Fed Governor Christopher Waller — that lets you: ✓ Hold reserves at the Fed ✓ Settle payments in central bank money ✗ No lending ✗ No discount window ✗ No deposit-taking It's the payments plumbing without the balance sheet risk. --- The Fed is treating Kraken as a pilot. Waller wants the skinny master account framework finalized by end of 2025. --- But the queue is already forming. - Custodia Bank has been litigating the Fed since 2022 over a denied application. - Anchorage Digital (OCC-chartered) applied. - Ripple's US banking partner applied. The implicit signal here is easy to miss. The era of crypto being structurally locked out of dollar settlement infrastructure just ended. What fills that gap — and who controls it — is the next fight.
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Simon Taylor
02-11
🚨 BREAKING: BlackRock is getting into DeFi. It bought Uniswap (UNI) tokens and listed BUIDL. BUIDL — their $180B tokenized Treasury fund is now on Uniswap, with Securitize handling institutional whitelisting and Wintermute providing liquidity. Then they bought the protocol token. The same protocol token that was under investigation by the previous SEC. --- Right now this is small. - Qualified purchasers only. - $5M+ in assets. - A handful of whitelisted market makers. --- But the Securitize CEO said something most people will skip past: "The infrastructure we're announcing will work equally with retail products." - That's the line that matters. - They're testing with institutions. - They're building for everyone. BUIDL on Uniswap means tokenized treasuries that are composable with stablecoins on decentralized infrastructure. And *that* is a model for the future of all markets. - That's 24/7 settlement. - That's yield-bearing collateral moving on-chain. - That's treasury management on DeFi rails. The world's largest asset manager is now a liquidity provider on a protocol built by degens. And they have skin in the game.
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Simon Taylor
02-10
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🚨 WOAH: Uber just launched kiosks at LaGuardia Airport. The disruption of taxis is nearly compete. No app. No phone. Walk up, pick a destination, tap to pay, get a paper receipt with your ride details. Powered by Adyen terminals. --- This is the bit most people will skip past in the partnership announcement. They shouldn't. Uber and Adyen have worked together for a decade across 70+ countries. The expanded deal adds local payment methods — Pix, Afterpay, WeChat Pay — and new acquiring markets in Japan, Mexico, Australia. But the kiosk is the story. --- Uber built its entire business on the assumption every rider has a smartphone with data and a stored payment method. The kiosk inverts that. International traveler lands without a local SIM — they can still get a ride. That only works because Adyen can process a card-present transaction at a physical terminal with the same infrastructure that handles Uber's online payments globally. This is why they always talk about their "single global platform" --- Hotels and cruise ports are next. Payments as physical distribution. Not just checkout.
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