Fintech's future is in Asia🌏 Banks need to follow the money💵 Digital pound privacy in the spotlight £ Tether stablecoin has blood on its hands.🩸

Crypto sells a vision of saving the world that doesn't match reality.

Artwork of the day: “Dame mit Fächer” (Lady with a Fan), Gustav Klimt, 1917

The last portrait completed by Gustav Klimt became the most expensive artwork ever to sell at a European auction, when it sold for a staggering £85.3 million ($108.4 million) in London. (June 27, 2023)

Like much of his output, it showcases the East Asian influences that shaped his work — not only in the fan held by his unknown sitter but also the use of phoenix and lotus blossom motifs. The background’s flattened perspective evokes the Japanese wood-block prints featured prominently in the painter’s sizable Asian art collection.

Today, four totally unrelated stories that paint a big picture of how fintech is changing our world and changing itself.

We start with a look at the future of fintech and see how Asia and payments are pulling the discipline into the future, with Europe scoring a close second and the US far behind.

Next, we dive into banking to see how I disagree with a recent IBM-JP Morgan collaboration on banks and telecoms. Banks should follow the money and work with superapps and digital platforms, not telecoms.

The Bank of England outlines how it will tackle privacy and programmability in its digital pound. The BOE makes it clear they don’t want to track your payments and shut down your money, but anti-CBDC zealots won’t buy it.

Finally, the UN tells the brutal truth about how Tether stablecoin is used in organized crime for everything from human trafficking to gambling and money laundering. The UN shows how crypto’s vision of saving the world doesn’t match reality.

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