Happy Friday. Welcome to The Chaos Coordinator! We are Brain Candy's snarky little sister, delivering carefully curated news happening across the industry (that you should probably care about) right to your inbox, with a hefty dose of irreverence.
In this issue, we dive into:
Short Selling
Fintech's Comeback: Part II
Surprise: A Positive Banking Story
Bitcoin
AI FOMO
Going Viral on LinkedIn
What's happening in.....
PE/VC
The Banking Boss Grabs His Megaphone
And he's screaming 'regulation.'
As the shares of another regional bank tumbled on Thursday, the man of the hour, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, ramped up his efforts to pressure US regulators to consider a ban on the short selling of bank stocks. Short sellers are making huge returns on regional bank stocks, reports the NYT, profiting from the falling share price of companies they target. These traders have made more than $7.5 billion in 2023 going after smaller lenders, according to a financial data provider, with that number likely going up following shares in PacWest (the most shorted regional bank) closing nearly 23 percent lower over the past week. Mr. Dimon is not alone in his latest endeavor, echoing the American Banking Association, which called for the SEC to act against “market manipulation and other abusive short selling practices.”
I believe it was the great Canadian philosopher Drake who once said, "'If you thinkin’ I’mma quit before I die, dream on.'"
While rising interest rates have caused ~a few~ traditional financial institutions to capsize, fintechs are riding high. Both Coinbase and Robinhood reported better-than-anticipated revenue in the first quarter. The changing revenue mix at these two companies highlights their capacity to generate substantial earnings from cash balances and cryptocurrency equivalents, which is shifting the dynamics in their favor. As we know, when interest rates rise, money is more expensive to borrow and vice versa. That situation has proven to not be the case for fintechs.
Take a wild guess which one that might be. Don't cheat.
First Citizens' deposits jumped 57% in Q1 from $89 billion to $140 billion following its purchase of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank, catapulting the lender into the ranks of the top 20 US banks by assets. The acquisition of SVB doubled First Citizens' total assets to $200 billion and brought about a $9.8 billion gain, reports PitchBook, placing the bank in second place behind J.P. Morgan Chase's $12.6 billion profit. With its acquisition of SVB's venture loan facilities in its portfolio, First Citizens is in a strong position to capture a substantial portion of the $34 billion venture debt industry.
The digital asset took 'drop it like it's hot' a little too literally.
Bitcoin (BTC) edged below $27,000 as the latest banking debacle failed to trigger the price surge that has occurred in recent weeks amid multiple U.S. bank failures, reports CoinDesk. The drop marks Bitcoin's lowest price since March, as a number of issues face crypto markets right now including low liquidity, a crackdown on the industry from regulators in the U.S. and macroeconomic worries. The liquidity situation specifically is expected to get worse after Bloomberg reported that Jane Street and Jump Crypto, two of the biggest crypto market makers, will take a step back from crypto trading in the U.S. as the country’s regulators continue their crackdown on the nascent industry.
This week at its annual I/O developer conference, Google unveiled a ludicrously capacious number of projects and products powered by or enhanced by AI, including a new-and-improved version of its chatbot Bard, tools to help you write emails and documents or manipulate images, a chatbot-like experimental version of Google search, and more. Google’s big pivot is, of course, largely fueled not by algorithms and advancing tech, but by generative AI FOMO following Microsoft's early adoption of ChatGPT, adding the technology to its search engine. The Bard chatbot was never meant to replace search, but a new generative AI experience just might. Google has been moving slowly and carefully to implement AI in its search appearance, trying attempting to quell the chaotic streak of the tech.
Turns out you CAN go viral on LinkedIn without breaking up every sentence into its own line and trying to make a failed interview sound better than what it was (a failed interview).
It's not a hot take to admit that the current job market is equivalent to SaaS minus the first S. Layoffs across all industries are leaving those looking for a new role scrolling through endless job postings with boring titles and even more boring descriptions on LinkedIn. In comes Fiverr, looking for an Unnecessary Brainstorm Escape Artist Who’s also a Product Designer. “Hacking the platform” is a common desire in social media strategy: exploiting a platform by pulling any number of levers available. In this case, Fiverr attempted to hack LinkedIn job postings, a section that typically provides only basic information such as job title, company logo, and location. While straightforward language is usually the best approach as candidates have specific roles in mind and seek clarity in their job search, a touch of originality can make a significant difference in a sea of sameness, for example: Someone Who Will Say “You’re Wrong” to Our CEO Who’s Also a Full-Stack Engineer.
We haven't talked about Elon Musk in ages! Once the main character of this newsletter, Musk is taking a step back and has picked the new leader of Twitter and plans to step down as CEO. He did not identify the new CEO but citing people familiar with the situation, WSJ reported that NBCUniversal’s advertising chief Linda Yaccarino is in talks to become CEO of Twitter. Read more here.
PHRASE OF THE WEEK
MOTHER
In honor of Mother's Day, let us introduce you to the newest term taking the internet by storm: mother. Lately, you might have seen certain female performers be called 'Mother' online without context. The term comes from ball culture, the “ballroom” scene of Black and Hispanic LGTBTQ drag queens who organized their own underground drag queen pageants. The term “father” and “mother” were used to describe, in effect, the house father/house mother of the younger members of the community. “Mother” soon became a term used to express a great deal of respect, admiration, and love for someone who is not literally your mom, but mother. It can also be used as a verb, for example "She is mothering."