Happy Friday Jr. 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 an almost too healthy dose of irreverence.
This week, we are excited to introduce a new tid-bit to this newsletter, in the hopes of spicing up your vocab skills past the corporate jargon we all know and love. Our surprise awaits you at the end of this issue; consider it a reward for getting a little smarter today. Enjoy.
In this issue, we dive into:
KKR Takes on the Blockchain
The Rise of Apple Pay
Patagonia's Surprising Announcement
Welcome EDX Markets
Senate vs. Social Media
What's happening in.....
PE/VC
This Week, A Hot New Bombshell Enters the Blockchain
YOU get access to private markets! And YOU get access to private markets! And YOU get access to private markets! And YOU now get the point.
Amid falling valuations, record breaking inflation, and even a crypto winter, the movement to democratize finance has not slowed down. The usual barriers that have made private markets historically difficult to access by individual investors are slowly feeling the pressures of newly surfacing private market strategies. Recently, KKR decided to go KK-crazy and join the party. As financial titans continue to tip-toe in their Jordans [or loafers] into the world of digital assets, KKR & Co. is the latest firm to enter the space by tokenizing a part of one of its private equity funds, a step that may provide institutional private market strategies to more individual investors, reports TechCrunch. “We’re big believers in blockchain technology and the role it’ll play in shaping future private markets,” Dan Parant, managing director and co-head of U.S. private wealth at KKR, said to TechCrunch. KKR will partner with digital-assets specialist Securitize, which will "tokenize an interest in KKR’s Health Care Strategic Growth Fund and make it available on the Avalanche public blockchain," executives from both companies shared. Qualified purchasers—generally those with at least $5 million in investible assets (light work)—who create a digital wallet and sign up with Securitize will be able to invest in the KKR fund.
Losing your card on a night out has gotten a little less mortifying, thanks to our friends at Apple.
Would you rather leave home without your wallet or without your phone? Over the past few years, Apple made that an easy question for many to answer, and now the numbers back it up. Apple Pay has surpassed Mastercard in terms of annual transactions, with new data from TradingPlatforms.com reporting that Apple processed more than $6 trillion worth of transaction volume over the last year. Earlier this year, Apple launched its new ‘Tap to Pay’ feature, employing sensor technology to allow merchants of all industries to accept Apple Pay, contactless card payments and digital wallet payments on an iPhone with no additional hardware needed. According to Apple, 90% of retailers across the US now take Apple Pay. If history has proven anything it is that as more and more places accept Apple Pay, more and more people will upload their credit and debit cards to the Wallet app, adding more value to the service.
Now, only Visa stands in Apple's way of reaching the number one spot, but will the future release of a new "buy now, pay later" feature in Apply Pay get them closer? Read more here.
CAPITAL MARKETS
"Instead of 'going public', you could say we're 'going purpose'"
Patagonia's founder just donated the entire company, worth $3 billion, to fight climate change
In the wake of the anti-ESG movement taking over funds, Wednesday evening, 83-year-old founder, Yvon Chouinard, posted a note to Patagonia's website sharing the news that the Chouinard family has given the company away to two environmental organizations. In the words of Yvon, here is how it will work - "100% of the company’s voting stock transfers to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, created to protect the company’s values; and 100% of the nonvoting stock had been given to the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting the environmental crisis and defending nature. The funding will come from Patagonia: each year, the money we make after reinvesting in the business will be distributed as a dividend to help fight the crisis." Founded in 1973, Patagonia's leadership will stay the same, and Chouinard family members will continue to serve on the board. "Earth is now our only shareholder," shared Yvon. 🌏💙
To read more on this game-changing, raising the bar on what socially conscious means, moment, read here.
CRYPTO/BLOCKCHAIN
Wall Street Knows What You Did Last Crypto Winter
And this time around, no one is hibernating.
Investment firms remain unfazed by the ongoing crypto downfall and are backing the belief that, unlike low rise jeans, the controversial asset class is here to stay. Following BlackRock's partnership with Coinbase to make crypto directly available to institutional investors, a new cryptocurrency exchange backed by some of Wall Street's biggest names has extremely bold plans to reduce how much traders will have to pay to buy and sell digital assets. Schwab, Citadel Securities, and Fidelity are a few of the names tied to the newly launched EDX Markets, a “first-of-its-kind exchange” giving investors “safer, faster and more efficient cryptocurrency trading,” stated Tuesday's announcement. The exchange will use technology built by The Members Exchange (MEMX), a stock market owned by a consortium of financial firms.
While it's giving extreme group project where everything could go wrong vibes, we're intrigued. Read more here.
MARKETING TRENDS
Social Media Smackdown Hits the Senate
And the end result of the hearing was about as successful as my attempts to go viral on TikTok.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (would that full name even fit into a tweet?) convened on Wednesday to speak to current and former social media executives from Meta, TikTok, YouTuber and Twitter, hoping to address the spread of disinformation and extremist content on social media and the risk that plays on national security. This senate hearing took place the day after Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko spoke before Congress about what he called “egregious” security failures at the firm.
TIME walks us through the hearings and the [lack of] outcomes here.
Other Things You Should Care About
Meta Macchiatos? Web3 White Chocolate Mochas? Starbucks is hitting the metaverse. This week, our favorite overpriced coffee provider introduced Starbucks Odyssey, a new experience combining the Starbucks Rewards loyalty program, to be built on blockchain, with an NFT platform, giving customers to opportunity to earn and purchase digital assets that unlock exclusive experiences and rewards. Read more here.
Billy McFarland a.k.a. the Fyre Fest Fraudster a.k.a the guy who pleaded guilty to scamming investors out of $26 million is out of jail and told the New York Times that he’s looking to get into tech. How fun! Read more [on how to stay away from him] here.
When it comes to color psychology, there is more than meets the eye. Giraffe Social Media shares their guide to how to choose the best colors for your social media graphics. Check out the infographic here.
WORD OF THE WEEK
STAN
noun; verb
Coined by Eminem in 2000, stan is a slang term for someone who is a very passionate fan, especially of a celebrity or music group, for example the author of this newsletter and Harry Styles. Stan can also be a verb for liking something a lot. We stan the word stan.