This week's list of top stories in fintech:

BlockFi to Pay Record Penalty to Settle SEC Probe of Crypto Lending Business

• Paying $50m to SEC, $50m to states
• Will stop offering existing product and will register a new product BlockFi Yield
• Will file a new registration statement and SEC will have to sign off
• SEC also accused BlockFi of misleading statements playing down the risk

Cryptocurrency’s big Super Bowl ads sold FOMO, not the future

• Coinbase had 20 million people scan the QR code in 60 seconds, crashing their website.
• Crypto.com had LeBron James with his younger self
• FTX had Larry David missing out on big trends
• eToro talked about social investing
• Bud Light Next was promoted with NFT drops

Bank-fintech partnerships win key battle, but war is far from over

• Fintech scored a short term victory in California on the bank partnership model
• Interest rate exportation is still an unsettled issue
• FDIC and OCC may go back to revisit their rules
• Decision came right after the letter from advocacy groups was made public

JPMorgan Opens A Bank Branch In The Metaverse (But It’s Not What You Think It’s For)

• JPM opened a lounge in Decentraland
• Onyx is the bank’s blockchain unit
• Not much to see in the lounge but they do have a tiger

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Until next time.