We closed out 2023 by sharing some of the big ideas we’re looking out for in fintech this year, including the rise of the developer as buyer in financial services, how financial professional services will be supercharged by software, and why AI will push Latin American SMBs to go digital.

The emergence of financial technology (fintech) continues to disrupt the traditional landscape of the wealth management industry. Fidelity’s recent win of the Delta Airlines business showcases the need for established firms to adapt to changing client demands and expectations.

US fintech company CFX Labs disclosed on Wednesday that it has raised $9.5 million in seed funding to expand its stablecoin payment and remittance network based on the Solana blockchain globally.

PADS Financial, a blockchain-based online mortgage loan platform based in Montreal, Canada, announced the completion of a CAD 3 million pre-seed round of financing. PADS Financial has realized digital property mortgage loan services, and uses blockchain technology to track application and approval status, as well as loan fund management. It can also use tokenization to help users sell or liquidate home loans. It is reported that the new financing will be used to build AI and blockchain products.

TON ecosystem Launchpad platform TonUP announced the completion of seed round financing, with participation from TONCoin Fund, Foresight X, Waterdrip, and BitFund DAO.

October 24th, decentralized social protocol Lens Protocol announced that it will migrate to the Lens V2 mainnet on October 30th. The V2 upgrade will increase Lens' speed by at least 2 times, while providing a more scalable system. Lens API V1 will stop writing and switch to read-only mode during the upgrade, and will stop service after January 30th, 2024.

Bithumb's investment live platform "Bithumb Live," a subsidiary of a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, has gone bankrupt. Seoul Bankruptcy Court is reportedly planning to hold a creditors' meeting and investigate claims on November 28th, with LG U+, SK Telecom, SK Magic, and Lotte Card being the main creditors of Bithumb Live.

On October 23rd, it was announced that stablecoin issuer TrueUSD clarified in a statement on October 16th that they have "no relationship" with TEURO. However, blockchain analysis company ChainArgos analyzed that the TEURO token contract was deployed using one of TrueUSD's private keys. Given that TrueUSD acknowledged being hacked no later than September 18th and TEURO was deployed 10 days ago, there seems to be only one explanation: 1. Someone has some of TrueUSD's private keys; 2. This means that TrueUSD may not have revealed the full truth about the extent of the hack;

According to reports, the Hexlink project has distributed Gas tokens (distributed in the form of ZBC tokens) to over 22,000 early supporters of Nautilus Chain through the Hexlink account. Eligible users will be able to claim their tokens through the Hexlink account. Hexlink aims to provide an AA-compatible smart account for all ENS users, which can be directly used through EIP-4972. Through Hexlink, each ENS name can derive a unique AA-compatible smart account, which is deployed only by the domain owner and can be used to receive cryptocurrency immediately. 

23pds reported on social media that the well-known open-source password manager KeePass had a phishing website appearing in Google search ads. Once users enter the "fake official website," they will download Trojan software. Cryptocurrency users should always be aware of security risks, and Google is currently addressing this issue after receiving complaints.