Cora MacDonald

[Jay Yu 🐟 @0xfishylosopher]

I spent the last few months writing a 4000 word thesis on "crypto neobanks" - looking at neobank history, market landscape, revenue models, and gaps for builders.

Here's a TLDR:
- The first wave of fintech neobanks (SoFi, Chime, Revolut, Wise) happened in the mobile era. They replaced the frontend of banking from a physical branch to a mobile app. Crypto neobanks are replacing the backend of banking - from traditional rails to permissionless ones.

- Crypto neobanks - like their fintech predecessors - address 4 fundamental interactions with money: Store, Spend, Grow, and Borrow. Incumbents at every layer (Phantom/EtherFi/Binance/Morpho) are racing to consolidate these features into a single "superapp" experience to increase user stickiness.

- The core goal of a crypto neobank is to make money move around faster, using blockchain rails. Some verticals accelerate money more than others, and each has a different monetization model. There's a velocity of money pyramid: Grow > Borrow > Spend > Store.

- Opportunities for builders:
(1) Privacy and compliance parity with existing banks/fintechs
(2) Real world composability (merchant systems, SWIFT, local rails like ACH/Pix)
(3) Leveraging permissionlessness nature of blockchain rails to speed up how money is transferred in the economy, for rich, poor, human, and AIs,
(4) Localization vs. globalization - crypto neobanks can pursue both paths, either with a local-first (Nubank style) model or a global-first model. The former wins through local trust and distribution, the latter through scale and composability.
(5) Undercollateralized lending and consumer credit - this is perhaps the “holy grail” of crypto neobanks, combining compliance/KYC, bridging offchain credit records with onchain ones, and navigating regional differences.

[Pantera Capital @PanteraCapital]

Thank you @Solana and @SuperteamUK for having us at the House of Sol launch!

@ejwallach discussed Pantera's initiatives in the Solana ecosystem as we look forward to House of Sol's contributions to internet capital markets.

[Carol Massar @carolmassar]

Today ⁦@FutureProof_HQ⁩
⁦@timsteno⁩ ⁦@Ritholtz⁩ ⁦@DivesTech⁩ ⁦@Wedbush⁩ … ⁦@BW⁩ ⁦@BloombergRadio⁩ ⁦@YouTube⁩

[MSB Intel @MSBIntel]

Which RWA altcoin are you MOST bullish on for altseason? 👀🔥

$LINK or $ONDO

[Gareth Jenkinson @gazza_jenks]

https://t.co/wv8CiTykwE

[MSB Intel @MSBIntel]

🚨🇺🇸 BREAKING: PayPal will allow U.S. merchants to accept over 100 cryptocurrencies as payment.

[Gareth Jenkinson @gazza_jenks]

Ethereum comeback loading in Q2 2025?

Last week I sat down with @tkstanczak from @ethereumfndn to discuss the future of Ethereum for @Cointelegraph. We spoke about @VitalikButerin influence, changes at the Foundation, the price of ETH and its future.

Timestamps for ease of viewing 👇 please share widely!

0:25 Intro
0:47 Stepping into leadership: How has the transition been?
1:31 Is Ethereum feeling pressure from newer blockchains?
3:08 Can Ethereum stay unified across L1 and L2?
5:40 What’s the long-term incentive to keep running Ethereum validators?
7:15 Does Ethereum learn from other blockchains?
7:50 Has Ethereum fallen behind in community building? 8:40 How involved is Vitalik in Ethereum’s direction? 10:10 Could Ethereum projects ever settle on Bitcoin? 11:00 Are you optimistic about Ethereum’s future?

Special thanks to @EthCC @EthereumFrance for putting this conference together and giving us the platform to have these conversations!

[Cointelegraph @Cointelegraph]

📊 LATEST: Only 47.3% of the 2.4M BTC on exchanges has Proof of Reserves, per River.

[Cointelegraph @Cointelegraph]

🇸🇬 NEW: Ripple and Tenity launch XRPL Accelerator in Singapore, offering up to $200K in grants.

Focused on early-stage XRPL startups in Asia Pacific.

[Cointelegraph @Cointelegraph]

🇯🇵 LATEST: Japan’s first digital bank, Minna Bank, teams up with Solana and Fireblocks to test stablecoins.

[Cora MacDonald @Chezcora]

@worldlibertyfi When you release WLFI?

[Cora MacDonald @Chezcora]

@titocurtis Nothing can get Eddie Vedder than it.

[Cora MacDonald @Chezcora]

@ToulasTake 😭 une étoile filante

[Toula Drimonis @ToulasTake]

Ouf… try reading that without crying.

[Aaron Derfel @Aaron_Derfel]

Shoutout to @danspector for this excellent report on the crisis at the Lakeshore General Hospital's emergency room. Dan's report is notable as it includes the first on-air interview with Patrice Blais, whose father died by suicide at the Lakeshore ER.
https://t.co/A0Cj1ECqsp

[Lorrie Goldstein @sunlorrie]

Classic Canadian headline:
CBC at a crossroads once again:
https://t.co/i9dSQM343p via @wr_record

[Cora MacDonald @Chezcora]

"DREAMS REALLY DO COME TRUE."
- Former Zellers customer service rep aka me.

[Cora MacDonald @Chezcora]

@GloriaMTL I guessed Als but wasn't 100% -- thanks Glo!

[Cora MacDonald @Chezcora]

@sherriesbee @PartageESPOIR Hi yes! Please send an e-mail to [email protected] :)

[Cora MacDonald @Chezcora]

While most people are working from home - at @PartageESPOIR can’t. Southwest residents will line-up to get their hands on holiday gift baskets/the last food boxes they’ll get before the new year. We were going to be 40 volunteers and instead, due to Omicron outbreaks, we are 10.