Page 65 - Forbes - USA (March 2020)

bitcoin going. He plays ball with government in- THE FORBES
spectors, for example.
The Coinbase compliance staff, already num-
bering 55, is expected to grow to 70 by quar- FINTECH 50
ter’s end. They comb through transactions look-
ing for money laundering. They will conform
to a controversial new rule that mandates a pa-
per trail when customers move coins from one INVESTORS PUT MORE THAN $53 BILLION INTO FINTECH
exchange to another. Coinbase dutifully sends STARTUPS WORLDWIDE IN 2019, ACCORDING TO ACCENTURE. 63
1099-K reports to the IRS on traders who in one WITH ENTREPRENEURS STAGING A FRONTAL ASSAULT ON
year do 200 or more trades involving a combined CENTURIES-OLD FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, MORE OF THE POT
HAS BEEN GOING TO DIGITAL-FIRST BANKS AND INSURTECHS. I
$20,000 or more in proceeds. N
VALUATIONS ARE GROWING: 13 OF THIS YEAR’S PICKS ARE V
Given all this snitching, how does Coinbase E
WORTH MORE THAN $2 BILLION, COMPARED WITH EIGHT S
appeal to diehard crypto fans? One way is by LAST YEAR. SO, TOO, IS INNOVATION. NINETEEN COMPANIES T
having a menu that includes 26 newer curren- ON THE 2020 FINTECH 50—OUR FIFTH ANNUAL LIST—ARE M
E
cies, some of which are explicitly designed to of- FIRST-TIMERS. ALL COMPANIES ARE PRIVATE AND HAVE N
fer more privacy than bitcoin does. The other is a OPERATIONS OR CUSTOMERS IN THE U.S. T

SEE MORE DETAILS AT FORBES.COM/FINTECH50. G
service, introduced in August 2018, that enables U
a customer to move bitcoin into a personal wal- I
D
EDITED BY JANET NOVACK AND JEFF KAUFLIN E
let exempt from know-your-customer and anti- REPORTED BY MICHAEL DEL CASTILLO, ASHLEA EBELING,
•
money-laundering regulations. ANTOINE GARA, SARAH HANSEN, SAMANTHA SHARF,
KELLY ANNE SMITH AND HANK TUCKER H
T
“If you are an individual and you want to store E
your own cryptocurrency, you’re not a financial
L
I
service business,” says Armstrong, mindful of S
T
any U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
cops who might be listening. “And there are com- A C O R N S A F F I R M
panies, including us, who provide tools for peo- IRVINE, CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO
ple to store their own cryptocurrency and use it.”
PERSONAL FINANCE PERSONAL FINANCE
For $1 a month, micro-investing Offers consumers instant
app rounds up debit- and credit- short-term, point-of-sale loans
B parents, Armstrong displayed an card purchases, moving extra at APRs between 10% and 30%
orn near San Jose to engineer
pennies into portfolios of ETFs.
when they check out online at
entrepreneurial streak as early
For $3 a month, it adds IRAs,
4,000 participating merchants,
as grade school. He recalls being checking and debit card. including Walmart, Wayfair
hauled into the principal’s office FUNDING: $257 million; latest and Expedia. (Select retailers,
on charges of operating a candy-reselling venture valuation of $860 million such as Peloton, subsidize 0%
on the playground. The business flings continued BONA FIDES: 6.2 million users, up loans.) New app allows users
with a scheme to resell used computers and, after from 4.5 million a year before to prequalify for financing and
he earned a master’s degree in 2006 from Rice CEO: Noah Kerner, 42 shop anywhere.
University, a startup that matched tutors to stu- FUNDING: $800 million;
latest valuation of $2.9 billion
dents. He worked on the education venture while
living in Buenos Aires. “I had just decided, I’ve A D D E PA R BONA FIDES: Generated
$4 billion in loans in 2019
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA
COFOUNDER & CEO: Max Levchin,
WALL STREET & ENTERPRISE 44, a cofounder of PayPal and
former chairman of Yelp
Cloud-based software used by
Morgan Stanley, Fidelity and
hundreds of other firms allows
Money Moves 2020
financial advisors, family offic-
PORTRAITS BY PATRICK WELSH FOR FORBES Credit Karma are among those paying 1.7% or more FUNDING: $240 million; latest
es and private banks to track
TURBOCHARGE YOUR CASH
and analyze clients’ holdings.
Thanks to a rush of fintechs and nonbank alternatives,
you no longer need to settle for pitiful bank
valuation of $500 million
deposit returns. Goldman Sachs’ digital bank,
Marcus, and Fintech 50 members Betterment and
BONA FIDES: $1.7 trillion in
assets tracked on platform
on FDIC-insured money-market accounts. Even bet-
ter, the fintechs will spread your money among mul-
COFOUNDER & EXECUTIVE
tiple banks, boosting your effective FDIC insurance
CHAIRMAN: Joe Lonsdale,
coverage from $250,000 to $1 million or more. Or, for
0.08% a year, MaxMyInterest.com links to your bank
Palantir Technologies
CEO: Eric Poirier, 37
account, sweeping excess cash to the highest-paying
insured accounts online. —Sarah Hansen 37, also a cofounder of MAX LEVCHIN
M A R C H 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M