Companies that master the deployment of intangibles investment will be well positioned to outperform their peers.
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Research
Getting tangible about intangibles: The future of growth and productivity?
McKinsey & Company | Jun 16, 2021
Companies that master the deployment of intangibles investment will be well positioned to outperform their peers.
Investment in intangible assets that underpin the knowledge or learning economy, such as intellectual property (IP), research, technology and software, and human capital, has risen inexorably over the past quarter century, and the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have accelerated this shift toward a dematerialized economy. Are we seeing the start of a new stage in the history of capitalism based on learning, knowledge, and intellectual capital? As economies recover from the pandemic, could a wave of investment in intangible assets breathe new life into productivity and unlock more growth potential?
See: [Report] A New North Star: Canadian Competitiveness in an Intangibles Economy
The research takes the broader definition of intangibles outlined by economists Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake, who include economic competencies such as advertising and brands, marketing research, organizational capital, and training. This more expansive definition of intangibles appears more relevant to the role they increasingly play in companies, sectors, and economies.
Over the past 25 years, the investment share of intangibles has increased by 29 percent
Looking in more detail at the different types of intangible asset, a clear picture of higher growth driven by effective deployment and use of intangibles emerges (Exhibit 4):
- Innovation capital. The share of top growers that reported using data as the basis of decision making was nearly double the share of low growers. Likewise, more than twice the share of top growers said that they have rigorous processes in place to measure the impact of R&D and design, enabling them to build rapidly on successes and abandon failures. Similarly, twice as many top growers are more willing to disrupt their own business models proactively (rather than waiting to be disrupted) and actively search for opportunities to invest in disruptive innovation.
- Data and analytics capital. Only top growers say that they have taken the next steps needed to implement their digital strategy, including making effective use of proprietary data, investing in flexible architecture to avoid being held back by legacy systems—so-called tech debt—and ensuring that they can leverage the full power of intangibles through real-time analytics.
- Human and relational capital. Both top and low growers agree on the importance of attracting talent, but top growers are 2.6 times more likely than low growers to strive to retain that talent by offering a unique value proposition. Top growers are twice as likely to define performance measures for all parts of the organization, and 1.7 times more likely to put in place talent-management processes to foster diversity. Our survey indicates that top growers are 3.0 times more likely to make investment decisions holistically, to do so on a systematic and regular basis, and to maintain agility.
- Brand capital. Only top growers are already deploying this type of intangible to ensure that they can leverage brands effectively by not only listening to the voice of consumers but listening in a tailored way to serve them with personalized offerings backed by real-time data analytics and tailored pricing and promotion.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Is Tether a Black Swan?
Bernhard Mueller via Medium | Jun 18, 2021
Tether’s USDT stable coin has experienced massive growth since the start of the ongoing bull cycle. There’s now an order of magnitude more USDT in circulation than during the height of the 2017–2018 cycle. This makes it worth re-investigating whether the crypto markets are robust against a potential Tether-related liquidity shock.
In this article I attempt to address the following questions:
- How would a loss of confidence in Tether play out in the short term?
- Who would get most rekt if a Tether-related crash happens?
- Would a Tether confidence crisis be a black swan event* that would severely impact the market?
* For the purpose of this article, we use “black swan” to refer to a massive event that would surprise most people. After all, 95% of people in the crypto space insist that Tether is fine. If you’re unhappy with that definition feel free to think of it as a white swan event.
“What may be a black swan surprise for a turkey is not a black swan surprise to its butcher.”— Nassim Nicholas Taleb
See: A Visual Explanation of Algorithmic Stablecoins
The shape of US dollar liquidity in the crypto markets
In 2018, Hasu found that USDT made up for 29% of Bitcoin’s liquidity. Since then, the situation has become a lot more complicated. Not only is there 12x as much Tether in circulation. USDT base pairs also dominate spot markets on centralized exchanges (CEX) where they account for roughly 65% of trading volume. Furthermore, the complexity of the market has increased significantly due to the proliferation of crypto-related TradFi products, DeFi protocols and USDT-collateralized derivatives. That said, this analysis focuses on CEX and DeFi markets which would get directly impacted by a Tether shock.
The stable coin landscape
As of June 17th, 2021, USD stable coins have an aggregate market cap of $106.2 billion and USDT has a 61% share of that pie.
Now, where’s all that USDT located? CryptoQuant tracks $7.25B USDT in exchange USDT reserves. However, this doesn’t count USDT on the Tron blockchain which accounts for half of the USDT supply. According to Tether’s rich list, 17 billion Tron USDT are held by Binance alone. The list also shows 2.68B USDT in Huobi’s exchange wallets. That’s almost 20B USDT held by two exchanges. Considering those numbers, the value given by CryptoQuant appears understated. A more realistic estimate is that ~70% of the Tether supply (43.7B USDT) is located on centralized exchanges.
See: A Brilliant Fintech Future – Banking on Stablecoins
Interestingly, only a small fraction of those USDT shows up in spot order books. One likely reason is that a large share is sitting on wallets to collateralize derivative positions, in particular perpetual futures. The CEX futures market is essentially a casino where traders bet on crypto prices with insane amounts of leverage. And it’s a massive market: Futures trading on Binance alone generated $60 billion in volume over the last 24 hours. It’s important to understand that USDT perpetual futures implementations are 100% USDT-based, including collateralization, funding and settlement. Prices are tied to crypto asset prices via clever incentives, but in reality, USDT is the only asset that ever changes hands between traders. This use-case generates significant demand for USDT .
With regards to DeFi, 2.19% of the USDT supply is locked in smart contracts according to Glassnode. Again, the real number is likely higher since Glassnode can’t possibly track all DeFi protocols across all blockchains. We’ll assume a value of ~5% which seems to be compatible with the numbers shown by major Ethereum DeFi protocols: Cumulative USDT liquidity on Aave, Compound and Uniswap is $1.73B.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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New study reveals environmental footprint of internet activities
Anthropocene | Sarah DeWeerdt | Jun 15, 2021
The major determinant of the environmental footprint of Internet activities: video, especially high-definition video, a new study reveals.
Virtual meetings and telework reduce the environmental impacts from travel, as pandemic-related lockdowns have demonstrated over the past year and a half. But the Internet has an environmental impact too – and that impact is rarely measured in a comprehensive way, researchers argue in the journal Resources, Conservation & Recycling.
See: Stripe commits $8M to six new carbon removal companies
The researchers gathered publicly available information on the carbon, water, and land footprints of Internet use in various countries around the world. They tracked the impact of each gigabyte (GB) of data used for various digital activities such as web surfing, online gaming, video streaming through platforms like Netflix, and videoconferencing through platforms like Zoom.
Worldwide, the carbon footprint of Internet data storage and transmission adds up to 97 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, about the same as the annual carbon emissions of Sweden plus Finland, the researchers calculated. Most studies of the environmental impact of Internet use have only calculated carbon footprints. But Internet traffic also requires enough water to fill more than 1 million Olympic-size swimming pools annually, and gobbles up land equivalent to the combined area of three of the world’s megacities combined – Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, and New York City – according to the new study.
See: Ethereum cryptocurrency to slash carbon emissions
Moreover, if remote work due to pandemic restrictions continues through the end of 2021, the Internet’s global carbon footprint will grow by as much as 34.4 million tons of carbon dioxide, the water footprint by the equivalent of 317,200 Olympic-size swimming pools, and the land footprint by the equivalent of the area of Los Angeles.
The major determinant of the environmental footprint of Internet activities: video, especially high-definition video. A voice-only Internet meeting has on average a 96% lower environmental impact than a videoconference, the researchers found. Reducing streaming video quality reduces its environmental footprint by 86%.
“Comparing the differences between countries not only highlights the trade-offs between various sources of energy, but also demonstrates the significance of the simultaneous evaluation of different environmental footprints,” the researchers write.
See: Rise by Barclays Insights Report: Climate Fintech
For example, Brazil has a lot of hydropower, so its carbon footprint of Internet use is 68% lower than the global median, while its water footprint is 218% higher.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Rise by Barclays Insights Report: Climate Fintech
Innovate Finance | Jun 8, 2021
The FinTech sector has an important contribution to make in reducing emissions, achieving net zero agendas and enabling climate action. The latest edition of the Rise Insights report explores how FinTechs are shaping a more sustainable world with ‘green’ financial products and services that add value for consumers, clients and corporations.
The report covers the enablers that support innovation and gives Climate FinTech examples from the markets and consumer perspective. There’s also updates from the Rise ecosystem and Barclays teams. In this article, we share some of the highlights.
“I see significant opportunities for innovative, fast-growth companies that are developing financial technology in supporting the transition to net zero,” writes Sasha Wiggins, Group Head of Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility at Barclays. “It’s by collaborating with business and technology teams within banks that FinTechs can understand the real-world possibilities and turn ideas into practical solutions”.
The enablers of Climate FinTech
What factors are driving innovation and creating opportunities for the sector? There are three.
First, new sources of, and ways of treating, climate-related data are being discovered and applied by FinTechs. The data needs to have greater availability, consistency and granularity to provide firm insights into companies’ effective climate actions. FinTechs pursuing this goal include Net Purpose, YvesBlue and Nossa Data, an alumnus of the 2021 New York Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars.
Second, emergent government policies and standards addressing climate change present challenges for organisations but opportunities for FinTechs. We’re unlikely to see a single, globally recognised data standard emerge, so being able to compare standards and investments across international markets at the right level of granularity will bring transparency. It’s a massive data modelling and comparison exercise!
See: FFCON21 On-Demand Video: Fintech’s Opportunity to Breaking to Breaking Barriers to Net Zero
Third and last, there’s technology. Blockchain is perhaps most relevant to Climate FinTech. It’s a vital way of tracking the highly connected world of carbon emissions and energy consumption. IoT, 5G and AI are additional technologies that will allow investors to track huge volumes of metrics on physical assets without human intervention.
The effectiveness of any new Climate FinTech value proposition depends on understanding these enablers, which are covered in greater depth in the report.
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Download the 28 page PDF report --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Aspects of Financial Literacy That Help in Life and Work
Guest Post | Jun 14, 2021
Financial literacy means obtaining the appropriate skills and knowledge required to make smart and informed decisions touching money. A person that is literate in finance should know the main definitions, feel confident when speaking of money services and possibilities. A correctly postured financial literacy allows using all instruments keeping their risks, advantages, and disadvantages in mind all the time. A person having these skills can evaluate the market situations correctly, plan budgets and expenses, make savings, and, of course, avoid debts when possible.
Why Financial Literacy is a Critical Skill
Financial literacy is necessary to keep oneself safe in emergencies and to improve your life quality. It is important for a person in particular and for financial institutions and states in general. People making wrong decisions about their finances cause credit debts making them refuse certain goods. Businesses failing to rule their budgets correctly result in profit losses and bankruptcies. State governments making mistakes in financial planning cause a significant reduction in their citizens' comfort and wellbeing, increase numbers of frauds and criminals, lose economic stability, and make people use unreliable instruments to keep their incomes at minimally acceptable levels.
See: The Importance of Education in the Modern World
Here below, you will be able to read more about the most critical aspects of financial literacy. Staying aware of them will help you live a better life and build a career as a respected specialist at a time. Why so? It’s because the skills and qualities required to provide correct accounting can boost your effectiveness as a worker, manager, or business owner.
Finance and Budget Planning
A state or a business always has its budget monitored. A person or family should monitor and plan their incomes and expenses as well. This basic skill of financial literacy alone is able to boost your life quality, improve your self-discipline, confidence, mental and physical comfort, and stability. It’s logical because when you plan your finances, your expenses won’t exceed your incomes. And of course, you’ll have an “emergency bag” to use when necessary.
Additionally, the budget planning skill allows you to devote some part of your income to progress in reaching your big financial goals every month. That’s a necessary ability and knowledge to reach success in a contemporary world.
Keeping Control and Security
Thieves and frauds will always be there if you’ve got money in your bank account or in your pocket. So, it is critical to monitor all transactions thoroughly and to keep your personal data secured. A financially literate person is difficult to trick them with pyramid schemes and other money fraud concepts. Thieves come up with new ways to steal your money every day, so it is more than useful to know how to maintain the security of your funds and private info.
Attention to Avoid Risks and Maximize Benefits
Financial products and services became a part of one’s routine long ago. However, only some clients are attentive and careful enough to reveal the user agreement details. So, if you are financially literate, you know that reading those papers is far more important than even checking a writersperhour review.
Being attentive with the required payments allows you to save more, and monitoring profitable propositions by banks and services, like cashback and bonuses, is the way to improve your financial situations. Additionally, you’ll avoid unpleasant surprises and unexpected fees.
The same approach should work for all the financial products that are new to you. The habit of being pedant and thorough in making decisions is highly valued by most employers. Moreover, you’ll be glad to develop it as an owner of a startup or a growing business.
Knowledge about Credit Rating
In a modern world, it is vital to know as much as you can about credit ratings in general and to monitor your credit history in particular. A good credit rating is important for your financial health because it can play the main role when a crisis arises in your life or when you want to make a big purchase. A bad credit background makes it much more challenging to achieve your financial goals.
Taking Reasonable Loans
Borrowing someone else’s money is not always the best solution for your problems. However, life can put you in a situation where you won’t be able to cope with everything without taking that loan. This aspect of financial literacy becomes crucial when you take an education loan and remains among the most impactful things throughout your adulthood.
See: Renewing the National Strategy for Financial Literacy
The key to taking a loan that won’t hit your finances more than you expect is studying the topic and picking the right kind of service. After that, it is wise to compare propositions from several banks before you make a final choice. Here again, discipline and attention will be your best allies helping to count things up and predict possible difficulties.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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WEF: Decentralized Finance: (DeFi) Policy-Maker Toolkit
World Economic Forum | Jun 8, 2021
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is an emerging and rapidly evolving area in the blockchain environment. Although examples of DeFi have existed for several years, a sudden upsurge of activity in 2020 has simulated interest from the private and public sectors.
See: FFCON21: On-Demand Video - May 11 The Rise of Decentralized Finance and its Barriers to Adoption
This toolkit highlights DeFi’s distinguishing characteristics and opportunities, while also calling attention to the new and existing risks. As well as providing an overview of the DeFi space generally, it maps out the potential legal and regulatory responses.
The result of an international collaboration among academics, legal practitioners, DeFi entrepreneurs, technologists and regulatory experts, the report provides a solid foundation for understanding the major factors that should drive policy-making decisions.
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Download the 38 page PDF report --> Now
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Canadian Prepaid Payments Industry Increases Financial Services Innovation and Choice
Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization | Jun 9, 2021
TORONTO, June 9, 2021: The Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization (CPPO), the collective voice of the open-loop prepaid payments industry in Canada, today released the second comprehensive analysis of the Canadian prepaid landscape, a segment which continues to drive payments innovation in Canada. The Canadian Prepaid Ecosystem Report 2021, produced in collaboration with FinTech Growth Syndicate (FGS), is an analysis of 90 companies operating in the Canadian open-loop prepaid ecosystem to develop a deeper understanding of the innovative offerings, market forces and trends, as well as to build a heatmap of all players in the Canadian prepaid space.
Prepaid cards have allowed for the development and introduction of numerous innovative use cases to the Canadian ecosystem, for both consumer and small business segments. The use cases that have gained prominence within the market employ a wide range of value propositions while laying the foundation for further innovative offerings to be developed and brought to market.
See: More Industry research and reports
According to The Canadian Prepaid Ecosystem Report 2021, Canada is starting to see early movers offering integrated consumer ecosystems that represent the opportunity to become super apps enabled by payments. Non-banks have also been able to launch banking for their customers as an alternative to credit, and capture their spending data for further innovation in predictive services.
“Among the many benefits of the growing prepaid industry in Canada, prepaid offers increased financial inclusion to our essential and growing gig economy, while also offering more choice and convenience to all Canadians,” said Jennifer Tramontana, Co-Founder and Executive Director, CPPO. “In support of post-pandemic economic recovery, we anticipate that prepaid usage will ramp up quickly over the next few years in Canada. The CPPO is excited to continue its market research initiatives to further promote the evolution of the Canadian payments industry.”
As consumer preferences shift towards digital and contactless payment methods long-term, prepaid provides both incumbents and FinTech entrants with an avenue to introduce new products and services, while still adhering to stringent regulatory requirements.
Key report findings:
- There are 90 companies in the prepaid market in Canada, an increase of 21 percent since 2020
- Companies in prepaid space constitute about 1/6th of all paytechs in Canada and majority of those are new FinTech entrants, the same percentage as 2020
- Most of the new company launches and innovations are seen in Challenger Bank, Program Manager and Service Provider segments. Challenger Banks have the highest percentage of the new FinTech entrants
- 38 percent of the Challenger Banks in Canada offer prepaid cards
- Out of the total 90 prepaid value chain players, 50 are headquartered in Canada and 60 percent of those 50 are based out of Ontario
Continue to the full article --> here
Download the 31 page PDF report --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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