The biggest crypto deal that never happened & what it means for the future 🤑; Remitly buys Rewire: what it shows abt the future of remittances 💸; FinTech layoffs in Europe: the worst is yet to come?

Good Morning FinTech, 17 August

Good day Everyone,

And happy Wednesday! Yesterday’s issue was hot, but today’s - oh, boy… We’re going to look at the biggest crypto deal that never happened (& what it means for the future), Remitly buying Rewire (& what it shows about the future of the remittance industry), and FinTech layoffs in Europe (do they indicate the worst is yet to come?). Let’s jump straight into the exciting stuff:

The biggest crypto deal that never happened, and what it means for the future 🤑

It’s over 🙅🏽‍♂️ Galaxy Digital, the cryptocurrency-focused financial services firm run by Michael Novogratz, has abandoned its plan to buy BitGo.

The reason? The crypto custody specialist reportedly had failed to provide financial statements by a deadline of the end of July.

Key context here 👉 One must remember that the acquisition was announced back in May 2021, at the time when bulls ran the markets 📈

The deal was worth about $1.2 billion in stock and cash and it was expected to close by the end of that year. If executed, it would have been one of the largest deals in crypto history.

Bonus: as of today, the largest crypto deal ever is payments FinTech Bolt buying crypto and payment infrastructure company Wyre for $1.5B in April.

What does this mean? 🤔 Although somewhat shocking, Galaxy & BitGo split yet again shows what kind of market we’re currently at and hints at what the future is going to be like. Here’s the takeaway: