U-turn and no BS, or why UBS ditched Wealthfront 🫡; Stablecoin Wars: who gains from Binance ditching USDC? 🤔; FinTech for influencers goes bust. A warning sign for vertical neobanks? 🚩

FinTech is Eating the World, 7 September

Good evening Everyone,

And happy Wednesday! Today’s issue is really interesting as we’re looking at the U-turn and no BS, or why UBS ditched Wealthfront (& the questions it raises), the stablecoin wars, or who gains from Binance ditching USDC (it’s a solid move), and FinTech for influencers that just went bust (is it a warning sign for vertical neobanks?). Let’s jump straight into the interesting stuff:

U-turn and no BS, or why UBS ditched Wealthfront 🫡

The walk away🚶‍♂️Swiss investment banking giant UBS has ditched plans to acquire US robo-adviser Wealthfront.

The context 👉 Originally announced in January, the acquisition was all about growing UBS’s operations in the United States. Now both companies “mutually agreed” to terminate the merger agreement, valued at $1.4 billion.

It’s worth noting that UBS will instead purchase a $69.7M note convertible into Wealthfront shares, still at a $1.4 billion valuation.

This u-turn by UBS is both surprising and not (especially in the current state of affairs) and raises some important questions about UBS’s strategy and the broader FinTech M&A climate. Here’s more on that + the takeaway: