What the Blog? is an Essentials video series discussing what’s next for the future of money, and how topics like fintech, finance AI, and digital transformation in banking are becoming more important than ever before. Editors Isabella Moulton and Martin Jacobsz bring you a snappy summary of articles directly from our expertly curated Future of Money Essentials Newsletters.

In our first article on the latest finance news, we are made aware that as decentralized finance (DeFi) has experienced massive growth the last year, it’s important we now evaluate its benefits and dangers. To put some numbers behind its growth, the tracking service DeFi Pulse estimated the value of digital assets associated with DeFi services to be worth less than $1 billion in 2019, over $15 billion by the end of 2020, and over $80 billion in May 2021. Despite its explosive growth, DeFi is still in its early development stages, so it’s vital we evaluate its benefits and dangers, before it gets out of control. Want more of the latest financial news? Read our blog here.

Our second pick in banking news, highlights why the theme of financial super intelligence is especially important in 2021. While the digitalisation of banking and financial services has greatly evolved in the last 10 years, with over 16 billion internet connections, we now have to scale the 100s of millions of connections we have, and super intelligence will help us do just that. Wondering what the next fintech trends are? Read the article here.