The Federal Reserve Board on Monday announced final guidelines that could open up a path for institutions peddling new types of financial products, or those with novel charters, to tap into the banking system.
Why it matters: The guidelines seek to clarify a longstanding question critical to the crypto industry — who is allowed to have a master account. Such accounts would allow crypto banks and fintech platforms to access the central bank's rails (payments and services) without partnering with a traditional bank.
Adam Neumann's next act is coming a bit more into focus — or at least capital. Flow, the residential housing company he's been quietly working on after departing WeWork under a cloud of failed ambitions, just raised a reported $350 million (at a valuation over $1 billion) from Andreessen Horowitz, per the NY Times.
Why it matters: It's got all the intrigue: A controversial founder, big money, and a hot sector. Not to mention it's already a unicorn.
The company behind Transformers, Magic The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons keeps opening its own video game studios, after years of relying primarily on outside teams.
Why it matters: Should those studios prove productive, it’ll make Hasbro and its Wizards of the Coast subsidiary a much bigger player in the industry.
Crypto audits are coming back in style, but it's still a voluntary practice akin to paint-by-numbers — and without all the numbers. Call it a trust exercise.
Why it matters: This voluntary math goes through cycles of popularity (usually after things go wrong) and have become important again in the wake of a pair of large crypto lenders — Celsius Network and Voyager Digital — filing for bankruptcy reorganization. But they aren't perfect.
Nexstar on Monday announced a deal to acquire a majority stake in the CW from ViacomCBS and Warner Bros. Discovery, after months of anticipation following leaks about an arrangement.
Why it matters: The deal gives ViacomCBS and Warner Bros. Discovery cash to invest in their own streaming services. It allows Nexstar, the largest local broadcast distributor in the U.S., an opportunity to invest more meaningfully in national content that it can sell advertising around.
The Federal Trade Commission's major move towards crafting data privacy rules is the latest signal of a potential end to Big Tech's expansive use of online data.
Why it matters: As people grow more wary of the online trails of digital data they leave behind, the lack of data privacy protections in the U.S. has increasingly become a glaring source of concern for many.
The hallway-and-classroom model of school architecture is out. Instead, forward-thinking schools feature flexible "learning spaces," wellness rooms, touch-free lighting and plumbing — and of course, souped-up HVAC for optimum ventilation.
Why it matters: Lots of pandemic relief money is earmarked for school improvements, so there's a big window of opportunity for construction projects that boost pedagogy as well as students' physical and mental wellbeing.
