1) Apple’s App Store, which attracts 650m+ weekly visitors, declared itself one of the world’s most-talented bouncers: The company says it stopped $2.09B in “potentially fraudulent transactions” last year, and booted ~1.7m app submissions that didn’t adhere to its strict standards across privacy, security, and content.
2) The Bitcoin faithful haven’t reached the moon yet, and it appears there are fewer folks who have faith that’ll happen soon. With the price of Bitcoin down to $26.8k from its 2021 high of ~$69k, 12k+ people gathered at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami Beach to talk shop, down from 25k+ in 2022.
3) Esports industry investors may need to press pause and reconsider their gaming strategy. Esports group FaZe Clan, which went public on the Nasdaq last year, laid off 40% of its employees and risks delisting if it can’t get shares back above $1. Meanwhile, America’s biggest esports league saw a 32% dip in spring season viewership compared to 2021.
4) In its chase for domestic dominance, JPMorgan Chase has opened branches in 25 new states and DC since 2018, and now boasts ~4.8k branches nationwide. (For context, Bank of America claims 3.9k branches.) JPMorgan’s expanding footprint matches its outsized role in US banking — it’s responsible for 13%+ of deposits and 21% of credit card spending.
