Will 2018 Be a Special Year?
2018 is going to be different, in a good way. That’s word on the street in the alternative finance industry, many of whom have told me that it’s just something they feel.
I feel it too. The S&P 500 is at an all-time high, Bitcoin is up more than 1,400% for the year, lenders are lending in full force, and on top of it all, Donald Trump is president. The world is changing and from a one thousand foot view, it’s an exciting time for finance.
2018 will welcome Broker Fair, the inaugural conference for MCA and business loan brokers.
2018 will transform alternative finance into just finance. For example, a mailer I received from PayPal advertising a small business loan up to $500,000 in as quick as 1 business day, included a letter signed by a top manager of Swift Capital. PayPal acquired Swift in 2017. Yesterday’s alternative loan is simply today’s loan. The one-day small business loan is becoming normalized and being offered by widely recognized financial companies.
Ripple surpassed Ethereum this morning to become the 2nd largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Cryptocurrency, once the domain of Bitcoin-obsessed internet anarchists, is quickly being adopted by the world’s largest banks.
It’s one thing to just talk about innovations in finance and another to realize that you now rely on those innovations. My company got a loan from Square, I got insurance through CoverWallet, I have funds in Lending Club, Prosper, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash. Coinbase is the new etrade. MCA and online business loans are the new community banks. Payments can be made instantly and cost effectively.
2018 will be special because the world that we predicted would come, has come. That means it will be time to think about what will come even next. Online lending has come, instant payments has come, cryptocurrency is fast approaching. What will be the cool edgy hip thing in the ’20s that we may once again refer to as alternative? Mull that one over for a bit and consider that in the next decade the sexy fintech companies of the 20-teens will be stodgy financial institutions in the 2020s. This decade’s innovation will become part of the boring normal manner in which finance is transacted. That’s a fact.
Enjoy 2018. I know I will.
Happy new year,
– Sean
Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future deBanked events here.
