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Merry Christmas edition. The true Merry Christmas edition would have come out on Saturday, as the Saturday Cup of Joe is supposed to. This is the Monday Cup of Joe. One of my friends and loyal readers is Joe. He wrote a few weeks ago recommending that I change the name on the weeks when it cannot come out on Saturday. If this were me taking calls on sports radio, it would be “Joe from Berkeley.” I’m not sure if that’s a reference everyone across the country can relate to, but growing up passing through the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT), it was easy to hear WFAN. Thank you to Joe from Berkeley for today’s title — Joe’s Tuesday Cup of Joe.
Thank you all for reading and sticking with the Saturday Cup of Joe even when it’s on Tuesday.
Everyone has a different experience throughout the year. Increasingly, our work and our online experience is curated. We all have different themes or highlights that mark the year. I thought it might be interesting to share mine and see how that compares with yours.
Here are a few of the things that appeared in 2021 or grew in popularity (unscientific method of how often I heard about it, thought about it or participated in it):
Cryptocurrency.
No question Bitcoin moved from a growing corner of the Internet to mainstream in 2021. Not only did global banks need to formulate a strategy and response to crypto but average consumers with 401(K), stock portfolio and savings began investing in or asking their financial planner about how to get into crypto. Perhaps even more of an indication, some of the highest profile and highest paid executives in Silicon Valley moved into cryptocurrency companies. According to this New York Times article, Google, Meta, Amazon executives left for start-ups in crypto and “web3.” In one case, a Google exec worked at Coinbase for 14 months earning an estimated $600M at the IPO. Crypto is here to stay. The question for next year is whether it remains independent of the financial services establishment or gets absorbed / consumed by corporate banking. Though I’m not a serious crypto trader, I do believe the underlying technology and proof of concept on network effects will continue to disrupt transactions & banking.
