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SVB fallout hasn't taken away from bank credibility, says Chime founder and CEO

The disruption of traditional bricks-and-mortar banks by fintech companies was already occurring when the pandemic sent startups offering banking services faster, cheaper, and more digitally accessible into overdrive.

A rush of venture capital followed, with fintech companies raising more than $130 billion in 2021 alone, creating more than 100 new unicorns, or companies with at least $1 billion in valuation.

However, as the field of fintechs got more crowded and the economy has entered a more recessionary environment, funding has dried up and several fintechs have taken valuation cuts. The fintech reckoning is going well beyond private companies, as public markets have not been kind to former Disrupters Dave and SoFi, both trading well off their IPO prices. Legacy banks have seen their efforts to disruptor these disruptors fall short of expectations – for example, Goldman Sachs recently pulled back on its fintech ambitions.

Making that banking picture even fuzzier is the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the wave of concerns that followed.

But Chris Britt, CEO of Chime, which ranked No. 15 on the 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, says even with much of the banking system on edge, he still sees a strong market need for fintechs.

“It’s very difficult for [the big banks] structurally to compete for the segment that we aim to serve, which is sort of mainstream middle and more lower income consumers,” Britt said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Tuesday. “Big banks do a pretty good job with high income, high FICO score folks who have big deposits and are credit worthy, but for most Americans, the 65% that live paycheck to paycheck, the only way that big banks can make the math work on serving them is by being very punitive on fees.”

More coverage of the 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50

Addressing the part of the population that has been disillusioned by traditional banking was part of the impetus for Britt and Ryan King to found Chime in 2010. This year marks the fourth time Chime has been featured on the CNBC Disruptor 50 list.

“The trust levels that mainstream Americans have in banks is extremely low, and that was part of the opportunity that we pursued,” Britt said.

Those trust levels waned in recent weeks with the collapse of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, followed by the eventual government seizure and sale of First Republic Bank. Nearly half of the adults polled in a recent Gallup survey said they were “very worried” (19%) or “moderately worried” (29%) about the safety of the money they had in a bank or other financial institution.

Britt said that although Chime has a relationship with SVB, it “hasn’t seen much of a change as a result of the SVB situation” from members, as “99.9% of our consumer deposits are FDIC insured because they’re well below the $250,000 threshold.”

Chime’s focus on having a primary account relationship with members as opposed to other fintechs that may focus on one-off or peer-to-peer transactions has helped the company’s business be “very resilient.”

“Most of our members use Chime for non-discretionary spend; they’re going out and shopping at Target or Amazon or Subway, and they’re using it for their everyday purchases,” Britt said. The majority of Chime’s revenue comes from network partners like Visa when members use their cards at the point of sale.

Chime, which was valued at $1.5 billion in 2019, reached a valuation of $25 billion in 2021. The company became profitable on an EBITDA basis during the pandemic, Britt told CNBC in September 2020.

However, the company has not been immune from the current challenges. In November, Chime laid off 12% of its workforce, or about 160 people, in a move that Britt said would help the company thrive “regardless of market conditions.”

Still, Chime is still open to a future IPO, Britt told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin, something that the company has long been rumored for well ahead of the current frozen IPO market for new offerings from venture-backed startups.

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Qualcomm says it expects $4 billion in PC chip sales by 2029, as company gets traction beyond smartphones

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Qualcomm says it expects  billion in PC chip sales by 2029, as company gets traction beyond smartphones

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon speaks at the Computex forum in Taipei, Taiwan, June 3, 2024.

Ann Wang | Reuters

Qualcomm said on Tuesday that it expects its push into new markets to generate an additional $22 billion per year by 2029.

Of that amount, roughly $4 billion will come from PC chips, Qualcomm said at its investor day on Tuesday. The chipmaker just introduced PC processors earlier this year, when it released Snapdragon X for Windows devices.

The latest forecast marks an important milestone for Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, who took over the company in 2021 with a promise to get past a reliance on smartphones. In fiscal 2024, Qualcomm’s handset business reported $24.86 billion in sales, about 75% of its entire chip business.

Qualcomm also said on Tuesday that automotive revenues would rise about 175% by 2029 to $8 billion, of which 80% is tied to contracts that have already been secured.

We have been on this trajectory realizing that the technologies we have developed over the many years can be very relevant to a number of different industries beyond mobile,” Amon said at the investor event.

Another $4 billion in revenue will come from industrial chips and $2 billion will come from chips for headsets, a category Qualcomm calls XR. About $4 billion of the forecast is a catch-all for other chip sales, like those for wireless headphones and tablets.

Qualcomm shares are up 16% this year, trailing the Nasdaq, which has gained 26%.

Qualcomm grew rapidly over the past decade as its modems and processors became essential parts for high-end smartphones, especially those running Google Android. Qualcomm also sells modems and related parts to Apple for its iPhones.

But the company has warned investors that Apple could choose to stop buying Qualcomm parts as soon as 2027. Qualcomm said on Tuesday that its growing businesses will more than offset any losses from Apple.

A Li Auto L9 electric vehicle (EV) is seen displayed at the Qualcomm booth during the first China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing, China November 28, 2023. 

Florence Lo | Reuters

Qualcomm’s strategy under Amon has been to use the technology its developed for its handset chips, like modems, processors, and AI accelerators, in new markets, including cars, PCs, and virtual reality. The investor event was the first time in years that the company has given a forecast for those new markets. Qualcomm said its total addressable market is as large as $900 billion.

“We put a strategy in ’21, and we’re not changing our strategy,” Amon said.

Laptop and desktop chips are currently dominated by Intel, which has over 70% percent of the market, according to Mercury Research. Intel reported $29 billion in PC chip sales in its 2023.

“The competitive landscape changed between the Windows and Macs,” Amon said, referring to Apple’s move in 2020 to switch from Intel to its own processors. “We saw that as an opportunity, especially as the ecosystem did not have confidence in the existing players to actually deliver a solution.”

The forecast for XR headsets also hints at the growth potential of the VR market over the next five years. Qualcomm supplies chips to many of the top headset makers, including Meta for its Quest and Ray-Bans products.

When it comes to artificial intelligence, Qualcomm calls itself an “edge AI” company, in contrast to cloud-based AI that’s typically powered by Nvidia processors. Company officials didn’t rule out introducing data center products in an interview with CNBC.

Qualcomm suggested that its mobile chips will be able to run the kind of advanced AI that’s restricted to large server farms today, an indication that that company may benefit from the AI boom down the road as the technology becomes more efficient.

“What you can run on the cloud last year, you can run on the device this year,” Durga Malladi, Qualcomm’s senior vice president in charge of planning, said at the event.

WATCH: Qualcomm shares spike on earnings beat

Qualcomm shares spike following quarterly beat on earnings and revenue

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Bitcoin ETF options begin trading, ushering in a new way for investors to hedge their bitcoin exposure

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Bitcoin ETF options begin trading, ushering in a new way for investors to hedge their bitcoin exposure

Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Options on BlackRock’s popular iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) began trading on the Nasdaq Tuesday, ushering in a new way to trade and speculate on the price of bitcoin.

IBIT traded 73,000 options contracts in the first 60 mins of trading Tuesday, Nasdaq told CNBC, placing the fund in the top 20 of the most active nonindex options.

Options trading allows investors to play bitcoin’s notorious volatility by letting them buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price based on whether they anticipate the price will rise or fall in a given period.

“Bitcoin has a lively derivatives market, but in the U.S. it is still tiny compared to other asset classes, and is largely limited to institutional players,” said Noelle Acheson, economist and author of the “Crypto is Macro Now” newsletter. “A deeper onshore derivatives market will enhance the growing market sophistication. This will reinforce investor confidence in the asset, bringing in new cohorts while enabling a greater variety of investment and trading strategies … [That] should, all else being equal, dampen both volatility and downside.”

The market for options contracts on major ETFs can be extremely active, and are widely used by more sophisticated traders. For example, over the past five business days, Interactive Brokers clients have more options orders on the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) and the SDPR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) than for the funds themselves, according to data from the brokerage.

The launch of the bitcoin ETF options will likely also lead to new funds that incorporate those options, said Todd Sohn, ETF strategist at Strategas.

“Grayscale already did a filing for a covered call [fund], and I’m sure BlackRock will come out with it too. And then we’re going to get buffers, and then we’re going to get whatever other trend-following-type strategy that folks think of. I think the ecosystem’s really going to start to fly here,” Sohn said.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC PRO:

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Intuit, H&R Block shares fall after report that Trump government efficiency team is considering tax-filing app

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Intuit, H&R Block shares fall after report that Trump government efficiency team is considering tax-filing app

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The stock prices for H&R Block and Intuit fell after a report Tuesday said Trump’s government efficiency team is considering creating a free tax-filing app.

Intuit, which makes the TurboTax tax-filing software, was down 5%, putting it on pace for its worst day since Aug. 23, when the company’s stock price fell nearly 7%. H&R Block was down 8% and on pace for its worst day since 2020.

President-elect Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has held “highly preliminary” discussions about creating the free tax-filing app, The Washington Post reported. The so-called DOGE will not be an official government department but an outside advisory commission. It will be led by billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and aims to slash government spending.

A DOGE tax-filing app would be a competitor of both H&R Block and TurboTax.

Intuit spokeswoman Tania Mercado didn’t directly address the prospect of a government tax-filing app, but told CNBC in a statement that, “For decades, Intuit has publicly called for simplifying the U.S. tax code so individuals, families, and small businesses can better understand their finances.”

George Agurkis, H&R Block’s director of government relations, said in an email that the company looks forward “to engaging with the new Administration and the Department of Government Efficiency on their ideas related to sound and efficient tax administration.”

It’s unclear where a new DOGE tax app would bridge with newer policies the Biden administration already implemented. Under the Biden administration, the IRS in March rolled out a pilot Direct File program in 12 states, allowing qualified taxpayers to file directly through a government portal. The IRS also offers free filing services through its Free File program for taxpayers who make an adjusted gross income of $79,000 or less. 

While both Intuit and H&R Block have free filing options, neither have had stellar records when it comes to transparently offering those services. 

The Federal Trade Commission in February filed an administrative complaint against H&R Block for deceptively marketing free filing products and wrongfully deleting users’ in-progress tax data. Intuit, meanwhile, agreed to pay $141 million in restitution “for deceiving millions of low-income Americans into paying for tax services that should have been free,” according to the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James.

WATCH: Spruce Point shorts Intuit

Spruce Point shorts Intuit

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