Gm. Fintech founders be warned—the youths still love using cold hard cash. A recent survey by Credit Karma found that 45% of Gen Z respondents prefer to use cash for everyday purchases over any other means of payment.

No word on what they are spending their cash on but we hear its Werther's Originals and vinyl records.

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers.

Startup to watch: If such a thing as a “kid-safe social network" exists, Zigazoo is building it. Like TikTok, Zigazoo lets users make and share short-form videos with an educational lean to them. It also supports in-app token usage and NFT drops intended to incentivize kids to learn about blockchain tech. It just raised a $17 million Series A from an elite group of celebrities investors which includes the NBA, Serena Williams, Jimmy Kimmel, and the D’Amelio sisters.

M&A

SBF considers donning tights

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was thinking about purchasing the once high-flying trading app Robinhood. It turns out that “thinking about” were the key words—Bankman-Fried told Decrypt yesterday there were "no active M&A conversations about Robinhood currently taking place."

So which one is it?

There are reasons to believe that the Bloomberg report is more than just a juicy rumor. For starters, Bankman-Fried has been on a spending spree of late: after personally snagging a 7.6% stake in Robinhood in May he also played a role in bailing out crypto lenders BlockFi and Voyager Digital.

• Plus, Robinhood has been riding the struggle bus: Despite jumping 14% on the news of Bankman-Fried’s interest, its stock is still down over 80% from its post-IPO high of $55 making it an attractive takeover target.

• It also just got roasted by the House Committee on Financial Services. In a report on the meme stock madness of 2020, the committee described how poorly Robinhood’s management handled the increased trading volume during the boom, noting that it exhibited “inadequate risk management.”

It would be a steal for FTX

Robinhood has a ton of funded accounts on its platform—22.8 million as of Q1, up 4.8 million on a year-over-year basis. Those represent some tasty user numbers for FTX especially given that Robinhood’s customers are almost entirely US-based.

FTX is an international company headquartered in the Bahamas, so the proposition of snagging a foothold in the US trading landscape with a user base that loves trading crypto is no doubt a tempting one. Plus, when you factor in FTX’s recent foray into equity trading, this deal becomes all the more logical.

Bottom line: Even if Bankman-Fried wanted to move ahead with the purchase, Robinhood’s founders still own over 50% of the voting shares in the company, so technically the decision lies in their hands. Though, as the recent sales of Zendesk and Twitter show, if eccentric billionaires want a deal to happen, it usually does.

CRYPTO

An empty flex

In what has become a depressingly familiar part of the news cycle, another crypto exchange, CoinFLEX, suddenly halted user withdrawals last week after a whale’s massive account went sideways. But yesterday, CoinFLEX made a uniquely bold move to try and reinstate withdrawals—it issued $47 million worth of a new token called Recovery Value USD (rvUSD).

A familiar story: CoinFLEX joins the likes of Defi lending platforms Celsius and Babel Finance who also paused user withdrawals in the last month due to extreme liquidity issues.

While the identity of the investor whose massive position went negative is still unknown, CoinFLEX CEO Mark Lamb insisted in an announcement that they are “a high-integrity person of significant means.”

• Should the new issuance be successful, CoinFLEX will have enough money to cover the whale’s bad debt...but that’s a big if.

Bottom line: CoinFLEX is putting a lot on the line by issuing a new token—should it fail, its reputation will likely be irreparably damaged. Knowing this, it is majorly sweetening the pot by offering revUSD holders a juicy 20% yield (though it's unclear how exactly the company plans to generate the funds to pay it.)

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: One unforeseen ripple effect of record-high gas prices has been the rise of Uber and Lyft drivers opting to drive Teslas. The number of ride-share and delivery drivers using Teslas jumped 186% in May compared to last year. Other than saving big bucks on gas, Uber drivers also snag an extra $1 per ride from Uber for using an EV. One driver told Bloomberg that her new whip also brings in bigger tips “They’re a lot more generous,” she said. “Usually I’m lucky to get $1 to $3 tips but it’s now $10 or $15.” Ludicrous mode will do that to a person.

Story we're watching: No company has transitioned from funny-dance-app to international security threat quite as fast as TikTok. Brendan Carr, the commissioner of the FCC, posted an open letter yesterday directing Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores. The letter follows a BuzzFeed report which revealed ByteDance still has access to sensitive data from American users. While the tech CEOs are unlikely to comply, Carr’s renewed quest to remove it from app stores is giving us major 2020 vibes.

Rabbit hole: Are you a naïve realist? (Nautilus)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• Airbnb is permanently banning guests from hosting parties in its houses going forward

• Google Hangouts is being terminated, forcing users to transition to Google Chat in July. No, we have don't have any idea what the difference between two is.

• Elon Musk surpassed 100 million followers on Twitter yesterday.

• Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann is stepping down 12 years after co-founding the company.

THREE HEADLINES AND A LIE

A. “Chilean man who was accidentally paid 330 times his salary resigns, then vanishes”

B. “San Francisco adds ‘No Public Restrooms’ to city entrance sign’”

C. “CEO doesn’t expect any upcoming layoffs employees deserve to know about”

D. “FIFA increases revenue by requiring brand tattoos for all players”

LAYOFFS TRACKER

UiPath

• Industry: software

• Amount laid off: 210

• % of workforce: 5%

• Date of layoffs: 7/27

• List of employees affected: N/A

Udaan

• Industry: ecommerce

• Amount laid off: 180

• % of workforce: 4%

• Date of layoffs: 7/27

• List of employees affected: N/A

Vezeeta

• Industry: healthtech

• Amount Laid Off: 50

• % Of Workforce: 4%

• Date Of Layoffs: 7/28

• List of employees affected: N/A

FOUNDERS CORNER

The best resources we came across that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.

📈 An 11-step system to go from 300+ job rejections to final rounds at Microsoft, Google, and Twitter

🛠 5 questions every engineer should ask in a job interview

⚾️ 9 essential things to get across when pitching VCs

THREE HEADLINES ANSWER

The Chilean man's story is true! But times are tough—who can blame him?