As the Quarter winds down, we present a snapshot of the week that was courtesy the team at the Information as we look forward to the privilege to serve:
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ByteDance’s Founder Met With
Walmart CEO Last Week
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By Martin
Peers | Source: The New York Post 
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ByteDance founder
Zhang Yiming met with Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon last week, the New York Post reported,
as the U.S. government has demanded that ByteDance sell its hugely
popular app TikTok.
The meeting is
significant as Walmart agreed to buy a minority
stake in TikTok in 2020 in partnership with Oracle, as
part of a deal ByteDance was considering under pressure from the Trump
administration. But that deal fell apart after opposition from the
Chinese government. The change in administration put the issue on hold.
But in recent
weeks, the Biden administration has resurrected the idea of forcing a
divestiture of TikTok with an implicit threat of banning the app if it’s
not sold, although China’s government has said it will oppose a forced
sale. The Post said it couldn’t be learned what Zhang met with
McMillon about. TikTok is introducing a shopping feature so it’s possible
the two companies are discussing working together on that. But it’s also
possible ByteDance is working on contingency options for selling TikTok.
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Virgin Orbit Lays Off 85% of
Staff, Ceases Operations
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By Becky
Peterson | Source: The Information
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Virgin Orbit will
lay off 675 people, or 85% of its staff after failing to raise new
capital, the company said in a filing Thursday,
and will cease operations “for the foreseeable future,” CEO Dan Hart told
staffers, according to CNBC.
The satellite
launch company, which was founded by Richard Branson in 2017, halted
operations two weeks ago to conserve money while the management team
looked for new investors to keep the company afloat. Late-stage deal
talks with two investors fell through over the weekend, CNBC reported.
Shares in Virgin
Orbit, which went public through a special purpose acquisition company in
2021, dropped more than 36% in after hours trading.
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Circle’s USDC Outflows Exceed
$10 Billion Since Crypto Bank Crisis
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By Akash
Pasricha | Source: The Information
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USD Coin has seen
$10.5 billion in net outflows since the day before Silicon Valley
Bank collapsed, according to archives of Circle’s website and
analytics website usdc.cool. That
represents a 24% drop in the stablecoin’s circulation since March 9.
Today, circulation sits at roughly $32.8 billion, according to
usdc.cool.
The outflow
represents a big hit to Circle, the company that issues USDC,
because it generates most of its revenue as interest income on the
reserves it holds backing its stablecoins. So even though interest rates
are rising, a smaller amount of outstanding USDC means less revenue. The
outflow is also potentially bad news for Coinbase—Coinbase earns interest
income on USDC that it holds as part of its partnership with Circle. The
partnership allows Coinbase customers to convert USDC for US dollars on a
one for one basis. The partnership generated $146 million in revenue in
Q4 of 2022, or roughly 23% of the company’s revenue for the quarter.
Circle’s disclosure
that it held around $3.3 billion in cash reserves at Silicon Valley Bank
had caused USDC to drop below its $1 peg for about 48 hours starting
March 10. Circle has also been trying to re-establish a payments network
that allows heavyweight traders to mint and redeem USDC 24 hours a day
and 7 days a week, a capability for which it relied on Silvergate Bank
and Signature Bank.
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