The next focusIR Investor Webinar takes places on 14th May with guest speakers from Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register here.
Hi all,
I hope you’re all well. Please find below this week’s Q&As:
How much is budgeted on advertising for the new payments feature?
I cannot share specific information but Mode has a designated marketing budget for its own brand awareness and acquisition campaigns, as well as for co-marketing campaigns with merchants.
Is Mode planning to target online sports betting companies?
This year we will be mostly targeting fashion apparel, food, consumer electronics, cosmetics/beauty, jewellery, home apparel, education, sportswear, game/e-sports and travel verticals, as these are the verticals we are confident we can attract the most customers in.
In terms of size, we are focused on all sizes, large merchants to drive scale and brand recognition, and SMEs to accelerate market penetration.
Finally, I've also received a couple of questions re the reason for the Public BETA launch. Please note that this is a full public release that can be accessed by everyone via Google Play. It’s very common for tech companies to release completely new products under the label BETA in order to continue learning and improving from real-life transactions. We're very excited to you show you what we've built - coming soon!
@nuri123a I'd love to know the maths behind how you reach that valuation.
Sold out a while back but if this keeps going I could see a re-entry. If you're feeling over-exposed might be best to either reduce your exposure or just not look. It's possibly not a bad point to buy if you wanted to average down. I suspect next month Bitcoin will have another run at 60k again, Pluto will be closer to listing and the Nasdaq listing should be closer. Plenty of catalysts to come.
Funnily enough we got coffee and I was impressed. I'm not sure the people there knew that. The sitting area was outside Starbucks but not Greggs. I also know some people like Starbucks' distinct taste (not for me but I know people who like it).
Got mine in AJ Bell, but it shows up as identical to the regular share - same amount, same price. Just Hammerson PLC Prov Dividend Scrip Shares.
I assume something will happen to make it all make sense? Has anyone who's had a scrip on AJ Bell seen anything like this before?
Went to a Greggs on a trading estate next to a Starbucks drive-through. They were limiting customers to 4 in the shop at a time, but there was a constant queue outside at 2:30pm! Lots of tradespeople but quite a few grabbed food from Greggs and coffee from Starbucks, where they sat outside munching away.
This was a Greggs I think only opened in the last year or so. Had a real Peter Lynch moment watching people from the car. Definitely happy to hold and waiting for a pullback to top up.
@Dingodog - the regulatory framework is evolving and rules keep changing. The more coins added the harder it is to keep up. Bitcoin is fairly straightforward, it's a token that most regulators in the UK (and US) understand isn't a security. Each coin requires effort to add, and if it's a security may cause further regulatory complications.
TBH at this stage I think they've got the right idea focusing on merchants and getting open banking. Other tokens can always come later.
As I write we're at £1.70. I have $2 being around £1.45. If we were to fall below that, does anyone know how this would impact the Nasdaq application? Also would any impact need to be a wick under or a full close on say, $ARBKF?
You're not alone. I've sold out my short-term position but am putting some aside for re-entry once confirmation of the bottom comes in. Freed up cash for other opps and I'll have some left over to scale back in. Still have a smaller long-term sub-100p position riding for now. HODLers should just switch off till final results come out. I'd be shocked if there wasn't a boost from that.
Still in my LISA as that has longer timeframes but sold ISA holding out completely. If it hits 1.50 I'll consider scaling back in. If not, it's been a good run but I have other bags to fill. Financial results should be out end of month. Could be a good opportunity if we stay below £2 in the interim.
The company's doing great if you consider never-to-be-deployed crypto HODL net cash. Mr Market may see that in the future but isn't there yet. GLA.
What would that explanation even look like? Do you want PW to break out the crayons and apologise or something? Sounds like you should consider selling or at least downsizing your position. The company's not in a bad way the SP lost momentum due to the placing handling, that's all. That's led to a reset as people took profits and reallocated elsewhere. The Coinbase IPO will suck money out of many other pure crypto firms short-term. Once Argo gets a decent catalyst it'll start moving again.
The management have taken the pxxs in the past at Argo, it's very clearly jumping on a trend and there is very little information about what this company is actually going to do and how it will do it. If you get in on the IPO and sell early you may make a substantial profit but make no mistake it's a punt and there are no risk-adjusted returns from holding this from day one because there's no way to measure risk. You may as well flutter on Binance Smart Chain.
I don't buy Aquis shares generally, I prefer to hold them indirectly. For example, ARB holds Pluto which will IPO on the AQSE later this year. If Argo thought NFT would be a long term success I'd expect to see an announcement from them about buying it.
When you buy an NFT you enter into a licence agreement regarding a string of data (the Non-Fungible Token). The Token is usually based on a standard called ERC-721 which is stored on the Ethereum blockchain (although NFTs are appearing on other blockchains). The data inside the token includes a pointer to a location on the Internet representing the asset. Because the data is stored on an immutable ledger, if the location changes then effectively whatever it was pointing to has disappeared.
What you're buying are access rights to the token, not the asset. In some cases you're not even buying the ERC-721 token, just entering into an agreement regarding "use" of the token. One day an NFT-type token will come along that will provide permanent storage and the legal framework will support actual digital ownership but that's some time off yet. For a better understanding sE4 and sE5 of Christie's NFT additional auction sale conditions speak volumes: https://www.christies.com/pdf/onlineonly/ECOMMERCE%20CONDITIONS%20OF%20SALE%20-%20NEW%20YORK-8Mar21.pdf
If a leading auction house has to put extra legal points in about the "substantial uncertainty as to the characterization of NFTs and other digital assets under applicable law" and talk about restricted rights then here be legal dragons. Main thing is to read the T's & C's for whatever you buy and tread carefully.
On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RibLpwA-Sc
Key points:
Mode payments up to 70% cheaper directly into your business account.
Access rich customer insights.
Strong authentication to help eliminate card fraud and chargebacks.
Rewards in Bitcoin.
Youtube Q&A Tomorrow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-g_nZVB_ig&feature=youtu.be
There is always a risk of a Bitcoin crash but we believe that this is unlikely as the growing adoption from retail and institutional players around the world has meant Bitcoin has been significantly re-risked, thus the likelihood of this happening is very low, in our view.
Furthermore, we are launching new payments and loyalty products and services as per previous announcements, which will allow us to diversify our offering as well as revenue streams, and protect us from any single point of failure.
How easy will it be for you (by way of the merchants signed up) to offer customers "cash back" in BTC as incentive for using the Mode superapp. I understand that is the idea, but would be great to understand the feasibility.
Unfortunately, I cannot share too much information about the cashback/rewards system at this point but I'm confident it will be a very popular feature amongst customers (as they'll be accumulating the world's most sought-after asset!) and merchants (as it will help increase conversion rates and loyalty). More details on the Bitcoin rewards programme soon.
Mode product demo ads question
Jonny you asked about the targeting of one of our ads and you suggested some changes - thanks for the input! The ad you're referring to was released as a brand awareness advert and is only targeting Mode users, and people who have engaged with our ads before.
We will be launching new advertising campaigns specifically for the new payments and rewards in due course, and they will definitely have Mode's USPs stated clearly. We're just getting started on that front!
Thanks for all the questions. I hope these helped clarify some of your doubts. Happy to answer more next week.
Ariane @MODE answered questions on Telegram at https://**************Sf4eIhrBA48YUkfgoEa-Sg
I'm posting here so people not on telegram can see:
Hi all,
I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter break. As mentioned last week, I've taken some time to answer more questions you've been asking. I hope this clarifies some of your doubts. See below.
On which FCA cryptoassets register are/will mode be registered on (if not already registered, when will that registration be completed?)
I've already seen this question has been answered by Gera but here's a reminder for everyone else. In December, the FCA established a Temporary Registration Regime to allow existing cryptoasset firms which have applied for registration, and whose applications are still being assessed, to continue trading until July 2021. We are listed on the register and, as such, are currently awaiting a response from the FCA in regards to our 5AMLD application. We are in regular talks with the FCA and are progressing with our application. Here’s the official FCA register where you’ll see us appear under our company registered name "Fibermode Limited": [https://register.fca.org.uk/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=0154G0000062BtF](https://register.fca.org.uk/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=0154G0000062BtF)I
Lets imagine the worst happens and Mode implodes. How will people get access to assets in the bitcoin jar?
Bitcoin assets held with Mode, whether they are in the Bitcoin Jar or the Bitcoin Account are ringfenced, meaning that they are separate from Mode's own treasury Bitcoin assets. Therefore, in the event of an unfortunate incident i.e. bankruptcy, assets will be returned to customers via the Mode app or another wallet.
Can Mode publish their (or some of their) public crypto wallet addresses used with a summary (e.g. treasury, custody, merchants etc)? This would allow investors to independently verify holdings. I don't think Tesla's done this yet, it would be an unprecedented move from a transparency perspective.
I'm not aware of any other companies doing this, and I'm afraid the security risk and privacy concern would be too high for us to consider at this point.
The cryptoasset space so far has been largely driven by Bitcoin cycles. In the event of a Bitcoin crash, how would this affect the company's operations and what would change in the business?
Bitcoin experiences periods of volatility regularly, and our view is that it will likely continue to happen until Bitcoin reaches full maturity as an asset class. To date, these periods of change have not impacted our business negatively, quite the opposite, they have resulted in customers trading more, which has increased our trading revenue.
There is always a risk of a Bitcoin crash but we believe that this is unlikely as the growing adoption from retail and institutional players around the world has meant Bitcoin has been significantly re-risked, thus the likelihood of this happening is very low, in