Facebook's Big Diem

Plus: Chinese Consumer Lending, Bank Cost of Capital, Policy Trade-Offs

Welcome to another issue of Net Interest, my newsletter on financial sector themes. If you’re new here, thanks for signing up. Every Friday I go deep on a topic of interest in the sector and highlight a few other trending themes below. If you have any feedback, reply to the email – I’d love to hear from you. And if you like what you’re reading, please spread the word.

Facebook's Big Diem

In case you didn’t hear, this week the price of Bitcoin went through $50,000.

It’s been on quite a journey since breaking out of a white paper in 2008. At the beginning it was touted as a currency, a new medium for facilitating commerce. “Electronic cash,” Satoshi said. People still talk about that time Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin – “like maybe two large ones so I have some left over for the next day.” (Ouch.)

In the early days, the goal of pioneers in the space was to get Bitcoin accepted by merchants as a medium of payment. Soon after its launch as a Bitcoin wallet, C…