What is it? Nuvei is a global electronic payment processing company. They provide payment technology solutions to businesses around the world and delivers a secure payment experience for merchants and their customers in over 200 markets worldwide. Nuvei operates on a transaction-based model. It charges a fee for each transaction. . A secondary source of revenue comes by providing value-added services and monthly subscription fees by offering service tools such as risk management and analytics. The company’s products currently support nearly 150 currencies, 480 alternative payments methods (APMs), and 40 cryptocurrencies. Merchants can capture every payment opportunity that comes their way. In 2021, Nuvei acquired Simplex Ltd, a fintech startup providing the fiat infrastructure to the cryptocurrency industry, for approximately $250 million. Simplex delivers the infrastructure for consumers to buy or sell cryptocurrencies using credit and debit cards. This is a game-changer event for the Nuvei. From humbled beginnings, Nuvei began operations in 2003 in Montréal, Quebec and now have offices around the world. It has now become Canada’s largest private, non-bank payment processor. Why this Matters? If you ask the question: is there a global currency? The official answer is No. The only currency that comes close to being a global currency is the US Dollar (USD). You can go anywhere in the world (restaurants and stores) and conduct the transaction or pay in USD. Everyone accepts it. It is also the global reserve currency for central banks. In some smaller emerging markets countries USD is the unofficial currency as locals prefer USD over their local currency. Though, it is not a true global currency for global companies. A foreign company can accept revenues in USD but pay expenses in local currency. There are transactions and exchange rates costs involved. What is also compelling is there is a finite number of coins. With a fiat currency, the central can keep printing it and devalue it. This often happens in countries facing economic collapse, such as Turkey is today. Crypto can help in cross-border transactions, it cheaper and relatively easier and quicker to do. Crypto can help citizens in countries that are going through an economic collapse and preserve their net worth by holding crypto than their local currency. Why this may be interesting? As Nuvei likes to state: We want to make the world a local marketplace. By offering its customers to buy or sell 40 types of cryptocurrencies using credit and debit cards Nuvei is doing just that. A global marketplace using one currency (crypto currency). Crypto currency is still in its infancy but the potential for higher growth and more transactions involving crytpo in the future is likely to witness explosive growth over a year-over-year basis. According to CoinPayments, as of June 2021, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin combined processed “about 1.5 million transactions per day. In 2016, the daily transactions were less than 250,000.” Each year, more and more consumers are not just buying and holding crypto but actually using it for transactions. As well, we see businesses benefitting from accepting cryptocurrency payments. According to CoinPayments, on average businesses are seeing crypto purchase orders being 2x higher than fiat currency purchases with a 55% reduction in transaction fees. We’re now seeing global institutions, embracing it. Crypto is going mainstream. It has the potential to be the de facto global currency. It can become the preferred cross border payment since it offers a lower fee than a regular fiat currency payment. The question is not if but when Amazon will start accepting cryptocurrency directly. This will create huge momentum and domino effect for other corporations to jump on board and create more business for Nuvei. Because Nuvei is a publicly traded company on the TSX and Nasdaq, it has a currency (it’s stock) to continue to make acquisitions and expand. I would not be surprised over the coming years if one the larger online institutions, i.e. PayPal or Block (formerly known as Square), acquires them at a premium price. Paypal’s market-cap is $146 Billion (USD), Block is $47 Billion (USD), while Nuvei is $8.3 Billion (USD). Regulations – Biggest Hurdle facing Nuvei The regulatory issues are coming at the forefront Securities regulators are concerned about rapid rise of thousand of cryptocurrencies. The SEC chairman says “it is like the Wild West that can be rife with fraud, scams, and abuse.” The Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost more than $80 million in cryptocurrency investment scams between Oct-2020 to May 2021. Regulation is coming, it remains to be seen how big of an impact it will have on cryptocurrencies. About Nuvei Growth in Crypto transactions