Elizabeth Davidson

Nerding out when @ethereumJoseph comes to town during #DCFintechWeek ...thanks to The Journal of Corporation Law at @IowaLawSchool to helping me produce an awesome paper I shared with him! #Consensys #smartcontracts #derivatives #crypto #imagination #innovation

@anishmoonka Are you married? And what’s your wife’s ring .. or what’s your plan ?

Sources if you like to go deeper 🧵 1. De Beers book value $9.2B to $2.3B, $511M loss in 2025 jckonline.com/editorial-arti… 2. Lab-grown 61% of engagement rings, The Knot 2026 study jckonline.com/editorial-arti… 3. De Beers shuts Lightbox, LGD prices down 90% debeersgroup.com/news-insights/… 4. Cumulative $6.9B write-down, Anglo selling De Beers jewelbuzz.in/anglo-american… 5. Frances Gerety, NW Ayer, “A Diamond is Forever” 1947 thedrum.com/news/1948-de-b…

The diamond engagement ring was invented by an ad agency in 1947. Before that, only 1 in 10 American brides got one. The company behind it, De Beers, was worth $9.2 billion three years ago. Today that number is $2.3 billion, and its owner is trying to find a buyer. In 1940, diamonds were a luxury for the rich. Nobody proposed with one unless they had serious money. De Beers had a warehouse full of diamonds and no customers, so they hired NW Ayer, an ad firm out of Philadelphia. A copywriter named Frances Gerety came up with four words: “A Diamond is Forever.” NW Ayer paid Hollywood studios to write diamond proposals into movie scripts. They planted stories in gossip columns about which rock some actress just got. They invented the “two months’ salary” rule, the idea that a man should spend two months of income on a ring. None of that existed before. It was all marketing. By the 1990s, 8 out of 10 American brides wore diamond engagement rings. Then De Beers did it again in Japan, going from 5% to 60% in 14 years. Advertising Age called it the greatest advertising slogan of the 20th century. They were right. The whole business ran on one trick: make diamonds seem rare. De Beers controlled most of the world’s supply but only released a small amount each year. That artificial shortage kept prices sky-high. And the “forever” in the slogan had a second job: if nobody resells their diamond, supply stays tight and prices stay up. Lab-grown diamonds blew that apart. You can now grow a diamond in a lab that is the same thing, atom for atom, as one pulled out of the ground. Costs 80–85% less. In 2019, only 6% of engagement rings in America had a lab-grown stone. By 2025, that number was 61%. That’s from The Knot’s annual survey of 10,000+ newlywed couples. People are buying bigger rings (1.9 carats on average, compared to 1.6 for mined) and keeping the savings. De Beers saw this coming. In 2018, they launched their own lab-grown jewelry brand called Lightbox, priced at $800 per carat. The idea was to make lab-grown look like cheap costume jewelry so people would still pay a premium for “real” diamonds. Prices tanked 90% anyway. By 2025, American grocery stores were selling lab-grown diamond rings for $200. De Beers shut Lightbox down last May. Since 2023, De Beers has lost nearly $7 billion in value. It lost over $500 million in 2025 alone and has about $2 billion in diamonds sitting in storage that nobody is buying. Its parent company, Anglo American, is now in what they’re calling “advanced discussions” to sell off the whole thing. A 137-year-old company, dumped. The greatest ad campaign ever made convinced a planet that a common carbon crystal was worth two months of your salary. The product that’s killing it just proved you can grow the same crystal in a factory for pocket change.

At President Trump’s direction, the Treasury Department is utilizing all tools to stop terrorist cartels, drug traffickers, and human smugglers. This sweeping operation examining U.S. money services businesses along the southwest border will help root out potential cartel-related money laundering from the U.S. financial system.

Federal Reserve Governor @SteveMiran makes a compelling case for stable coins as a conduit to enabling the demand for the $dollar youtube.com/live/MwinwzLHP… via @YouTube

@TuckerCarlson If people understood how programming works they wouldn’t conclude anything spiritual about AI. It’s amazing but nothing literally transcendental.

Sam Altman on God, Elon and the mysterious death of his former employee. (0:00) Is AI Alive? Is It Lying to Us? (3:37) Does Sam Altman Believe in God? (6:37) What Is Morally Right and Wrong According to ChatGPT? (19:08) ChatGPT Users Committing Suicide (27:21) Will Altman Allow ChatGPT for Military Use? (29:01) Altman’s Biggest Fear About AI (31:39) Will AI Bring About Totalitarian Control? (32:48) How Much Privacy Do ChatGPT Users Have? (34:28) The Suspicious Death of Altman’s Former Employee (41:37) Altman’s Thoughts on Elon Musk (43:00) What Jobs Will Be Lost to AI? (47:58) What Are the Downsides of AI? (49:37) Is AI a Religion? (52:31) The Dangers of Deepfakes Includes paid partnerships.

We'd love to consider your application for an AML Analyst opening. Finicity is #hiring 🙌 #openforwork lnkd.in/eRx5JwWd

This was such a great day for Finicity, a Mastercard Company and #openbanking #OpenFinance Let's #evolve 🙌✨ lnkd.in/drVKg-u9

Our CEO of @finicity is testifying now for the House Financial Services Task Force on Fintech. #consumers #financial #data #access @CFPB

‼ #LiveNow ‼ The Task Force on Financial Technology, chaired by @RepStephenLynch, is holding a hearing entitled, “ Preserving the Right of Consumers to Access Personal Financial Data." Watch it here: go.usa.gov/xM9TU or here 📺: twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Brandon Milhorn, @FDICgov Chief of Staff states "the best defense against failure is a thriving and evolving banking system."

Yesss - looking forward to reading! Thx for sharing @MarkWetjen and Congrats J. Christopher Giancarlo - am certain your thoughtful perspective will be extremely valuable to the space. #cryptomemeneeded lnkd.in/djqNUXTA

Citi's Mexico unit takes first steps toward open banking trib.al/v7E7AzN

How FDX standards are paving the way for open banking in North America (VB Live) wp.me/p8wLEc-boOn

Utah Fintech Summit we are organizing - next month! @finicity linkedin.com/posts/activity…

The U.S. and Canada are each creating rules to give consumer control over their financial data. A recently issued Canadian government report could influence efforts by the @CFPB, experts say. trib.al/cqFZg0t

Had the honor testifying before the HFSC today. Mentioned 1033 a number of times. If we want to fix the access to credit problem, we should let consumers decide who they want to share their data with. @CFPB pls write your data access rule so more innovations can take place.

The number of accredited fintechs using #OpenBanking APIs is growing worldwide. There are more than 2.5k fintech operating in 31 countries around Europe and 161 operating in four markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Dominant players should not be able to squelch out competition and that’s something we always need to be mindful of.. ” said @chopraftc in 2018 .. Progressive Groups Push for New Rule That Could Break Up Big Banks static.theintercept.com/amp/banks-cons… #cfpb1033 #OpenBanking

#TODAY - the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by @RepAlGreen, is holding a virtual hearing entitled, "Consumer Credit Reporting: Assessing Accuracy and Compliance." #WATCH: twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…