Wall Street intern recruiting heats up - Top 20 M&A bankers - PayPal's crypto future

Good morning and welcome to Insider Finance. I'm Dan DeFrancesco, and here's what's on the agenda today:

• The process for nabbing a Wall Street internship can start as early as 24 months before it begins.
• Meet the top M&A bankers who closed the biggest deals in North America in 2020.
• Cryptocurrency took center stage for PayPal during its investor day.

We are also looking for nominations for upcoming list of top equity research analysts under 35. Find out more about the list, and how to nominate someone here.

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Like the newsletter? Hate the newsletter? Feel free to drop me a line at ddefrancesco@businessinsider.com or on Twitter @DanDeFrancesco.

Applications for Wall Street summer internships in 2022 are already opening. Here's why the talent war for undergrads is starting earlier and earlier.

If you want an internship on Wall Street, you almost need to start prepping in high school.

Insiders explain how aggressive the recruiting process has gotten for summer analysts positions, which serve as a pipeline to full-time analyst jobs at investment banks. In short, candidates need to start getting ready as soon as 24 months before the internships they're gunning for even start.

Click here to read the entire story.

The Rainmakers: Here are the top 20 M&A bankers who advised on the defining megadeals of 2020

We profiled the top 20 M&A bankers that handled the biggest deals in North America in 2020. See more here.

Volatility expert Christopher Cole warns that Wall Street needs to wake up to social media 'weaponization' after GameStop frenzy

Volatility-focused hedge-fund manager Christopher Cole detailed his biggest takeaways from the GameStop-fueled market frenzy. See more here.

PayPal is seeing high engagement numbers from crypto holders on its app as digital currency is shaping up to be a key part of the payment giant's future strategy

Crypto is on the rise, once again, and it was a key topic during PayPal's investor day. Get the full rundown here.

EXCLUSIVE: Tiger Global is leading a massive $200 million investment in Robinhood competitor Public.com at about a $1.2 billion valuation, quadrupling the company's value in just 2 months

The market for retail trading remains red hot, as trading app Public.com is raising $200 million. Read more here.

Odd lots:

I was addicted to Robinhood and r/WallStreetBets. I spiraled out of control, wiped out my $70,000 savings, and contemplated suicide. Here's my message to Robinhood and new investors. (BI)

Reddit traders are piling into cannabis stocks and driving up valuations, but experts say they're betting on the wrong companies (BI)

Jeff Bezos would pay an extra $2 billion a year if Washington lawmakers pass a proposed billionaire wealth tax (BI)

We got an exclusive look at the pitch deck that French fintech Libeo used to raise $24 million from DST Global partners (BI)

The SPAC Boom, Visualized (WSJ)

Jane Fraser Has to Fix Citigroup. It Will Be a Tough Job. (NYT)

Bitcoin to Come to America's Oldest Bank, BNY Mellon (WSJ)

Meet Zach Newkirk, the Perkins Coie lawyer who raked in a six-win streak on 'Jeopardy!' - and how LSAT prep helped him do it (BI)