Featured Headlines

October 7, 2020 @ 2:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

A Longstanding Grey Area Today at an open meeting, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed an update to rules pertaining to “Finders” –  individuals or firms that help smaller businesses find investors. The potential change will subject these individuals or firms to reduced regulation… Read More

October 7, 2020 @ 8:01 am By JD Alois  |  

Closing an Important Chapter LendingClub (NYSE:LC), the leading marketplace lender in the US, has filed an 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating it will cease offering Retail Notes as of the end of 2020. In an email distributed to LendingClub retail investors, the… Read More

October 6, 2020 @ 6:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Joel Edgerton, COO at bitFlyer, a crypto-asset exchange that’s licensed to operate in Japan, the United States, and Europe, recently shared his views about the court case and charges brought against the Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange (BitMEX), a leading digital asset derivatives exchange. Edgerton also shared… Read More

October 6, 2020 @ 9:40 am By JD Alois  |  

Earlier today, the European Union approved crowdfunding rules that will apply to all member states thus finally offering a pan-European approach to online capital formation while removing much of the friction in the current ecosystem that suffers from regulatory fragmentation. Industry participants, along with industry… Read More

October 5, 2020 @ 6:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, BitMEX (Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange), a top crypto/crypto-derivatives exchange that is operated by HDR Global Trading Limited, a Republic of Seychelles incorporated entity, was hit with a civil enforcement action emanating from the Commodity Futures Trading Future Commission (CFTC). Simultaneously, a criminal lawsuit by… Read More

October 5, 2020 @ 8:14 am By JD Alois  |  

Crowdcube and Seedrs, the two dominant crowdfunding platforms in the UK, have put aside any competitive friction and agreed to merge the two platforms subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. The merger will combine the two dominant private investment platforms in the UK while creating… Read More

October 3, 2020 @ 8:12 am By JD Alois  |  

This past week, Kik, a company that raised over $100 million in an initial coin offering (ICO), lost a long legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The courts determined that Kik had raised capital in an unregistered securities offering thus transgressing securities… Read More

October 2, 2020 @ 9:01 am By JD Alois  |  

Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), says the bank must be ready to issue a digital euro, according to a statement issued today. Meanwhile, a separate report from Bloomberg claims the ECB has already applied to trademark the name “digital euro” as… Read More

October 1, 2020 @ 8:30 am By JD Alois  |  

StartEngine is a leading investment crowdfunding platform in the US. Last August, StartEngine announced that it had topped $200 million in funding having only surpassed $100 million in July of 2019 – after having launched in 2015. During 2019, StartEngine raised about $44 million –… Read More

September 29, 2020 @ 10:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Kadena, the first blockchain tech-focused firm to come out of J.P. Morgan’s Blockchain Center for Excellence, confirmed in August 2020 that they had performed major updates to their scalable layer-1 public blockchain network. Kadena’s developers claim that they have one of the fastest blockchain platforms… Read More

September 28, 2020 @ 10:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

A Discussion with Franck Guiader of Gide 255 Last week, the European Commission adopted a Digital Finance Package along with legislative proposals on cryptoassets (digital assets). The move had been widely telegraphed by the Commission and, in fact, a draft of the crypto regulation was leaked… Read More

September 27, 2020 @ 7:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

NYCE, a real estate investment firm, recently raised $1 million using the Reg CF security exemption. Under current rules, $1.07 million is the maximum amount an issuer can raise in an offering. But NYCE used a bit of a different strategy to complete the funding round… Read More

September 26, 2020 @ 6:17 pm By Xu Gao  |  

PBC Releases Implementation Measures of the People’s Bank of China for the Protection of Financial Consumer Rights In order to accelerate the building of a full-fledged mechanism for the protection of financial consumers’ rights and interests and protect the long-term and fundamental rights of financial… Read More

September 26, 2020 @ 9:24 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Division of Trading and Markets, issued a no-action letter to FINRA yesterday afternoon that impacts certain trading platforms that serve as markets for digital assets that are securities. FINRA is a self-regulatory entity that coordinates with the SEC regarding… Read More

September 25, 2020 @ 10:25 am By JD Alois  |  

  The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at the Cambridge Judge Business School has released its 3rd report covering the digital asset sector with the Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study.  CCAF is the leading research institute in the world in regards to Fintech innovation including… Read More

September 24, 2020 @ 11:16 am By JD Alois  |  

The European Commission has announced the adoption of a Digital Finance Package along with legislative proposals on crypto-assets (digital assets).  The announcement has been widely anticipated and earlier this month draft legislation pertaining to crypto-assets was leaked to the public. According to a statement by… Read More

September 22, 2020 @ 7:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

CrowdStreet: COVID Will Accelerate Trends Already in Place Real estate investing has been impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis – as it has many other industries. In the online investing sector, many platforms have reported a rapid decline in activity during the early days… Read More

September 21, 2020 @ 4:39 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), part of the US Department of Treasury, has issued an interpretive letter pertaining to banks and federal savings entities pertaining to “certain stablecoins.” Stablecoins are digital currencies that are based on a fiat currency or specific… Read More

September 20, 2020 @ 8:00 pm By Greg Mitchell  |  

The World Bank estimates there are up to 445 million micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises in the developing world. In Latin America, nearly 90% of all businesses fall into this category. However, many of these businesses operate informally due to a lack of market information… Read More

September 19, 2020 @ 12:59 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Cloud Computing PaaS Startup BoCloud Completes Series D Round of financing On September 17th, cloud computing PaaS [platform as a service] and multi-cloud management startup BoCloud announced the completion of its series D round of financing. The investment was provided by Guoxin Venture Capital, Xinhuan… Read More