JD Alois

StartEngine Reports 37 Exits So Far

StartEngine, a leading investment crowdfunding platform in the US, is reporting 37 exits to date. This includes the issuers that raised capital on SeedInvest, a platform StartEngine recently acquired. In a widely distributed email, StartEngine CEO Howard Marks commented: “In order to take equity crowdfunding… Read More

Kraken Settles with US Department of Treasury, Pays $362K Penalty

Crypto exchange Kraken has settled with the US Department of Treasury, which had alleged sanction violations. Falling under the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Kraken has agreed to pay $362,158.70 to settle a possible civil liability for claimed violations of the Iranian Transactions and… Read More

FTSE Russell Announces Digital Asset Index Series

FTSE Russell has announced the launch of FTSE Global Digital Asset Index Series in partnership with Digital Asset Research (DAR). The series includes “investible” digital assets that cover eight indices from large to micro-cap and is the second FTSE Russell index series based on FTSE… Read More

Crypto Exchange Bitfront Announces it Will Shut Down

Bitfront, a US-based crypto exchange and yield provider, has decided to shut down. Bitfront is just the latest casualty during a time of crypto contagion following the collapse of multiple large digital asset platforms. Bitfront, previously known as BITBOX – located in Singapore, is a subsidiary… Read More

Identity and Fraud Detection Platform FrankieOne Raises $15.5 Million Series A

FrankieOne has raised $15.5 million in a Series A+ round led by Greycroft and Australian VC AirTree Ventures. The company reported that Reinventure (Westpac Bank’s venture arm), Tidal Ventures, and Apex Capital Partners also reinvested. New strategic investors include Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures. The… Read More

Shift to DeFi “Wishful Thinking:” True Value of Blockchain is Elsewhere

Crypto markets are far off from their all-time highs, and today another crypto firm announced a bankruptcy filing due to FTX collateral damage. 2022 is not so much a crypto-winter but perhaps a crypto-ice age. The failure of FTX has harmed the entire crypto sector,… Read More

BlockFi Declares Bankruptcy in Wake of FTX Collapse

BlockFi has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in the US courts. The news has been widely rumored in the last few weeks as BlockFi’s destiny had been tied to the future of FTX, a crypto firm that filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. In… Read More

BVNK Said to Gain UK Electronic Money Institution Licence

BVNK has reportedly gained a UK Electronic Money Institution (EMI) Licence via the acquisition of System Pay Services Limited (SPS Ltd). SPS has held an EMI license authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) since 2020. The deal was approved by the FCA. BVNK is… Read More

Blockchain Startup Ettle Announces Australian Dollar based Stablecoin

Ettle, a blockchain startup, has announced a pilot transaction for an Australian dollar-based stablecoin AUDE. According to a company statement, Ettle partnered with Meadow Labs in the experiment to make a payment using the AUDE to one of its contractors. Ettle says it is utilizing… Read More

SEC Investor Advisory Committee Schedules Meeting for December

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Investor Advisory Committee (IAC), has scheduled its next meeting for December 8, 2022. The IAC was created under the Dodd-Frank Act and holds a mission to protect investor interests but has tended to overweight investor protection over investor access… Read More

Lessons Learned from the FTX Collapse: Congressional Committees Plan Hearings on FTX Collapse, Bahamas Defends its Actions

The US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry will hold a hearing titled “Why Congress Needs to Act: Lessons Learned from the FTX Collapse.”  The Committee has oversight of FTX due to the fact that certain crypto assets are regulated by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission… Read More

Apollo is Next Firm to Leverage Blockchain Tech to Offer a Fund

While there has long been much discussion about the benefits of crypto and blockchain, too frequently, these comments ignore regulation and a need for a compliant environment that instills confidence from all sides of the equation. This has undermined the public perception of blockchain technology… Read More

Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) Publishes Global Study on Fintech Regulation, Emphasizes Financial Inclusion

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the University of Cambridge, has published its 3rd Global Fintech Regulator Survey. The document is being produced in partnership with the World Bank. CCAF is widely recognized as the top independent research firm following the development of… Read More

Open Banking Platform Tink adds Balance Check Feature

Tink, an open banking platform, now offers a new feature called Balance Check that enables users to verify account balances. Tink states that this new feature will simplify the setting up of direct debit mandates, supporting both businesses and consumers. Balances Check utilizes real time… Read More

Latin American Crypto Exchange Bitso Says All Funds are Safe, Plans More Metrics for Reserves

Prominent Latin American crypto exchange Bitso has posted all funds are secure during a time when some are questioning the viability of certain crypto marketplaces and counterparty risk associated with the FTX bankruptcy. Bitso said in a statement that it was going beyond proof of… Read More

Atoa Wants to Obliterate Visa and Mastercard by Dropping Fees, Raises $2.2 Million in Pre-Seed Funding

Using credit cards is convenient but costly for merchants. So much so, they just raise their prices a bit for everyone. UK-based Fintech Atoa wants to challenge the dominance of Visa and Mastercard by cratering the cost of accepting payments by up to 70%, and… Read More

Blockchain: DBS Completes Repurchase Transaction using JP Morgan’s Onyx Application

DBS, a large Asian bank based in Singapore, is reporting that it has become the first bank in Asia to complete an intraday repurchase transaction on JP Morgan’s intraday repurchase application on Onyx Digital Assets. The application is a blockchain-based network that supports instant settlements… Read More

Securities and Exchange Commission Posts Strategic Plan

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has published its Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2022 to 2026, The high-level document is required under the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010. The brief outline declares three goals: Protect the investing public against fraud, manipulation,… Read More

Invesdor, Oneplanetcrowd Merge, Aims to Become Top European Securities Crowdfunding Platform

Invesdor Group and Oneplanetcrowd have announced the merger of the two online investment platforms, contingent upon regulatory approval. Details of the transaction were not provided. Invesdor (Finland) is one of the larger European securities crowdfunding platforms. The company has an established presence in the Scandinavian… Read More

Warwick Business School: Stablecoins May Be Path to CBDCs

Warwick Business School held an event in recent days that discussed central bank digital currency (CBDCs), according to a note from the school. The Gillmore Centre Policy Forum heard Antoine Martin, a Senior VP of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where… Read More

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