Asia

February 14, 2018 @ 11:15 am By JD Alois  |  

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” As we reported last week, GIFTO has partnered with artist Kevin Abosch in the creation, and sale, of a digital valentine. The “Forever Rose” art was sold for $1 million in cryptocurrency to a group… Read More

February 14, 2018 @ 10:38 am By JD Alois  |  

FUSION has announced that it has successfully completed its initial coin offering (ICO) having raised 126,000 Ether, worth about $110 million, in just 24 hours. FUSION reported that its token offering was oversubscribed by 2.5X with investors seeing their contributions returned that went over the… Read More

February 14, 2018 @ 8:19 am By JD Alois  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) have announced a cooperation agreement to boost Fintech innovation between the two countries. MAS has initiated many of these bilateral agreements and is core to their strategy of being a global Fintech… Read More

February 13, 2018 @ 1:18 pm By JD Alois  |  

Republic Protocol announced a “dark pool” for trading cryptocurrency in January. Today, Republic Protocol is taking the dark pool a step further by enabling Crypto to gold trading via a partnership with Digix. A dark pool is typically a private securities exchange where investors, usually… Read More

February 13, 2018 @ 7:32 am By JD Alois  |  

BitGrail, the Italy-based cryptocurrency exchange that experienced a theft of 17 million NANO (XRB) – about $153 million at current exchange rates, has posted an update today regarding the hack. The good news for users of the exchange is Bitgrail states all other cryptocurrencies reman… Read More

February 12, 2018 @ 2:09 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, CreditEase announced its fintech investment fund, along with next47 and BMW i Ventures, has invested in California automotive fintech company, Fair. This news comes after Fair announced the acquisition of Uber’s Xchange Leasing subsidiary’s leasing portfolio. According to CreditEase, Fair was launched in August… Read More

February 12, 2018 @ 11:03 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

  Pundi X (CURRENCY: PXS), a cryptocurrency point-of-sale (“POS”) solution provider announced over the weekend it has formed a partnership with  Coinnest, which is described as the fourth largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in Korea, announced a strategic partnership. According to Pundi X, Coinnest will be the first Korean… Read More

February 12, 2018 @ 10:58 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Jianpu, a unit of Chinese fintech company Rong360 Inc, announced on Monday it has appointed Xiaoyan Zhang As its new Independent Director. According to the company,  Zhang is currently Assistant Dean and Xinyuan chair professor of finance at the PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University with a research… Read More

February 10, 2018 @ 8:26 am By JD Alois  |  

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has released a revised “Guideline on Authorization of Virtual Banks” as part of a public consultation. Hong Kong, initially slow to embrace the Fintech revolution, has since increased their innovative velocity in financial services. The HKMA welcomes digital challenger… Read More

February 10, 2018 @ 8:03 am By Xu Gao  |  

WeChat Bans 1,000+ “Cash Loans” Mini Programs On February 6, WeChat released an official announcement about its ongoing move to clear up illegal mini programs (or mini apps) on its platform. According to the announcement, WeChat has permanently banned over 1000 “cash loans” mini programs… Read More

February 9, 2018 @ 5:42 pm By JD Alois  |  

  The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has issued another alert regarding the risks of investing in initial coin offerings (ICOs) and dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges. Last fall, the SFC fired a shot across the bow of ICO issuers stating certain ICOs may… Read More

February 9, 2018 @ 12:00 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Magma Partners, an early stage venture capital firm with offices in the U.S. and Latin America, announced earlier this week the first close of its second $15M fund to continue supporting the growth of U.S. incorporated startups with technology and sales teams based in Latin… Read More

February 9, 2018 @ 11:22 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Thursday, Chinese fintech Yirendai Ltd. (NYSE: YRD) announced it has entered into a three-year business agreement with PICC Property and Casualty Company Limited. The company reported that under the terms of the Agreement, PICC P&C will provide surety insurance for loans, with a maximum term of… Read More

February 8, 2018 @ 1:43 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Kochava Labs SEZC, a research and development subsidiary of Kochava Inc., is proud to announce four new advisors to XCHNG, the open source blockchain framework for the digital advertising ecosystem: David Weild IV, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Weild & Co., Inc. and former Vice… Read More

February 8, 2018 @ 9:12 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Last week, Chinese peer-to-peer lending platform Senmiao Technology announces terms for its upcoming $14 million U.S. initial public offering (IPO).  Founded in 2014, Senmiao Technology offers director loans and assignment of loans to medium-size enterprise, borrowers, and creditors. According to Renaissance Capital, the online lender plans to… Read More

February 7, 2018 @ 12:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

Gifto is partnering with conceptual artist Kevin Abosch to create a unique crypto-artwork, called “The Forever Rose”. The project is said to be designed to stimulate a deeper discussion on the state of the cryptocurrency and Blockchain industry. Abosch is best known for creating and selling… Read More

February 7, 2018 @ 8:53 am By JD Alois  |  

Financial technology of Fintech is the future. Physical branches are going away. Recently, at the Paris Fintech Forum, Jay Sidhu stated that if banks do not shrink their bank branches by 90% they will disappear. Think about that for a minute (especially if you work… Read More

February 6, 2018 @ 7:08 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Fintech and cryptocurrency solutions company Tech Bureau noted that that Japan’s first online bank, Japan Net Bank, Limited is testing blockchain technology integrations using mijin and Hyperledger and has initiated a proof-of-concept project to evaluate to utilize the cryptocurrencies for paperless contract administration, scheduled to be… Read More

February 6, 2018 @ 8:40 am By JD Alois  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) was queried by several Members of Parliament this week who asked the regulatory agency if they intend on following in the footsteps of China and South Korea in banning Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies. Additionally, MPs asked how MAS is… Read More

February 5, 2018 @ 11:37 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Hexindai (NASDAQ:HX), a China-based peer to peer lender, announced last week it has signed RMB 1 Billion Line of Credit agreements with both Ping An and Xiamen International Banks. The company reported that Ping An Bank will provide a RMB 500 million line of credit with a term of one… Read More