Featured Headlines

May 9, 2019 @ 10:53 pm By JD Alois  |  

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has polished her pen once again with another thought-provoking speech addressing Fintech innovation and, more specifically, digital assets. Speaking at the Securities Enforcement Forum, East Palo Alto, California (by video), Peirce pointedly criticized the Commission for stifling the emergence of security… Read More

May 9, 2019 @ 6:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this week, the inaugural meeting of the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee (SBCFAC) took place at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, DC. The new Committee brings together a diverse group of small business proponents including several Fintechs. Led by Martha… Read More

May 8, 2019 @ 10:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

This week, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) held the annual meeting of its Private Sector Consultative Forum in Vienna, Austria. The event was hosted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Part of the discussion addressed the growing crypto market and… Read More

May 7, 2019 @ 10:54 pm By JD Alois  |  

In March, Bitwise Asset Management pitched their case regarding the creation of a Bitcoin ETF to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). While providing a compelling argument as to why the SEC should move forward with their ETF, the presentation also provided some interesting insight… Read More

May 6, 2019 @ 9:42 pm By Anthony Zeoli  |  

Here’s a question for all of you. Between coins, tokens, stamps, tickets, vouchers, and chips, which of these qualifies as a “security” under U.S. Securities laws? It’s actually a trick question, they all do! Well, technically speaking, they all could potentially qualify as securities. The… Read More

May 5, 2019 @ 9:47 pm By JD Alois  |  

Beyond Meat Inc. (NASDAQ:BYND), completed an initial public offering (IPO) last week raising approximately $240 million on a valuation of $1.5 billion at $25/share. Once listed on NASDAQ, Beyond Meat jumped far beyond its initial pricing quickly rising in value topping $3.8 billion at over… Read More

May 4, 2019 @ 4:15 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has talked up their innovation cred and support of Fintech for years. Under previous Chair Mary Jo White, the SEC held the very first Fintech Forum which saw both industry participants and policymakers engage with each other in collaborative… Read More

May 4, 2019 @ 3:54 pm By JD Alois  |  

Cryptosecurity firm Ciphertrace has published their Q1 report tallying scams, frauds, and other nefarious acts in the crypto sector and the first three months of 2019 were productive ones for the bad guys. According to Ciphertrace, during the first three months of 2019, $1.2 billion… Read More

May 3, 2019 @ 2:20 pm By JD Alois  |  

Too much of a good thing? Perhaps. Crowdcube listed a crowdfunding offering for Freetrade on April 25, 2019. Soon after the offer went live, the Crowdcube site went down. According to a post by Crowdcube CTO Rich Pearce, Freetrade generated the highest number of investments… Read More

May 3, 2019 @ 8:51 am By JD Alois  |  

The US District Court Southern District of New York has greenlighted the lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency filed by the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS). The legal battle is an ongoing attack by DFS to challenge OCC’s Fintech… Read More

May 1, 2019 @ 12:09 pm By JD Alois  |  

The crypto world is still regrouping from the reality that Bitfinex/Tether is being pursued by a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Stablecoin Tether, operated by the owners of Bitfinex, is a big part of the fraud allegations leveled by the state…. Read More

April 30, 2019 @ 7:45 am By JD Alois  |  

Yesterday at the opening of UK Fintech Week, Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade Liam Fox announced the launch of the “DIT Fintech Bridge Pilot Program.” According to the Department for International Trade (DIT), the Bridge announced is… Read More

April 29, 2019 @ 8:30 am By JD Alois  |  

DIT Fintech Bridge As London Fintech Week kicks off, the Department for International Trade (DIT), in partnership with Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT), have announced new programs to boost Fintech innovation. According to a release from DIT, the UK will be building upon their Fintech Bridge… Read More

April 29, 2019 @ 7:24 am By JD Alois  |  

AngelHub has received regulatory approval, including two separate securities licenses, according to a report in the SCMP. Based in Hong Kong and part of the burgeoning Fintech scene, AngelHub is the first platform to receive such approval. AngelHub is the creation of the founders of… Read More

April 28, 2019 @ 9:02 am By Xu Gao  |  

China Requires P2P Platform Executives Not to Leave Beijing during Administrative Review On April 25th, Internet Finance Association of Chaoyang District issued an announcement about the recently launched P2P platform administrative review. According to the document, from the date of the announcement to May 31st,… Read More

April 26, 2019 @ 11:15 am By JD Alois  |  

SeedInvest, one of the leading US-based investment crowdfunding platforms, has received regulatory approval from FINRA to operate a secondary marketplace for securities via an alternative trading system (ATS). SeedInvest is the first traditional crowdfunding platform to receive an ATS license. Providing liquidity for private securities… Read More

April 25, 2019 @ 9:13 pm By JD Alois  |  

New York Attorney General Letitia James has obtained a court order against crypto exchange Bitfinex ( iFinex Inc.) and stablecoin Tether alleging violations of New York law in connection with “ongoing activities that may have defrauded New York investors that trade in virtual or cryptocurrency…. Read More

April 25, 2019 @ 9:32 am By JD Alois  |  

Innovate Finance, an association that advocates on behalf of the UK’s robust Fintech industry, has shared some numbers quantifying Fintech sector investment during Q1 of 2019. Culled from Pitchbook data, Innovate Finance says that UK Fintech investment is going gangbusters in comparison to the same… Read More

April 24, 2019 @ 11:13 pm By Therese Torris  |  

In 2050, the world will need to feed 50% more people than today. By the same time, however, the planet’s farmland will have grown only by 4%. The reasons for the shortfall are many: urbanization, climate change, water pollution, and the soil degradation caused by… Read More

April 23, 2019 @ 11:00 pm By Max Lyadvinsky  |  

There’s no doubt blockchain is a revolutionary technology changing what is possible in many areas of modern life. However, there are both pleasures and pains in being early adopters and forming a company based on blockchain technology. Security and flexibility are offset by regulation and… Read More