Featured Headlines

October 23, 2018 @ 12:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) hit the popular media screen during 2017 with stories of outrageous sums of money being raised online – sometimes under questionable circumstances. In total, according to EY, $4.1 billion was raised for the top ICOs during 2017. In 2018, that number… Read More

October 22, 2018 @ 12:00 pm By Helena Murphy and Duncan Di Biase  |  

Boutique hotel trailblazer Mr & Mrs Smith had no regrets when it checked into the crowdfunding world and saw its £1 million investment target exceeded within the first day. The company, which has built a global membership of 1.5 million since husband-and-wife team Tamara and James Lohan launched… Read More

October 21, 2018 @ 8:32 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) shared their 3rd quarter earnings report. Buried within the report was an update on Marcus, the digital bank and online lender that recently crossed the Atlantic setting up a beachhead in Europe by opening up in the UK in late September…. Read More

October 21, 2018 @ 11:00 am By Max Lyadvinsky  |  

The blockchain has revolutionized a number of industries, but none so much as the financial sector. From equity crowdfunding platforms which allow users to buy shares in projects with tokens, to startups raising funds through initial coin offerings (ICOs), to token exchanges where users can… Read More

October 20, 2018 @ 9:41 am By Xu Gao  |  

Xiaomi Eyes Consumer Financing and B2B Lending in India Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi plans to enter the consumer finance and business-to-business (B2B) loan market in India. Xiaomi has followed the Indian company law and established a non-bank financial institution “Xiaomi Financial Services India” to apply… Read More

October 20, 2018 @ 8:29 am By Therese Torris  |  

French peer to peer lender Unilend has gone into receivership. The P2P lender announced the news to all of its customers in a recent email. Founded in 2013 by Nicolas Lesur and François Prioux, Unilend pioneered P2P lending in France. It started operating, before crowdfunding… Read More

October 17, 2018 @ 2:00 pm By Dan Rice  |  

On October 2-3, 2018 Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm, presented Insuretech Connect at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event was promoted as the largest annual insurtech event in the world, this year boasting over 6000 registered guests and over 250… Read More

October 16, 2018 @ 1:31 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A Stanford-trained Brazilian professor of computer science has left several of the sacred cows of Bitcoin wounded in the field after submitting a systematic take down of several of the coin’s tropes to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In early July, the SEC… Read More

October 16, 2018 @ 10:20 am By JD Alois  |  

tZero, Overstock.com’s (NASDAQ:OSTK) blockchain based crypto platform, has distributed its own security token. tZero, a registered alternative trading system (ATS), closed a funding round in August with investors purchasing $134 million of preferred equity in the startup. The funding delivered unicorn status to a marketplace… Read More

October 15, 2018 @ 9:21 pm By JD Alois  |  

Fidelity, a nearly seventy year old financial firm with $7.2 trillion in assets under management, announced its entry into blockchain based finance today with the launch of Fidelity Digital Assets. The vision is to offer institutional quality trading in crypto while providing a superior level … Read More

October 15, 2018 @ 11:00 am By Barry James  |  

On the brink of Brexit, whatever happens, and as the USA cedes it, Britain can – and should – be again providing leadership at a historic turning point for the world. However, despite warm words and good intentions, we have started shooting ourselves in the… Read More

October 14, 2018 @ 8:33 pm By JD Alois  |  

Later this month, Hong Kong will host their annual Fintech Week. This year’s event is being billed as the “world’s first” cross-border Fintech event. The multi-faceted conference will straddle Honk Kong and Shenzen – the relatively new metropolis that links Hong Kong to China’s mainland. Macao… Read More

October 13, 2018 @ 11:54 am By Xu Gao  |  

Alibaba Submits Blockchain Patent Applications that Allow “administrative intervention” On October 6th, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba applied for a blockchain system patent, allowing third-party administrators to perform “special treatment” (e.g. suspend a smart contract or freeze an account associated with an illegal activity). For example,… Read More

October 11, 2018 @ 8:05 pm By JD Alois  |  

This morning, well known economist Dr. Nouriel Roubini and Peter Van Valkenburg, Director of Research at Coin Center testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. The topic of discussion was cryptocurrency and the emerging blockchain technology. Roubini attacked and Van… Read More

October 10, 2018 @ 11:23 pm By Pedro Anderson  |  

When a new technology emerges, the word ‘disrupt’ is utilized to highlight the wonderful features to be developed and promises to be fulfilled. Since blockchain technology gained popularity in the last decade, the term blockchain has been linked to the term ‘disrupt’ almost as a… Read More

October 10, 2018 @ 7:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

Dr. Nouriel Roubini, aka Dr. Doom, has posted his prepared testimony in advance of the Senate Banking Committee Hearing scheduled to take place tomorrow (October 11, 2018). As one may expect, Roubini has not held back one iota. His testimony is entitled; “Crypto is the… Read More

October 9, 2018 @ 8:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, the Security Token Academy held its second annual STO focused event in Manhattan. This year, attendance at the Security Token Industry Launch event increased dramatically as more financial services players are viewing securities on blockchain as a likely path for the future of… Read More

October 8, 2018 @ 9:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Innovation Norway and the School of Business and Law at the University of Adger (UiA) have partnered to offer a master’s course in crowdfunding. In addition to lectures and teaching, participating students will be working with real campaigns from real companies. Reportedly, more than 20 companies and… Read More

October 7, 2018 @ 9:01 pm By Therese Torris  |  

A leading French equity platform, Anaxago is launching an asset management firm, Anaxago Capital, to attract more institutional investors and ready itself to fund larger projects. With this, Anaxago expects to double its outstanding investments by 2020. We spoke with Caroline Lamaud, Co-founder and Chairman… Read More

October 6, 2018 @ 7:27 pm By JD Alois  |  

Yesterday, the online capital formation world witnessed a tectonic shift in the investment crowdfunding industry. Circle, a fast emerging crypto focused company, acquired leading US based investment crowdfunding platform SeedInvest. CI has been assured that CEO Ryan Feit will remain at the helm, along with his… Read More