Featured Headlines

November 23, 2018 @ 8:51 am By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has published its annual report on the UK alternative finance for 2017. This is the 5th UK benchmarking report CCAF has published. According to the research, overall the sector of finance grew 35% versus the year prior to… Read More

November 22, 2018 @ 3:29 pm By Therese Torris  |  

October (formerly Lendix), the newly rebranded European SME lending marketplace made a splash today with what is probably the most creative promotional campaign in the history of crowdlending. To date, the October platform has facilitated more than €240 million worth of loans to 500 small… Read More

November 21, 2018 @ 5:56 am By Onki Kwan  |  

Last Friday, the SEC settled charges against two companies, CarrierEQ Inc. dba Airfox (“Airfox”) and Paragon Coin Inc. (“Paragon”), which raised money with initial coin offerings (“ICOs”).  The SEC found that both companies violated the registration provisions of the U.S. securities laws because neither company… Read More

November 20, 2018 @ 4:00 am By JD Alois  |  

Berlin-based Neufund, an end to end security token platform, is set to host Europe’s first primary issuance of tokenized equity that is offered to the general public. The first company to use the blockchain based Neufund platform will be parent company Fifth Force GmbH which is… Read More

November 19, 2018 @ 8:00 am By JD Alois  |  

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced enforcement actions against two initial coin offerings (ICOs): Paragon (Paragon Coin Inc.) and AirFox (CarrierEQ Inc. dba Airfox). As the SEC recounted in their Administrative filing: Airfox: “Between August and October 2017, AirFox offered and then… Read More

November 18, 2018 @ 5:44 pm By JD Alois  |  

Southeast Asia is an enormous market with profound potential. When it comes to Fintech, Asia, in general, is the largest Fintech market in the world. Of course, this has to do with China’s participation but other countries are very active when it comes to alternative… Read More

November 18, 2018 @ 8:14 am By JD Alois  |  

Digital bank Revolut is revving up for a $500 million series D funding round, according to recent reports. This next capital injection follows the last round from earlier this year when Revolut raised $250 million at a valuation of $1.7 billion. The funding validated its… Read More

November 17, 2018 @ 12:09 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Beijing publishes Fintech Development Plan (2018-2022) Recently, the Zhongguancun Administration Committee, the Beijing Financial Work Bureau and the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Committee jointly issued the “Promotion of Financial Technology Development Plan (2018-2022)” (hereinafter referred to as “plan”). The goal of the plan is,… Read More

November 16, 2018 @ 12:04 pm By Cali Haan  |  

This has been a big week for digital asset / ICO law in America. Yesterday, Maksim Zaslavskiy pleaded guilty to fraud in a federal court in Brooklyn for selling the digital tokens RECoin and Diamond Reserve Coin, tokens he falsely claimed were backed by real-world… Read More

November 15, 2018 @ 9:15 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Autorité des Marches Financiers (AMF) the regulator that has oversight of securities in France, has published a report on initial coin offerings. Entitled ICO Françaises: Un Nouveau Mode de Financement? – the document is a follow up to a year ago launch to the… Read More

November 14, 2018 @ 10:00 pm By Samuel Guzik  |  

SEC Regulation A (commonly referred to as Regulation A+) was implemented by the SEC in 2015 pursuant to major Congressional legislation, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the JOBS Act). It allows companies to raise up to $50 million in a 12 month… Read More

November 13, 2018 @ 9:31 pm By JD Alois  |  

A report published a few days backed, addressed the question of which country is tops when it comes to Fintech innovation. For some time now, Singapore and the UK have both aspired to sit on the Fintech throne each providing unique characteristics to their entrepreneurial… Read More

November 12, 2018 @ 7:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

Investing in early-stage firms is highly risky. As this publication has stated time and again, many, if not most, early-stage firms will fail or simply bounce along failing to achieve the founder’s expectations of great financial success. Investment crowdfunding platforms typically list mainly startup or… Read More

November 11, 2018 @ 5:21 pm By Melanie Mohr  |  

Gen Z: You know, the generation that dumped Facebook for Instagram, and prefers YouTube videos to cable TV. Gen-Zers were born after 1995 and are expected to represent 40% of consumers by 2020. The ‘post-millennials’ generation is growing older and marketing experts are creating new… Read More

November 10, 2018 @ 9:26 am By Xu Gao  |  

IFR of Tsinghua University Launches Global Fintech Venture Competition (2018) at the 5th World Internet Conference On November 8, the 2018 Global Fintech Venture Competition (hereinafter referred to as the “Competition”) was officially launched at the Fintech and Credit Society Construction Forum of the 5th… Read More

November 9, 2018 @ 10:44 am By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this week it was revealed that RealtyShares, a respected real estate crowdfunding platform that has originated just under $900 million in investment capital, was winding down operations. The turn of events was driven by the lack of available risk capital to keep the real… Read More

November 9, 2018 @ 8:35 am By JD Alois  |  

It has been a few choppy weeks in Germany for the blockchain / digital asset industry. Last month, a German court ruled that Bitcoin was not a financial instrument. The case centered around an enterprising teenager who launched a Bitcoin exchange five years ago. He was… Read More

November 8, 2018 @ 11:10 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has settled charges against Zachary Coburn, the founder of EtherDelta, a cryptocurrency exchange. This is the SEC’s first enforcement action against a crypto exchange and marks a noted shift in the Commission’s dealing with secondary transactions of digital assets. The SEC… Read More

November 7, 2018 @ 9:02 pm By JD Alois  |  

RealtyShares, one of the more promising entrants in the once-hot real estate crowdfunding sector, is shutting down, according to several sources. A write up in the RealDeal from earlier today said the investment platform had been unable to raise additional growth capital as investors failed to… Read More

November 7, 2018 @ 7:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

Zopa, the UK’s largest consumer peer to peer lending platform, has closed on a £60 million funding round – its largest capital raise to date. This most recent funding round was partially announced back in August when Zopa reported it had raised £44 million. The new capital… Read More