Featured Headlines

April 18, 2018 @ 12:05 pm By JD Alois  |  

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein told CNBC today they have not “lost their minds” by moving into the highly competitive consumer banking business with Marcus. Blankfein explained that the consumer business has moved to them because the digital world can allow them to scale. “If… Read More

April 17, 2018 @ 11:35 pm By JD Alois  |  

Seedrs is one of the leading crowdfunding platforms in the UK today. Since the online capital formation site launched in 2012 over 600 deals have been successfully funded. Investors have mainly been retail types but big VCs have frequently joined in to support promising businesses… Read More

April 17, 2018 @ 3:04 pm By JD Alois  |  

The New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has sent a letter to 13 different cryptocurrency exchanges. Described as a fact-finding inquiry into the policies and practices of platforms used by consumers to trade cryptocurrencies, the AG labeled the move the Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative. The… Read More

April 16, 2018 @ 1:09 pm By JD Alois  |  

Speaking at Vanderbilt University Law School this past week, Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo made some interesting comments. Giancarlo, a Commodore Alum, spoke about the digitization of finance (Fintech) and the subject of virtual currencies. Giancarlo reflected on time spent with… Read More

April 14, 2018 @ 1:28 pm By JD Alois  |  

Malta, a Mediterranean country that wants be known as Blockchain Island, has published a “Financial Instrument Test” as it seeks to clarify questions regarding initial coin offerings (ICOs) and when a digital asset is a security and when it is not. The Malta Financial Services… Read More

April 14, 2018 @ 8:35 am By Xu Gao  |  

Educational Installment Platform Xiaoniujh.com Secures Millions in A-round Financing On April 10th, Chinese leading installment financing platform for quality education Xiaoniujh.com announced that it had secured millions in an A-round financing. The investment was led by HG Capital and followed by Sina and Aplus Capital. Xiaoniujh.com… Read More

April 12, 2018 @ 6:43 pm By Marina Evseeva  |  

As recently noted by Omkar Godbole, only two of the top 25 cryptocurrencies, VeChain’s VET token and Binance coin (BNB), saw gains in the first quarter of this year. That fact really gave me pause for thought. Stepping back from the hype and speculation, in… Read More

April 12, 2018 @ 1:04 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) “stormed” Washington, DC this past week as community bankers from across the country urged much needed regulatory reform. The ICBA pronounced the “excessive and unnecessary regulation is stifling their ability to meet the needs of local communities.” As part… Read More

April 11, 2018 @ 9:20 pm By Cali Haan  |  

On Tuesday, April 10th, 22 European countries signed an declaration vowing to cooperate as partners in the development and deployment of blockchain tech across European jurisdictions. According to the declaration, “Cooperation on a European Blockchain Partnership,” earnest efforts to “reaffirm” Europe’s “leading role” globally in blockchain… Read More

April 11, 2018 @ 3:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently published a note stating they are aware of a growing number of UK firms issuing cryptocurrencies or digital assets associated with initial coin offerings. These vehicles are currently not directly regulated but the FCA, and other policy types,… Read More

April 10, 2018 @ 12:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

LendIt returned to San Francisco this year as it continues with its annual conference which is one of the largest Fintech focused events in the US. This year’s event is a bit different for several reasons. First of all, more traditional banks showed up in… Read More

April 10, 2018 @ 11:12 am By Erin Hobey  |  

It’s raining exits for leading global equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd. The Israeli platform two celebrated two portfolio in the last twenty four hours: Invertex will be acquired by Nike and JUMP is to be acquired by Uber. These two exits now the total of OurCrowd portfolio companies… Read More

April 9, 2018 @ 10:41 am By JD Alois  |  

In the Fall of 2017, the US Department of Treasury published a document entitled, “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities – Capital Markets.” This comprehensive overview of the current regulatory environment regarding capital formation is probably the best publication I have ever seen produced… Read More

April 8, 2018 @ 9:21 pm By JD Alois  |  

The 36 Annual SEC Small Government Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation took place last November in Austin, Texas. This past week, the SEC published the final report which includes the list of recommendations as prioritized by the participants in this yearly gathering between… Read More

April 7, 2018 @ 7:59 am By JD Alois  |  

During the summer of 2017, legislation  was introduced into the Senate that had the potential to kill cryptocurrency innovation. The legislation, entitled “Combatting Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017,″ (S.1241) contained very confusing language pertaining to “digital currencies.” Since last year, the bill has been… Read More

April 5, 2018 @ 1:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

My Big Coin (MBC) was hit with an enforcement action by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) back in January of this year. The CFTC alleged, among other things, that MBC’s initial coin offering represented to investors as being actively traded on cryptocurrency exchanges when in fact… Read More

April 4, 2018 @ 12:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Last month, the TMX Group (the operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange) announced that its subsidiary, Shorcan Digital Currency Network, will be working with Paycase Financial to launch a new cryptocurrency brokerage service initially focused on Bitcoin and Ether. Shorcan DCN is expected to launch… Read More

April 3, 2018 @ 6:16 pm By JD Alois  |  

Zilliqa has Released their public testnet of a Blockchain that deals with the technology’s biggest hurdle: the ability to scale and serve the demands of global financial institutions. Zilliqa uses a technique called sharding that apparently can enable their Blockchain to hit transaction speeds similar… Read More

April 3, 2018 @ 7:00 am By Therese Torris  |  

The CryptoSummit 2018 organized by Blockchain startup Smart Valor gathered more than 1,000 attendees from 47 countries in Zurich. One of the recurring themes of the conference presentations was the regulation of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Many participants pointed out that there is now an… Read More

April 2, 2018 @ 6:00 am By Andy Bromberg, Georgia Quinn & Regan Bozman  |  

  To date, fundraising has been blockchain’s killer app. In 2017, Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fundraising eclipsed that of traditional venture capital, and in 2018, ICOs have already raised nearly $3 billion in non-dilutive funding. This new form of early-stage financing is incredibly promising, at… Read More