Featured Headlines

October 2, 2017 @ 6:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

Marco Santori, Fintech Team Leader at the law firm of Cooley LLP, has published a white paper tackling the issue of “Simple Agreement for Future Tokens” or SAFTs – the widely used structure for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Santori proposes a path toward a compliant framework… Read More

October 1, 2017 @ 10:13 pm By JD Alois  |  

When equity crowdfunding rules went into effect in the USA there was a lot of excitement in the emerging Cannabis industry.  There are plenty of predictions as to how big this industry could grow. Recent law changes in multiple states regarding recreational and medical use… Read More

September 30, 2017 @ 8:24 am By JD Alois  |  

The Enforcement Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has shut down an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) that claimed to allow investors to participate in an offer backed by diamonds and real estate. The SEC has charged REcoin Group Foundation, DRC World, Diamond Reserve Club, and Maksim… Read More

September 30, 2017 @ 2:00 am By Xu Gao  |  

CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund is Making a New Investment. Guess Who the Fund is Interested in?  Last week (September 18th -24th), CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund, a venture committed to investing growth-stage Fintech startups in China and globally, announced a new round of investment to three… Read More

September 29, 2017 @ 2:00 am By Therese Torris  |  

The French real estate crowdfunding market grew by 50% in 2016 and keeps growing at the same linear growth pace in 2017. While new platforms continue to join, first entrants strongly dominate the nascent market. With €160 million worth of real estate projects funded, the… Read More

September 28, 2017 @ 9:28 am By JD Alois  |  

The investment crowdfunding market is changing in Australia and it is changing for the better. While it has taken policymakers a bit of time to update existing rules, new regulations commence on September 29th ushering a new era of raising capital online. Labeled “crowd-sourced funding”… Read More

September 28, 2017 @ 2:00 am By JD Alois  |  

The global crowdfunding ecosystem is still quite young. When you compare traditional forms of capital formation to emerging online models crowdfunding is very much in its infancy and will take many years to fully mature. Prognosticators abound as to the success, or failure of, alternative… Read More

September 26, 2017 @ 10:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

Paragon, the Cannabis oriented company and its affiliated Paragon Coin is killing it. The pre-sale of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) launched several weeks back and sold out at 70,000,000 PRG.  The remaining 30 million in PRG is open to the public now until mid-October…. Read More

September 25, 2017 @ 9:09 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has just published their first benchmarking report on the emerging global Blockchain market. Earlier this year, CCAF published a benchmarking report on the global cryptocurrency markets.  CCAF has established themselves as the leading research in the alternative finance… Read More

September 25, 2017 @ 4:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a “Guide to assessments of Fintech credit institution licence applications.” The purpose of the Guide is described as seeking to enhance transparency for potential Fintech bank applicants and increase their understanding of the procedures and criteria applied by… Read More

September 24, 2017 @ 9:18 pm By Jennifer Rimbach  |  

  Millions of Americans rely on domestic discretionary spending appropriated by the U.S. Federal Government, including everything from affordable housing and education to the arts. Agencies such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development provide programs and services that impact neighborhoods and communities across… Read More

September 22, 2017 @ 9:12 pm By Xu Gao  |  

China Takes Strict Control Over Consumer Credit, Forbidding it to Enter the Real Estate Market It is reported on September 20th that the Guangzhou branches of PBOC and CBRC have jointly issued a statement about consumer credit regulation, forbidding it to enter the real-estate market…. Read More

September 21, 2017 @ 9:26 pm By JD Alois  |  

Report Highlights Central Bank Experimentation with Distributed Ledger Technology. The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) is out with their first Global Blockchain Benchmarking Study authored by Dr. Garrick Hileman and Michel Rauchs. The publication incorporates non-public data and states that 57% of surveyed central banks… Read More

September 20, 2017 @ 1:38 pm By JD Alois  |  

Arcimoto says it raised almost $20 million in a Reg A+ crowdfunding round that closed on September 15th on WRHambrecht. Arcimoto said the company was shooting for $10 million but “landed almost double that”.  Arcimoto added that it will trade on NASDAQ under ticker symbol… Read More

September 20, 2017 @ 10:52 am By JD Alois  |  

There are more than a few investment crowdfunding offers that are based only on a photo shop concept paired with outlandish valuations. Some of these will successfully raise money but investors are pretty much guaranteed to be aggressively diluted – if the company moves beyond… Read More

September 20, 2017 @ 3:00 am By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) is out with their 2nd annual report quantifying the growth of alternative finance for the Asia Pacific Region in 2016. Entitled, “Cultivating Growth,” the benchmarking report shows an emerging industry that grew dramatically versus year prior as it… Read More

September 19, 2017 @ 4:19 pm By Therese Torris  |  

Younited Credit, the Paris-headquartered consumer lender announced a capital increase of €40 million subscribed by a panel of the top of the crop growth investors in France. Next to its historical shareholders, Eurazeo, Crédit Mutuel Arkema, AG2R La Mondiale and Weber Investissements which are already… Read More

September 19, 2017 @ 2:39 pm By JD Alois  |  

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), the hot crowdfunding market that uses tokenized securities based on cryptocurrencies, is still looking to gain its sea legs. While there have been multiple phenomenal ICOs, like the recent Filecoin home-run that raised over $200 million ($135 million in just one… Read More

September 18, 2017 @ 12:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

SyndicateRoom is one of the “big three” investment crowdfunding platforms in the United Kingdom. While it may not be the largest in terms of deal volumes, it has led the way for pairing professional investors alongside retail types for listed offers. This is important. Not… Read More

September 17, 2017 @ 8:43 pm By JD Alois  |  

Oh the irony. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has been widely reported as bashing Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. Speaking at CNBC‘s Delivering Alpha conference, Dimon was asked a direct question as to his belief that Bitcoin was a fraud. Dimon separated Blockchain (Distributed Ledger… Read More