General News

June 6, 2019 @ 1:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

Online lender LendingUSA is showing some of their employees the door. Crowdfund Insider recently received a tip from someone with knowledge of the firings. LendingUSA is a Fintech lender that provides loans to small businesses ranging from $1000 to $35,000. Founded in 2015, LendingUSA specializes… Read More

June 5, 2019 @ 10:32 am By JD Alois  |  

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is going crypto, so it seems. This week Apple held its annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) sharing all of their forthcoming software updates along with a super expensive, high powered Mac Pro. During one of the many developer sessions, Apple announced a… Read More

June 5, 2019 @ 9:13 am By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) have signed a formal agreement to work more closely together as financial services firms look to maintain a foothold in continental Europe. The FCA states that since the UK announced its… Read More

June 5, 2019 @ 8:53 am By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that Baroness Zahida Manzoor CBE has been appointed Chair of the Financial Ombudsman Service. Baroness Manzoor will step into the role in August taking over from Sir Nicholas Montagu who is stepping down after more than seven years in… Read More

June 4, 2019 @ 7:52 am By JD Alois  |  

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a long-anticipated update to crowdfunding rules. More specifically, the FCA has “enhanced” aspects of investor protection for investors participating in peer to peer lending (P2P). Rules for investment crowdfunding, on the other hand, came out largely unchanged…. Read More

May 29, 2019 @ 12:01 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

MetaProp recently announced the opening of applications for the 2019-2020 MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University, which is a PropTech accelerator program based in New York City. According to MetaProp, the 22-week boot camp connects up to eight PropTech startups from around the world to award-winning… Read More

May 28, 2019 @ 2:02 pm By JD Alois  |  

For years, there has been a discussion regarding the initial public offering (IPO) conundrum. Back in the day, smaller investors could join alongside institutional money to capture wealth in an IPO. Today, too frequently, that is simply not the case. The big money has been… Read More

May 27, 2019 @ 9:52 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Ex parte orders filed against the Binance crypto trading platforms by a leg of the VC firm Sequoia Capital have backfired as a judge’s staying of the orders have ushered in a countersuit against Sequoia brought by Binance CEO Changing Zhao, also known as “CZ,”… Read More

May 27, 2019 @ 5:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Institute for Financial Services Zug IFZ at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts has published their annual crowdfunding report and it appears that Switzerland is developing a robust online capital formation market. The author of the study is Prof. Dr. Andreas Dietrich…. Read More

May 23, 2019 @ 6:16 pm By JD Alois  |  

Iconoclastic crypto-preneur Brock Pierce is taking advantage of new legislation enacted in Puerto Rico to help rebuild the island since Hurrican Maria hit it hard. Recently, the Governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rossello has signed into law a bill that creates Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZ)…. Read More

May 22, 2019 @ 9:33 am By JD Alois  |  

Challenger bank Tandem has formed a partnership with “social mobility charity,” Brightside, to educate the youth on financial management. According to Tandem, a pilot program has been launched to deliver a program to a North London school to students aged 16 to 18 “offering a… Read More

May 22, 2019 @ 8:57 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

KoreConX announced on Wednesday it has appointed Howard Atkinson, the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Canada-based multi-cryptoasset investment round 3iQ, is joining the company’s Board of Directors. According to KoreConX, Atkinson has also been in the financial services industry for over three decades… Read More

May 22, 2019 @ 6:00 am By JD Alois  |  

Goren Holm Ventures (GHV), a Fintech and blockchain-focused venture studio has joined Draper Venture Network’s DVN Beta program. GHV was founded by Alon Goren and Josef Holm, co-creators of Crypto Invest Summit and Security Token Summit. GHV has evolved into a venture studio, accelerating six… Read More

May 18, 2019 @ 4:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this week, Patrick Byrne, CEO and founder of Overstock  (NASDAQ:OSTK), filed a Form 4 indicating a sale of 900,000 shares in his company.  Apparently, the masses slammed the sale demanding answers. Simultaneously the price of Overstock swooned on the news. Yesterday, in a Dear… Read More

May 17, 2019 @ 12:58 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Anti-phishing company Area 1 says that email “sextortionists” have collected $1 million in Bitcoins (about $593 USD per victim) by convincing targets that their webcams and porn-search habits have been compromised, Fortune reports.  But your webcam and any porn consumption likely haven’t been breached, says Area… Read More

May 14, 2019 @ 5:41 pm By JD Alois  |  

Early stage investing is a very risky endeavor yet this is where most of the big money is made. Today, an initial public offering (IPO) is too frequently more of an exit opportunity than a chance to generate wealth as companies wait as long as… Read More

May 14, 2019 @ 5:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

Fitch is out with a report on marketplace lending (MPL) asset-backed securities (ABS) stating declining credit enhancement is unwarranted. Fitch states that credit enhancement (CE) levels of ‘Asf’ category rated US MPL ABS have meaningfully declined since 2017, while asset quality remained relatively steady. As… Read More

May 13, 2019 @ 1:02 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Security Token Academy (STA), a company covering and facilitating the emerging security token industry, has crossed the Atlantic and landed in the UK with its first Security Token London Meetup Kickoff Event. The event is scheduled for June 12th in London. Aubrey Chernick, founder… Read More

May 12, 2019 @ 2:53 pm By JD Alois  |  

On Friday, the Long Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) received good news from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as it was approved as a national securities exchange. The LTSE is the creation of Eric Ries, an entrepreneur, VC, and creator of the lean startup concept…. 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