Global

May 14, 2020 @ 11:32 am By JD Alois  |  

France has created a unique regulatory regime for the issuance and trading of digital assets that are utility tokens. Under French law, an initial coin offering (ICO) issuer may apply for a “visa” to offer a utility token. If approved, the issuer may publicly promote… Read More

May 14, 2020 @ 10:16 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based Featurespace, a firm focused on fraud prevention, has secured £30 million in capital from an investment round led by Merian Chrysalis Investment. Several existing investors also took part in the round. The firm’s software is designed to learn the normal or typical digital behavior… Read More

May 14, 2020 @ 9:04 am By JD Alois  |  

Fintech Freetrade has raised over £4.5 million in just four hours raising capital online via Crowdcube. Currently, the offering is displaying £4.76 million (~ USD $ 5.8 million) from 2595 investors. The £1 million hurdle was collected in just 4:33 minutes. Freetrade raised £3 million… Read More

May 14, 2020 @ 7:49 am By Omar Faridi  |  

  UK-based Anna, a mobile business current account and financial administrative assistant services provider for SMEs and gig economy workers, is reportedly looking to expand its operations into Europe. Anna’s management has sold a majority stake in the company to ABHH, an established multinational banking… Read More

May 14, 2020 @ 7:41 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Germany-based neobank Bitwala will allow its 80,000+ customers to buy, hold, and earn interest on Bitcoin through their bank accounts. Bitwala’s new cryptocurrency service is being offered through a partnership with the developers of the Celsius Network, a major digital assets lending platform. DefiPrime data… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 11:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The total or combined stablecoin supply reached an all-time high of around $10.4 billion on May 12, 2020. It’s notably the first time that the total market cap of all stablecoins has exceeded the $10 billion mark. According to Stablecoinindex.com data, Tether’s (USDT) market capitalization… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 10:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

MakerDAO, a leading Ethereum-based lending system, is preparing to move to a multi-collateral DAI (MCD or Dai) system. The protocol’s community has closed down the single-collateral Dai (Sai) system, as the decentralized finance (DeFi) solution gets ready for the transition. MCD had been activated on… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 9:42 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Brazil-based online wallet provider PicPay recently revealed that it has surpassed 20 million clients as of May 2020. As reported by Reuters, the company said that it achieved the milestone sooner than it had initially expected. PicPay was aiming to hit the goal by December… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 3:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a document posted by EY Canada yesterday,  the bankrupt crypto exchange QuadraCX trustee posted a document indicating 16,959 individual claims for the crypto and money. Most of the funds were vaporized when founder and CEO Gerald Cotten died without sharing passwords to the accounts… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 1:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A group of researchers claims that most of the digital transactions on EOS, Tezos (XTZ) and with the Ripple company-associated XRP virtual token don’t actually transfer any “value.” Research published on arXiv reveals that merely 2% of transactions conducted on the XRP ledger and only… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 12:49 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has launched a Bitcoin Mining Map that tracks the creation of BTC. As we all know, Bitcoin just completed its periodic “halving” event when the creation or mining of Bitcoin is cut in half. As one may expect,… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 11:49 am By Mathilde Saliou  |  

Equisafe is a Fintech company specialized in asset tokenization whose solutions are based on the Tezos protocol. This week, Equisafe’s President and co-founder, Bilal el Alamy, unveiled a partnership with the real estate asset management company Koytcha Immo.  Below is a discussion with el Alamy… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 11:18 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

iCapital Network, a fintech providing access to alternative investments, announced on Wednesday it is acquiring Artivest, a tech company that focuses on accessing and investing in alternatives. iCapital reported through the acquisition, it will purchase the majority of Artivest’s assets, including all technology and its… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 11:16 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The UK’s Nationwide Building Society has prepared its virtual assistant Arti to answer common COVID-19 mortgage holiday questions from the country’s residents. Nationwide’s team of mortgage, technology, and artificial intelligence (AI) professionals have been working on an initiative that involves developing, testing, and launching a… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 10:45 am By JD Alois  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore Fintech Association (SFA), AMTD Group (NYSE: HKIB; SGX: HKB) and AMTD Foundation have joined in announcing a S$ 6 million “MAS-SFA-AMTD Fintech Solidarity Grant.” The new grant is designed to support Singapore based Fintech firms during the Coronavirus… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 10:18 am By JD Alois  |  

Digital bank Starling and Funding Circle (LSE: FCH), a marketplace lending platform serving SMEs, have formed a strategic partnership to provide loans to small businesses under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). According to a note from Starling, the bank will lend via Funding… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 9:35 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Encrypted messaging provider Telegram has reportedly abandoned its TON blockchain project after a lengthy court battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, confirmed on May 12, 2020, that the Telegram Open Network (TON) initiative would be discontinued, because… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 9:19 am By JD Alois  |  

We have seen a lot of anecdotal evidence that online capital formation platforms focusing on early-stage ventures continue to do pretty well in spite of the ongoing pandemic. Earlier today, Crowdcube co-founder Luke Lang tweeted out some numbers indicating robust performance on the platform during… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 8:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based Fintech TransferWise recently revealed that customers can now send money instantly to several developing economies in Asia including Pakistan, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. The TransferWise team noted: “In the past, if you were sending money to Thailand (THB), Pakistan (PKR), or Sri Lanka (LKR)… Read More

May 13, 2020 @ 7:56 am By Omar Faridi  |  

  A blog post recently published by the World Economic Forum notes that SMEs throughout the world have been struggling to maintain operations due to the COVID-19 outbreak, nationwide lockdowns, and resulting economic challenges. WEF’s blog acknowledges that traditional lending models have been an obstacle… Read More