Global

June 27, 2019 @ 8:10 am By Cali Haan  |  

A trader on Synthetix, “a decentralized protocol focused on creating synthetic assets,” took advantage of a price feed (oracle) glitch governing smart contracts on the platform to mint $37 million in synthetic ethers, Crypto AM reports. According to a blog post by Synthetix, the manoeuvre… Read More

June 26, 2019 @ 3:41 pm By JD Alois  |  

HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently organized a workshop on assisting low-income renters. Predicated on the fact that rental insurance has “very low take-up” amongst a lower demographic, Treasury and the FCA invited multiple firms to attend an “Access to Contents Insurance… Read More

June 26, 2019 @ 11:29 am By JD Alois  |  

Equisafe has completed the very first real estate transaction facilitated by blockchain in France, according to a report. Equisafe is described as a “neo investment bank” for digital security issuance. Equisafe can provide a variety of services including security token issuance and a secondary market… Read More

June 26, 2019 @ 10:44 am By JD Alois  |  

N26, a digital challenger bank based in Germany, expects to launch in the US in the coming weeks. A series D funding round announced in early 2019 was described as providing the war-chest necessary to launch, and compete, in the highly fragmented US banking marketplace…. Read More

June 26, 2019 @ 8:34 am By JD Alois  |  

Bitcoin is moving, once again. The most popular crypto has earned its wings as a popular speculation vehicle – driven by geopolitical events and perhaps some manipulation. Advocates proclaim its purity and lack of affiliation with any central agency. Detractors denounce it as little more… Read More

June 26, 2019 @ 7:58 am By JD Alois  |  

ICONLOOP, one of the largest blockchain enterprises in South Korea, has received regulatory approval for its ID services, according to a note from the company. ICONLOOP uses a proprietary blockchain engine “loopchain.” ICONLOOP has created a blockchain based digital ID service that may be used… Read More

June 26, 2019 @ 7:41 am By JD Alois  |  

Revolut has announced that Apple Pay is rolling out in 12 more countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. That makes 28 markets that Apple pay is available for Revolut customers. Revolut customers may use their iPhone, iPad,… Read More

June 26, 2019 @ 3:26 am By JD Alois  |  

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Director of Competition Christopher Woolard testified before the House Financial Services Committee Fintech Task Force today. The other witnesses participating in the hearing included: Paul Watkins, Assistant Director, Office of Innovation, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Beth Knickerbocker, Chief Innovation Officer,… Read More

June 26, 2019 @ 1:23 am By Cali Haan  |  

There has been much trepidatious commentary issued since Facebook announced its Libra Coin cryptocurrency venture last week. Politicians have warned that Libra, a payment system purportedly intended to help bank the unbanked and grant them access to low-cost remittances (while profiting Facebook), could run afoul of… Read More

June 25, 2019 @ 5:45 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Two computer programmers in Israel, brothers Eli and Assaf Gigi, have been arrested in Jerusalem and accused of operating a sprawling phishing scam that helped them steal 120 000 bitcoins from the Bitfinex trading platform in 2016. According to Israeli crime reporting site Posta, “They… Read More

June 25, 2019 @ 2:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

While it is a fact we all need bank-like services it is also true we do not necessarily need a traditional bank. The digitization of finance has liberated the masses from paper driven, brick and mortar operations to the bank of the iPhone (or Android… Read More

June 25, 2019 @ 12:15 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has posted a deck on GFin or the Global Financial Innovation Network. Hong Kong has emerged as a leading Fintech hub having embraced innovation in financial services. GFiN was launched by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) a bit… Read More

June 25, 2019 @ 10:19 am By JD Alois  |  

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan and Funding London CEO, Maggie Rodriguez-Piza, have announced the appointment of three new directors to the Funding London Board. Funding London was launched in 2004 to provide venture capital and debt capital to SMEs, on behalf of the Mayor… Read More

June 25, 2019 @ 9:11 am By JD Alois  |  

Yesterday, Crowdfund Insider previewed Freetrade’s crowdfunding round on Crowdcube. Today, the offer is live and out of private mode so we wanted to provide an update. As it stands now, Freetrade has easily topped its low-end hurdle of £1 million as it seeks to raise… Read More

June 25, 2019 @ 8:39 am By JD Alois  |  

Peer to peer lender and digital bank Zopa is out with note highlighting the fact that consumers too frequently do not receive the interest rate they expect when applying for a loan. In fact, Zopa states that an astounding two-thirds of loan applicants are offered… Read More

June 25, 2019 @ 7:47 am By Barry James  |  

The world stands at a crucial juncture when new DNA will be created that will form and influence our civilizations for generations to come, determining what our future looks like. The world is now in a position to build global public infrastructure. Who owns this… Read More

June 25, 2019 @ 1:29 am By Cali Haan  |  

Reserve Bank of Australia chief Philip Lowe told participants in a Q&A session June 20th that he does not expect Facebook’s new Libra cryptocurrency network to be fully implemented any time soon. “There’s a lot of water under the bridge before Facebook’s proposal becomes something… Read More

June 24, 2019 @ 9:27 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Last week’s announcement of “Libra,” Facebook’s move into creating a cryptocurrency payments infrastructure to underpin its social network, was met with considerable fanfare and may have induced a rally in the price of Bitcoins. But several pundits on Yahoo have noted that so far, banks… Read More

June 24, 2019 @ 8:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

TrustToken is issuing a stablecoin backed by Hong Kong dollars. TrustToken says this is the first stablecoin pegged to an Asian currency. TrueHKD will be pegged one-to-to one with the Hong Kong dollar that is currently worth about USD $0.13. TrustToken has partnered with Legacy… Read More

June 24, 2019 @ 12:35 pm By JD Alois  |  

Later this week the V20 conference will take place alongside the bi-annual G20 event being hosted in Japan. The G20 is, of course, the global powwow of 19 leading nations plus the EU. While mostly a lot of hobnobbing and back-room policy wrangling, while in… Read More