Global

January 15, 2021 @ 8:11 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The United Kingdom’s national standards organization, the British Standards Institute (BSI), had recently released the Security Token Specification, which is one of the industry’s very first cross-chain standards. The specification is referred to as “PAS 19668” and has been supported or sponsored by blockchain advisory… Read More

January 15, 2021 @ 8:06 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Ireland-based Linked Finance, a peer to peer lending platform, has reportedly received record levels of interest from SMEs that are looking for government-backed loans. After recently being approved to serve as a Coronavirus Credit Guarantee Scheme (CCGS) provider,  Linked Finance claims it has received a… Read More

January 14, 2021 @ 9:22 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Earlier this week, the Bitcoin (BTC) price fell sharply by around 30% (to about $31,000) as Wall Street bulls called for a technical correction, OKCoin reports. However, the Bitcoin (BTC) price has already recovered significantly. The digital asset is trading at nearly $38,000 at the… Read More

January 14, 2021 @ 3:54 pm By JD Alois  |  

The European Central Bank (ECB) reports that it has received 8221 comments regarding its consultation on a digital euro or central bank digital currency (CBDC).  Chief among the comments are privacy concerns as government ledgers for a digital currency raises serious questions about data control…. Read More

January 14, 2021 @ 9:02 am By JD Alois  |  

Twisto, a buy now pay later (BNPL) Fintech, has received a €16 million investment led by Zip Co and Elevator Ventures.  Twisto is attempting to follow in the footsteps of firms like Affirm that just went public at a market cap of over $11 billion…. Read More

January 14, 2021 @ 8:37 am By JD Alois  |  

Seedrs is out with a note this morning sharing that Senta has been acquired by Iris Software Group. Senta listed three securities offerings on Seedrs and investors may anticipate a decent return on their investment. Seedrs reports that this exit represents the largest percentage return… Read More

January 14, 2021 @ 8:07 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Ireland’s Carne Group, the provider of regulatory reporting and compliance tools to the asset management sector, has acquired a €100 million equity investment from Vitruvian Partners. Established in 2004, Carne has 350 professionals on its payroll who are based in 8 different locations across the… Read More

January 14, 2021 @ 8:04 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Mike Kühnel, Partner, Frankfurt at Bain & Company, Thomas Olsen, Partner, New York at Bain & Company, John Fildes, Expert Partner, Sydney at Bain, and Karl Gridl, Senior Manager, Zurich at Bain, have all co-authored a brief, titled “For Digital Assets, Private Markets Offer the… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 11:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Bank of Lithuania, the nation’s central bank, has revealed that the number and value of payments completed via its platform, CENTROlink, had doubled last year, while instant payments surged by around four times (when compared to previous years). Keeping these developments in mind, Bank of… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 10:41 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Swiss Innovation agency Innosuisse will be introducing two funding projects in January 2021, which will be called the impulse program “Swiss Innovation Power” and the Flagship Initiative. In November of last year, the Federal Council in Switzerland had committed to launching the impulse program “Swiss… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 5:55 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Mexican workers now based in the United States have reportedly been sending record amounts of funds to friends or family members back home since 2020, which may suggest that the American economy has been fairly resilient despite the challenges created by the COVID-19 outbreak. As… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 12:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

The US Department of Justice has announced that Rossen G. Iossifov, 53, formerly of Bulgaria, has been sentenced to 121 months in prison for money laundering via RG Coins, a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria. Under federal law, Iossifov must serve 85 percent of… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 11:27 am By JD Alois  |  

Finnest, part of the Invesdor Group, says 2020 was a good year in spight of the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis. Based in Austria, Finnest says some forms of financing were able to show their strengths during this period, including crowdinvesting from specialists in digital financing… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 11:10 am By JD Alois  |  

creditshelf, a digital lending platform serving SMEs in Germany, says it has grown by “double-digits” in 2020 despite the ongoing COVID health crisis. While complete financials will be published at the end of March 2021, creditshelf has distributed certain highlights of 2020. Requested loans totaling… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 10:10 am By JD Alois  |  

PEAC Finance, a new bank, has partnered with Raisin’s German deposits platform WeltSparen to offer a savings marketplace. The Hamburg, Germany-based PEAC (or Pan-European Asset Company) Finance Group was granted a banking license by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority in December of 2020. The… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 9:30 am By JD Alois  |  

OurCrowd is a leading venture marketplace where smaller (accredited) investors can participate in private securities offerings alongside really big investors. A recent example is where JumpCloud, an enterprise cloud service provider, raised $100 million in a Series E Round. OurCrowd’s name was alongside high profile… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 8:16 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

  B2B fintech-as-a-service provider Rapyd announced on Wednesday it secured $300 million through its Series D financing round, which was led by Coatue with participation from Spark Capital, Avid Ventures, FJ Labs, Latitude, General Catalyst, Oak FT, Tiger Global, Target Global, Durable Capital, Tal Capital,… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 8:02 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based marketplace lender Growth Street revealed on Tuesday (January 12, 2020) that all of its platform investors would be getting their funds back, as the company continues to wind down its operations (while still being solvent).  Kim Goetzke, COO at Growth Street, noted that returning… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 7:57 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Nathaniel Popper from the New York Times reports that of the (approximately) 18.5 million Bitcoin (BTC) in circulation, about 20% — valued at around $130 billion at the time of writing — seems to have been lost or isn’t accessible from the crypto wallets where… Read More

January 13, 2021 @ 2:24 am By Omar Faridi  |  

A recent study released by Juniper Research has revealed that the total number of QR code payment users is expected to surpass 2.2 billion within 5 years, which is up significantly from 1.5 billion in 2020. This would be almost 30% of all mobile phone… Read More