Opinion

November 30, 2020 @ 8:08 am By Omar Faridi  |  

  We recently connected with Luke Stokes, Managing Director for the Foundation for Interwallet Operability as well as the Interim Executive Director for the EOS Foundation, which is focused on supporting the development of EOS, a major platform for building decentralized applications (dApps). Stokes says… Read More

November 28, 2020 @ 12:51 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Brian Armstrong, Co-founder and CEO at Coinbase, the leading US-based digital asset exchange, notes that this past week, the company heard rumors that the U.S. Treasury and Secretary Mnuchin had been planning to “rush out” some new regulations for self-hosted cryptocurrency wallets  – which would… Read More

November 27, 2020 @ 11:43 am By Gautam Gujral  |  

On November 2, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) voted to amend its rules to harmonize, simplify, and improve the exempt offering framework. These amendments will, in general, be effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Bigger is Better An… Read More

November 27, 2020 @ 7:33 am By JD Alois  |  

Libra, Facebook’s project to launch a global cryptocurrency, may launch as soon a January but as a stablecoin and not as a basket of assets that it originally sought to create. According to a report in the FT, Libra may launch in early 2021 as… Read More

November 26, 2020 @ 2:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

As all crypto followers know, Bitcoin recently edged closed to its all-time high, topping out at around $19K and change. Then, almost magically, it tanked – now trading around $16,500. While some people view Bitcoin as a store of value, somewhat similar to gold and… Read More

November 23, 2020 @ 9:02 am By Lee A. Schneider  |  

MiCar: Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. Everyone seems to forget that blockchain is a database software at its core; better database software to be sure because it makes digitally unique items (known as “crypto-assets” or “digital assets”) possible in a transparent, auditable, and secure system, but… Read More

November 22, 2020 @ 7:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

This past week it was reported that UBS is looking to beef up its wealthy client business with its new “My Way” platform that is currently catering to customers in Switzerland with other European countries forthcoming as well as Asia.  According to Reuters, the wealth… Read More

November 20, 2020 @ 3:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Phil Liu is Chief Legal Officer and co-founder of Arca – a regulatory compliant digital asset investment platform that is building financial products utilizing blockchain. Arca is the first firm to offer a registered fund with shares issued as a digital security. The Fund… Read More

November 19, 2020 @ 7:23 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Brendan Blumer, CEO at Block.one, the company behind EOS, one of the largest platforms for building blockchain-based decentralized applications (dApps), has acknowledged that the innovation in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space is “revolutionary.” However, the recent guidance provided by global regulatory authorities regarding crypto and… Read More

November 18, 2020 @ 3:08 pm By JD Alois  |  

Google, part of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) is pushing deeper into Fintech with a redesigned Google Pay App in a natural step for one of the largest tech firms in the world. Caesar Sengupta, General Manager & VP, Payments and Next Billion Users for Google, said in… Read More

November 17, 2020 @ 3:00 pm By Emma Channing and Chris Tse  |  

  2020 has been an interesting year for Ethereum and its programming language Solidity. While much of the news regarding Ethereum has been about high gas fees and 2.0’s imminent arrival, there is a shiny new kid on the block that has received most of… Read More

November 16, 2020 @ 3:26 pm By JD Alois  |  

Republic, a leading investment platform and crowdfunding marketplace has acquired the assets of NextSeed small business investment platform for an undisclosed amount. NextSeed co-founder and CEO Youngro Lee will become Chief Operating Officer of Republic while remaining CEO of NextSeed Securities for the foreseeable future…. Read More

November 15, 2020 @ 8:53 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

James Lee, Internet Analyst for US and China at Mizuho Securities, has said that both gaming and the Fintech sector will be important for Tencent and will continue to play a key role in the global economy, especially in a post COVID world. Lee, who… Read More

November 13, 2020 @ 6:26 pm By JD Alois  |  

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) distributed a comment letter today outlining its opposition to the proposal by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s move to clarify the role of Finders. A Finder is an individual that finds investors for smaller firms. A lack of… Read More

November 12, 2020 @ 11:45 am By JD Alois  |  

Camino Financial, a Fintech platform providing affordable credit and financial products for US Latino businesses, recently published a report on Latino-owned Businesses (LOBs) covering Q3 as well as insight into the impact of COVID-19 on these businesses. The US Latino Small Business Survey offers insights… Read More

November 11, 2020 @ 11:00 am By Stephanie Vaughan Weichsel  |  

We are now over three years into the decentralized finance market, and although we have renewed enthusiasm, the results haven’t begun to materialize in a meaningful way.  Ryan Selkis: Founder of Messario Crypto tweeted last week saying “You say “DeFi is just tech bros learning… Read More

November 9, 2020 @ 12:40 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Adena Friedman, CEO at Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest stock exchange with a market cap of around $17 trillion, notes that the COVID-19 pandemic is “fundamentally accelerating” the adoption of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. According to Friedman, the current environment has also led to the increased usage… Read More

November 8, 2020 @ 7:27 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a series of updates to the exempt offering ecosystem that included changes to online capital formation. While Reg CF received a nice increase from $1.07 million to $5 million, Reg A+ (Tier II) also received some attention… Read More

November 5, 2020 @ 10:00 am By Lauren Descout  |  

The events of 2020 have caused many people to reassess how they manage their businesses. Treasurers were forced into an unprecedented situation where they had to manage cash and international payments from suppliers and customers at a time of significant uncertainty and instability – all… Read More

November 4, 2020 @ 1:27 pm By JD Alois  |  

Yesterday, the Hong Kong Government announced a consultation to enlist public opinion on legislative proposals designed to enhance anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) regulation in Hong Kong. Cryptoassets (digital assets) were included in the consultation with the introduction of a licensing regime for virtual… Read More