Opinion

September 10, 2020 @ 11:11 am By JD Alois  |  

  Mastercard revealed this week that it has launched a central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) testing platform. The goal is to enable central banks to test national digital currencies. Many central banks are testing or investigating CBDCs including China’s digital yuan that is currently being… Read More

September 8, 2020 @ 11:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a public statement, the Association of Online Investment Platforms (AOIP) has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to move quickly and to improve the regulatory environment to support small businesses during the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis. Addressed to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, and… Read More

September 7, 2020 @ 9:07 am By JD Alois  |  

Open Banking, a concept that is widely discussed but understood by relatively few, is an attempt to enable customers to control their own data while requiring financial services to allow access to this data, when approved, to foster a more robust and competitive financial services… Read More

September 7, 2020 @ 8:00 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Will Harborne, CEO at Deversifi, a self-custody digital asset exchange for “serious” traders, has said that he disagrees “very strongly” with the idea that anyone who does not “condemn” SushiSwap has joined “the Dark Side.” SushiSwap is a recently launched decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that’s… Read More

September 6, 2020 @ 3:17 pm By Ram Alagianambi, Arun Sikka, Janna Goldberg and Louis Caditz-Peck  |  

Expand your business’ impact by designing smarter products that benefit customers Building great financial products should follow the same basic rules as building any other solid products. However, this post will go beyond the basics and discuss how we can build financial products to improve… Read More

September 6, 2020 @ 2:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Brendan Blumer, CEO at Block.one, the company behind the development of EOS, one of the largest platforms for building decentralized applications (dApps) that’s funded by a record $4.1 billion+ token sale from 2018, points out that Ethereum (ETH) is too slow. Blumer notes that conducting… Read More

September 3, 2020 @ 10:01 pm By Anthony Zeoli  |  

Its official, the “accredited investor” definition, which has not changed significantly since its enactment almost 40 years ago, has been massively upgraded. On August 26, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted final amendments to the “accredited investor” definition which fundamentally change and broaden… Read More

September 2, 2020 @ 2:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

  The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will start processing Fintech applications to become federally chartered firms as soon as this week, according to a report. The acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks has only been managing the regulator since May… Read More

September 1, 2020 @ 5:50 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Linda Xie, co-founder at Scalar Capital, advisor at the 0x Project, and former product manager at Coinbase, says that if you’re a VC focused on investing in Fintech projects, then you really need to know what’s going in the so-called “decentralized” finance (DeFi) space, which… Read More

August 30, 2020 @ 4:51 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Frank Rotman, who claims to be a 20+ year Fintech veteran, says that the “most disturbing” trend he’s seeing in the early-stage financial technology ecosystem is businesses or companies raising between two to three back-to-back investment rounds with minimal or not enough progress in-between.  … Read More

August 30, 2020 @ 2:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Gabriel J. Shapiro, a US attorney focused on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), venture, governance, Infosec, and digital assets, is arguing that it’s pretty much “pointless” to be a lawyer in the crypto and blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) space. He points out that professionals… Read More

August 29, 2020 @ 11:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Eswar Prasad, professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, acknowledges that the Chinese digital yuan will improve the nation currency’s role as an international payment method. However, he clarified that it will “hardly put a dent” in the… Read More

August 28, 2020 @ 12:15 pm By Ram Alagianambi and Arun Sikka  |  

How might hyper-personalization improve your products? Behavioral economics is the field of study which acknowledges that people are irrational beings; as explained by economist Richard Thaler in his book, Misbehaving, humans don’t behave the same way as theoretical decision-makers he calls ‘Econs’, who always make… Read More

August 28, 2020 @ 9:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Peer to peer (P2P) lenders in the UK have, at times, been criticized for not being able to offer the best services to their clients. However, they’ve also recently been praised for their overall approach and response to the Coronavirus outbreak which has created many… Read More

August 26, 2020 @ 11:03 am By JD Alois  |  

As widely anticipated, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) updated the definition of an Accredited Investor expanding the rule by adding certain sophistication criteria. The current definition defines an individual who earns over $200,000 a year ($300,000 if married) as accredited. If an individual has… Read More

August 25, 2020 @ 5:28 pm By JD Alois  |  

It should be obvious to most everyone that the current definition of an Accredited Investor not only disenfranchises the vast majority of the population it is not really an effective proxy to evaluate an individual’s ability to assess risk and the opportunity affiliated with private… Read More

August 25, 2020 @ 12:27 pm By JD Alois  |  

Tomorrow, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will reveal any changes to Regulation S-K. A proposal by the Commission was introduced in 2019. According to the meeting notice, the Commission will consider: “whether to adopt amendments to modernize the description of business, legal proceedings, and… Read More

August 24, 2020 @ 8:44 pm By JD Alois  |  

SeedInvest is a leading investment crowdfunding platform in the US that lists securities under the full stack of securities exemptions including Reg CF, Reg D, and Reg A+. More than $200 million has been invested via the crowdfunding platform. SeedInvest has long touted its selectivity… Read More

August 23, 2020 @ 7:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

Later this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will update the definition of an Accredited Investor – a rule that has been in place for decades. An open meeting of the Commission is scheduled for Wednesday, August 26, 2020. The current rule allows individuals… Read More

August 17, 2020 @ 4:34 pm By JD Alois  |  

This past week, it was announced that Israel has established diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a ground-breaking shift in foreign relations for a volatile region. The deal was announced by President Trump, Israel, and the UAE that the countries have agreed to… Read More