Opinion

November 3, 2021 @ 7:59 pm By JD Alois  |  

Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu delivered a compelling speech today during a presentation at the American Fintech Council, Fintech Policy Summit. The AFC largely represents digital and neo-banks as well as non-bank lenders. Hsu recently spoke at a Blockchain Association event where he… Read More

November 1, 2021 @ 8:49 am By Erin Holloway  |  

Investment crowdfunding took off when the JOBS Act regulation went into effect back in 2016 and has become a booming industry in short order. We saw some significant regulatory changes in March of this year, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirming capital formation… Read More

October 28, 2021 @ 9:06 am By JD Alois  |  

LendingClub (NYSE:LC) reported solid quarterly results yesterday that solidly beat earnings estimates. Earnings per share (EPS) came in $0.26 when estimates were expecting less than half of that. Following the news, shares rallied significantly higher and in pre-market trading, LendingClub shares are currently trading up… Read More

October 27, 2021 @ 1:13 pm By JD Alois  |  

Shari Noonan, CEO of Rialto Markets, has issued a positive statement on investment crowdfunding while warning of “choppier waters” in the crypto sector and labeling NFTs [Non-Fungible Tokens] ” unregulated securities.” Rialto Markets is a FINRA regulated broker-dealer that offers securities under Reg CF (Regulation… Read More

October 26, 2021 @ 4:39 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Earlier this month, John Berlau, a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), wrote an article discussing the controversial $3.5 trillion social spending bill that is currently stuck in the US Senate due to intraparty disagreements. While initially pitched as “infrastructure” or “reconciliation”… Read More

October 25, 2021 @ 12:06 pm By JD Alois  |  

As more and more firms flee the Northeast and California, several states are benefiting from this exodus of talent and innovation. Texas and Florida are at the top of the list due to low taxes, a business-friendly government, and, of course, beautiful weather. On the… Read More

October 19, 2021 @ 12:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is a red hot sector of Fintech. Combine this with banking as a service (BaaS) and you see two dominant trends in the transition from legacy banks to Fintech everywhere with embedded services and on-demand finance. Research and Markets predicts… Read More

October 19, 2021 @ 9:54 am By JD Alois  |  

There has been a lot of discussion about the first Bitcoin ETF to trade on a US-based exchange. ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (NYSE:BITO) commenced trading today and currently is trading slightly higher. But there has been a fair amount of criticism regarding this ETF because… Read More

October 18, 2021 @ 10:33 pm By JD Alois  |  

Earlier today the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published its “meme stock” report – otherwise known as the Staff Report on Equity and Options Market Structure Conditions in Early 2021. As was covered earlier, this report addresses the Gamestop/Robinhood/Reddit odyssey where retail investors created a short… Read More

October 12, 2021 @ 3:46 pm By Douglas Horn  |  

The 17-hour outage has exposed a critical design flaw and grossly exaggerated TPS claims.   On September 14 at 12:38 PM UTC, Solana announced that it had encountered a denial-of-service [DoS] disruption caused by a surge in transaction loads, reaching as high as 400,000 attempted… Read More

October 1, 2021 @ 1:06 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Add STASIS CEO Gregory Klumov to the list of cryptocurrency figures who believe China’s recent decision to ban digital assets will not stop the market from growing. A sister company of EXANTE, STASIS is a stablecoin and tokenization platform based in Malta. In late September the… Read More

September 30, 2021 @ 4:07 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

While China’s ban on cryptocurrency transactions has had a measurable effect on the markets, it’s not a death knell by any means, one industry watcher said. Earlier this month the People’s Bank of China said all virtual currency-related business activities were illegal, claiming it would… Read More

September 27, 2021 @ 3:51 pm By JD Alois  |  

The decline in publicly traded firms has been well-documented. A result of the excessive cost and reporting requirements combined with an ocean of private capital has compelled many successful firms to stay private as long as possible. Back in the day, an initial public offering… Read More

September 20, 2021 @ 2:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

On September 7, 2021, Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) published a blog post stating the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had informed the company it would sue over its forthcoming Coinbase Lend service. Now, Coinbase has submitted to the significant threat of a lawsuit and abandoned its Lend… Read More

September 15, 2021 @ 11:06 am By JD Alois  |  

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler marched up to Capitol Hill yesterday to testify in front of the Senate Banking Committee in a hearing entitled “Oversight of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission”.  Gensler outlined his ambitions at the SEC in his prepared remarks. While Gensler received… Read More

September 11, 2021 @ 8:52 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Mogul Productions claims to be a “decentralized” platform working towards “democratizing” the film financing industry. In what they consider to be a new concept, Mogul aims to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens or NFTs as the “focal point” for the traditional movie industry…. Read More

September 10, 2021 @ 9:56 am By JD Alois  |  

Next week, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler will testify before the US Senate Banking Committee. The routine hearing is about the “Oversight of the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission,” but you may anticipate a good amount of testimony on issues surround Fintech and,… Read More

September 8, 2021 @ 3:17 pm By Kelsey Chase  |  

In 2010, venture capital investors poured $21.8 billion into startups. Fast forward a decade to 2020 when well over 500 “supergiant” funding rounds of $100 million+ were raised, totaling $142 billion. In early 2021, even as global economies fought to shake off the effects of… Read More

September 8, 2021 @ 10:51 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Investor Advisory Committee is scheduled to hold a meeting tomorrow (September 9th). The topics of discussion include two panels: “Reimagining Investor Protection in a Digital World: the Behavioral Design of Online Trading Platforms;” A discussion regarding competition and regulatory… Read More

September 8, 2021 @ 8:14 am By JD Alois  |  

Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), the largest digital asset trading platform in the US, has received a Wells Notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. A Wells Notice is a legal document that indicates the SEC is investigating the company indicating it may pursue an enforcement action… Read More