Politics, Legal & Regulation

April 25, 2019 @ 1:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced the new members of the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee. The Committee will hold its first meeting on Monday, May 6, 2019, at the SEC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Committee replaces the Advisory Committee on… Read More

April 25, 2019 @ 12:56 pm By JD Alois  |  

A report in the Times asks pointed questions regarding a crowdfunding campaign by Recruitive Software that may have failed to disclose material information regarding the firm while the securities offering was ongoing. The Times states: “A collapsed software developer failed to disclose that it had… Read More

April 25, 2019 @ 3:48 am By Cali Haan  |  

Chilean Minister of Finance Felipe Larraín has announced that his ministry is sending a bill to the Chilean congress which is designed to regulate Fintech and cryptocurrencies, Ahora Noticias reports. Promising “proportional rules,” Larraín announced from the United States last week: “Taking into account the different forms taken by the business models… Read More

April 24, 2019 @ 11:24 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Two men who ran a Dark Net website called NextDayGear from which they sold more than 10 000 packages of illicit drugs have been convicted in New York. The men, Callaway Crain, 35, and Mark Sanchez, 35, both plead guilty, and now face between 2.5 and… Read More

April 24, 2019 @ 5:29 pm By JD Alois  |  

FINRA, the lead regulator for broker-dealers in the US, has opened up an Office of Financial Innovation in recognition of the growing importance of Fintech. Haimera Workie, currently a Senior Director at FINRA, will become its inaugural chief. FINRA President and CEO Robert W. Cook… Read More

April 24, 2019 @ 4:48 pm By JD Alois  |  

Small businesses create the majority of jobs in the US – just like many other developed economies. With jobs comes wealth and prosperity. If this job creation engine shuts down, as we have seen in the last recession, its a disaster. According to the US… Read More

April 24, 2019 @ 12:20 pm By Cali Haan  |  

New details have emerged in the case of three alleged drug dealers in Australia, two of whom were also cryptocurrency entrepreneurs. In October 2017, police arrested the first two alleged dealers and claim to have seized at the scene 33 kilograms of MDMA, cocaine, and… Read More

April 24, 2019 @ 10:34 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has posted the agenda for the upcoming Fintech Forum scheduled to take place on May 31st. The event, entitled the 2019  Fintech Forum, will take place at SEC headquarters in Washington, DC. It will simultaneously be live-streamed on the… Read More

April 21, 2019 @ 4:24 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBIs) Draft Enabling Framework for its Regulatory Sandbox program shows that cryptocurrency and crypto asset startups may be excluded from participating in the program. According to the document, the RBI established an inter-regulatory Working Group (WG) in July 2016, “to… Read More

April 20, 2019 @ 11:27 am By Cali Haan  |  

The Executive Deputy Superintendent for Banking at the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has taken to the media to respond to claims from the Bittrex crypto trading platform that it was treated unfairly when denied a license to do business in the… Read More

April 20, 2019 @ 10:08 am By Cali Haan  |  

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), part of the US Department of Treasury, has fined the operator of a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading service $35,350 USD and barred him from money-transmitting, “for willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act’s (BSA) registration, program, and reporting requirements.” In a release… Read More

April 19, 2019 @ 1:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for  Alternative Finance (CCAF), with the support of the Nomura Research Institute (NRI), has just published a new study entitled the Global Cryptoasset Regulatory Landscape Study. The report is a detailed analysis of the regulatory environment in multiple jurisdictions from around the… Read More

April 19, 2019 @ 11:52 am By JD Alois  |  

Mining is a vital part of the cryptocurrency industry today. While some industry followers believe that crypto mining will go away in the not so distant future, it remains an active pursuit for individuals and companies to mint digital money using racks of computers. In… Read More

April 19, 2019 @ 11:13 am By JD Alois  |  

Leading marketplace lending platform Prosper has settled fraud charges for misstating returns, according to a release from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  Without admitting or denying the allegations, Prosper has consented to an SEC order finding it violated an anti-fraud provision of the Securities… Read More

April 18, 2019 @ 10:51 am By JD Alois  |  

The government of Switzerland wants create the very best environment for Fintech, and more importantly distributed ledger technology (DLT) to thrive. The Swiss Federal Council kicked off a consultation last month on the adoption of DLT/Blockchain seeking to “increase legal certainty, remove hurdles for DLT-based… Read More

April 18, 2019 @ 8:27 am By JD Alois  |  

Alongside their 2019 Business Plan, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published their research agenda for 2019. The FCA states that research plays a fundamental role in their mission of evidence-based policy and staying ahead of trends in financial services. The regulator says their research… Read More

April 17, 2019 @ 10:49 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Daniel Daianu, a member of the Romanian National Bank (BNR)’s Administration Council, told attendees at a conference this week that cryptocurrencies are in fact, “financial assets” that cannot be used as central bank currencies, Business Review reports: “In my opinion, these are financial assets, not… Read More

April 17, 2019 @ 3:01 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Tokensoft, “a technology platform for compliant issuance of digital securities,” is being sued in California for alleged discrimination against a mature female employee. According to the complaint filed with the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, plaintiff Monette Stevens, 55, claims she was… Read More

April 17, 2019 @ 7:33 am By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its annual business plan. While the immediate focus must be Brexit and the ramifications of the European separation, Fintech, once again, is part of the regulator’s priorities. The FCA states that: ” [we seek to] build on our… Read More

April 16, 2019 @ 10:01 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The recent proliferation of themed ETF offerings- up five-fold 2014 to 2018- is leading to careful scrutiny of product names by the SEC, Bloomberg reports, and at least two firms, Amplify and Reality Shares, appear to have been required to drop the term “blockchain” from… Read More