Strategy

December 4, 2018 @ 2:49 pm By JD Alois  |  

Crowdcube, the UK’s largest investment crowdfunding platform, has announced a new service, “Thrive for Fintech.” Crowdcube explains that Thrive is a “series of support programmes for companies raising on Crowdcube, where [they] partner with leading VCs, and top-tier law and accounting firms to help companies… Read More

December 3, 2018 @ 9:05 am By Charles Kaufman & Jor Law  |  

Those who have read the SEC settlements with AirFox (CarrierEQ.Inc.) and Paragon Coin, Inc. published on November 16, 2018, will note that the defendant ICO issuers agreed, among other things, to register their “coins” under the Exchange Act (the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) by filing… Read More

December 2, 2018 @ 10:30 am By Dror Futter  |  

In late 2013, seed accelerator YCombinator introduced the SAFE (simple agreement for future equity) – a convertible instrument designed to make seed stage investing quicker and less expensive. The SAFEs quickly became a popular structure for seed investing.  Early this fall, YCombinator introduced several changes… Read More

November 27, 2018 @ 10:33 pm By Cali Haan  |  

That favourable review of a favourite cryptocurrency project was likely bought, Reuters is reporting today in an extensive exposé. “Rating ‘experts’ will grade anything positively, for a price,” write the article’s co-authors, Anna Irrera and Elizabeth Dilts. The two say the story they uncovered in data and documents were confirmed… Read More

November 27, 2018 @ 9:26 pm By Samuel Guzik  |  

As the expression goes:  “Look before you leap.”  But if you are an innovator, determined to blaze a trail never before navigated – there is not much to look at. Being a pioneer can be a lonely and dangerous adventure.  Nothing could be more true… Read More

November 26, 2018 @ 6:30 pm By Christian Hsieh  |  

At the tail end of 2017, all eyes turned to the cryptocurrency industry when Bitcoin’s price soared to reach nearly $20,000 per coin. Articles were written, hands were shaken, and early investors in the digital currency had a very good holiday season indeed. But that… Read More

November 21, 2018 @ 5:56 am By Onki Kwan  |  

Last Friday, the SEC settled charges against two companies, CarrierEQ Inc. dba Airfox (“Airfox”) and Paragon Coin Inc. (“Paragon”), which raised money with initial coin offerings (“ICOs”).  The SEC found that both companies violated the registration provisions of the U.S. securities laws because neither company… Read More

November 14, 2018 @ 10:00 pm By Samuel Guzik  |  

SEC Regulation A (commonly referred to as Regulation A+) was implemented by the SEC in 2015 pursuant to major Congressional legislation, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the JOBS Act). It allows companies to raise up to $50 million in a 12 month… Read More

November 12, 2018 @ 7:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

Investing in early-stage firms is highly risky. As this publication has stated time and again, many, if not most, early-stage firms will fail or simply bounce along failing to achieve the founder’s expectations of great financial success. Investment crowdfunding platforms typically list mainly startup or… Read More

November 11, 2018 @ 5:21 pm By Melanie Mohr  |  

Gen Z: You know, the generation that dumped Facebook for Instagram, and prefers YouTube videos to cable TV. Gen-Zers were born after 1995 and are expected to represent 40% of consumers by 2020. The ‘post-millennials’ generation is growing older and marketing experts are creating new… Read More

November 9, 2018 @ 10:44 am By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this week it was revealed that RealtyShares, a respected real estate crowdfunding platform that has originated just under $900 million in investment capital, was winding down operations. The turn of events was driven by the lack of available risk capital to keep the real… Read More

November 5, 2018 @ 3:04 pm By Cali Haan  |  

As part of ongoing government efforts to quash initial coin offerings (ICOs) in China, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has extended prohibitions to cover “airdrops” -the promotional distribution of free cryptographic tokens- which may possibly be being used now in China to circumvent the… Read More

November 1, 2018 @ 10:19 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Arthur Hayes, CEO of the Hong Kong-based Bitcoin-derivatives exchange BitMEX, has told an audience in London that the bear market for Bitcoin could last another 18 months, Yahoo Finance reports. “My view is the volatility environment that exists right now could persist for another 12 to… Read More

November 1, 2018 @ 7:07 am By Erin Hobey  |  

OpenInvest, a digital investment advisor for socially responsible investing, launched Divest from Dark Money, a one-click way to invest in companies that prioritize political transparency. The Divest from Dark Money screen allows investors to divest from companies that fail to publicly disclose whether corporate funds… Read More

October 31, 2018 @ 3:31 pm By Collins Brown  |  

A lot of people think of their cryptocurrency wallet as merely a digitized version of a real wallet that is used for storing funds. However, it doesn’t actually store cryptocurrencies. Rather, it saves a pair of public and private keys that grant access to one’s digital belongings. In a nutshell, a public key is a… Read More

October 30, 2018 @ 12:00 pm By Samuel Guzik  |  

As a securities attorney, when I attend a conference in a rapidly developing area, I come with my own prejudices and beliefs, but with an open mind and open ears – to hear,  digest and discuss the latest developments and thinking.  The 2018 Crypto Invest… Read More

October 22, 2018 @ 12:00 pm By Helena Murphy and Duncan Di Biase  |  

Boutique hotel trailblazer Mr & Mrs Smith had no regrets when it checked into the crowdfunding world and saw its £1 million investment target exceeded within the first day. The company, which has built a global membership of 1.5 million since husband-and-wife team Tamara and James Lohan launched… Read More

October 14, 2018 @ 5:20 pm By Aubrey Hansen  |  

If you’ve been interested in cryptocurrency for any period of time, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the term “wallet,” and you probably realize that it doesn’t quite mean the same as it does in everyday life. A wallet in crypto terms is somewhere for… Read More

October 10, 2018 @ 1:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

PeerIQ is out with their Q3 securitization tracker for online lending and the report is quite strong. According to PeerIQ, domestic economic growth is solid and the US consumer is healthy. Marketplace lending securitizations totaled $3.5 billion this quarter representing the 5th highest level ever… Read More

October 5, 2018 @ 12:00 pm By Eliot Bencuya  |  

A house in the suburbs, career tenure and pension with the same employer, and a portfolio of stocks and bonds for retirement. Every baby boomer’s vision of the American dream. Until it wasn’t. The nest eggs of today’s retirees have been rocked by a seemingly… Read More