April 30, 2024 @ 6:36 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The majority of Australia’s mid-market businesses are still feeling cautiously optimistic, the annual KPMG Enterprise pre-Budget survey finds. But nearly a quarter say business growth is “being significantly impacted by the cost of living, while cost and margin pressures are the top concern of mid-market… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 3:58 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued a key notice, warning consumers of scammers impersonating FTC staff members in “attempts to steal money from innocent victims.” Blockchain firm Chainalysis has analyzed these developments in a comprehensive update. According to the FTC, these scammers typically “fabricate… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 3:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

Roger Ver, aka Bitcoin Jesus, has been charged with tax fraud. According to a statement by the US Department of Justice, Ver was arrested this weekend in Spain. He has been charged with mail fraud, tax evasion and filing false tax returns. Ver had acquired… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 3:39 pm By JD Alois  |  

Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) was sentenced to four months in prison last November after pleading guilty. Zhao was also required to pay a $50 million penalty. According to WSJ.com, Zhao told the court he was sorry for his behavior and regretted… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 2:04 pm By JD Alois  |  

Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND), a cloud banking platform, has raised $150 million in financing from PE firm Haveli. As part of the deal, Brian Sheth, Haveli’s CIO, will join Blend’s board of directors. The funding comes in a Series A convertible with a 0% coupon. The… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 1:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Compliance teams are facing escalating pressures driven by greater regulatory scrutiny and macroeconomic challenges, according to the 2024 Annual Compliance Health Check Report from SteelEye, the firm behind the industry’s integrated surveillance solution. The survey found that 56% of firms are “investing in communications surveillance,… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 11:40 am By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this month, Equitise, a securities crowdfunding platform operating in New Zealand and Australia, received an “infringement notice” from the New Zealand Financial Markets Authority (FMA). According to the FMA, Equitise had failed to file its financial statements prior to the deadline, among other concerns about… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 10:26 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK small business hiring continued to show signs of recovery in the face of a challenging macroeconomic environment, with employment rising 1.4% year-on-year (y/y) in the first quarter of the year (January-March 2024). According to the latest Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI) data from global… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 10:24 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

Payhawk, a global spend management solution for domestic and international businesses throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe, this week announced a new integration with American Express. It offers U.S. business and corporate card members the ability to issue virtual cards with built-in spend… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 8:51 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses with a fiat-to-crypto onramp, now supports the Avalanche C-Chain. Retail users can purchase AVAX directly through Stripe, “removing the need to go through an exchange.” Available to U.S. Stripe’s fiat-to-crypto onramp is “a customizable widget embedded into Avalanche… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 8:50 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

This week, FinQuery (formerly LeaseQuery), a provider of AI-powered solutions, announced a $25 million minority investment led by Periphas Capital and supported by Lavelle Capital. The funding will accelerate product innovation and support strategic mergers and acquisitions. FinQuery’s AI-driven SaaS platform unifies finance, accounting, and… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 8:46 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Ripple, the provider of enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions, has entered into a strategic partnership with HashKey DX, the Tokyo-based specialized consulting company of the HashKey Group, to introduce XRP Ledger (XRPL)-powered enterprise solutions to the Japanese market. HashKey Group has achieved significant success “with… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 8:42 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Tether, which claims to be one of the largest companies in the digital asset industry, announced that it has made a strategic investment of $200 million into Blackrock Neurotech, the enabler of Brain-Computer-Interface (BCI) technology, through its newly formed venture division Tether Evo. With this… Read More

April 30, 2024 @ 8:38 am By Omar Faridi  |  

MicroStrategy Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR), which claims to be the largest corporate holder of bitcoin and the largest independent publicly-traded business intelligence company, announced financial results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2024 (the first quarter of its 2024 fiscal year). While Bitcoin is off… Read More

April 29, 2024 @ 11:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

ETC Group is announcing the launch of its latest Exchange-Traded Product (ETP) on Deutsche Börse XETRA. The ETC Group Core Bitcoin ETP (ticker BTC1; ISIN DE000A4AER62) has “been tailored specifically for benchmark-conscious, long-term buy-and-hold investors, and global institutional investors with extended liquidity and risk management… Read More

April 29, 2024 @ 11:36 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Digital Asset has released a report highlighting developments related to the tokenization and on-chain adoption of Real-World Assets (RWAs). The report from Digital Asset Research “includes details on centralized industry players and asset class coverage, as well as coverage of select decentralized finance protocols working… Read More

April 29, 2024 @ 10:36 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A collective sense of measured “optimism” developed throughout Q1 2024, as the S&P 500 recorded its best-performing first quarter since 2019, the FT Partners team noted in a research report covering Fintech ecosystem developments. The Fintech focused research report from FT Partners pointed out that… Read More

April 29, 2024 @ 5:42 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Carta has released its latest report, titled, State of Pre-Seed: Q1 2024. Carta notes in the research report that fundraising for pre-seed companies “stayed robust in Q1 2024, dominated by SAFEs and convertible notes; valuation caps remained flat.” While commenting on the actual definition/criteria for… Read More

April 29, 2024 @ 3:38 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Equifax (NYSE: EFX) Workforce Solutions continues to help businesses transform the employee experience with the launch of Forms HQ, a new offering designed to help automate the delivery, completion, and tracking of essential employee forms, “including those related to onboarding, tax withholding, state requirements, annual notices,… Read More

April 29, 2024 @ 2:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Mid-sized banks have a big opportunity to maximize revenue potential and improve client experiences by transitioning to embedded banking, and to realize the full benefits of this transition, they need to leverage virtual ledgers, a report by tech payments company Finzly and Datos found. The… Read More