May 18, 2018 @ 2:39 pm By Gene Grant  |  

Several news reports this month have pointed to a slowdown in the crypto token issues that have been used to finance early stage companies, and the reports predicted that the increased regulatory activity echoing around the globe will serve as a deterrent to further growth…. Read More

May 17, 2018 @ 6:37 pm By Cali Haan  |  

    In a morning talk Monday at the massive cryptocurrency conference Consensus, economist James Bullard, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, challenged the vision of a muliti-coin paradise espoused by ICO (Initial Coin Offering) marketers. His thesis in a… Read More

May 14, 2018 @ 7:01 pm By Cali Haan  |  

  Blockchain has been called “The Foundation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” Umpteen conferences are now being devoted to explaining it. Hundreds of cottage firms have emerged claiming blockchain expertise. Enterprises, hearing that Bitcoin will compete with their payment or other systems have been spending millions… Read More

May 13, 2018 @ 8:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

Towards the end of April, SEC Commissioner Robert J. Jackson Jr. delivered a heartfelt speech in Cleveland about the decline of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the US. While there has been much debate regarding the cause of this decline (with some questioning whether it even… Read More

May 8, 2018 @ 12:34 pm By JD Alois  |  

“The regulator should be careful not to try to control the development of new technologies.” – Hester Peirce, SEC Commissioner SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce delivered a fascinating speech in LA today, addressing the challenges of innovation in the financial services sector while providing insight into… Read More

May 7, 2018 @ 12:33 pm By Timothy Li  |  

  In two of my previous articles, “The Top Ten Fintech Predictions for 2018” and “Top The Fintech Predictions for 2017”,  I predicted a few things to come including The End of Privacy, Vertical Integration and What’s Your Advantage where I visualized Facebook, Snapchat, Tesla,… Read More

May 6, 2018 @ 4:15 pm By Alan Yong  |  

  The so-called dotcom era that lasted from 1997 to 2001 was an epic period for tech industry hype. It was a veritable Wild West for tech-oriented businesses, where it sometimes seemed like investor money all but grew on trees for the many start-up firms… Read More

May 2, 2018 @ 11:00 am By Dror Futter  |  

The US initial coin offering (ICO) market is the subject of a great deal of regulatory uncertainty resulting, in large part, from the absence of comprehensive guidance by the SEC.   The uncertainty has caused frustration for issuers and investors and has also been counter-productive… Read More

April 27, 2018 @ 4:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a speech delivered this week at the Eurofi Summit, Commissioner Brian Quintenz, of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), addressed the topic of cryptocurrencies and digital tokens. Specifically, Quintez posed the question as to what should the proper role of a regulator be in… Read More

April 27, 2018 @ 10:29 am By JD Alois  |  

The Federal Reserve of St. Louis recently published a paper entitled “The Case for Central Bank Electronic Money and the Non-case for Central Bank Cryptocurrencies. In brief, authors Aleksandr Berentsen and Fabian Schär don’t think much about central bank utilization of crypto. The duo states:… Read More

April 26, 2018 @ 7:45 am By JD Alois  |  

Revolut revealed its most recent funding round today as it raised $250 million at a valuation of $1.7 billion. In many ways, the success of Revolut is emblematic of the power and potential of investment crowdfunding. Until today’s Series C round, each successive funding round… Read More

April 25, 2018 @ 5:41 pm By Carlos Domingo  |  

The crypto industry is in transition. The relatively young space that is built on an exciting, new technology platform called blockchain, or decentralized ledger technology (DLT), has enjoyed the attention of invigorated developers and investors. These players are working to define the future of the… Read More

April 24, 2018 @ 2:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

The world of initial coin offering (ICO) investing is chock full of peril and risk, as well as opportunity. Purchasing a tokenized asset has become a trip to Vegas-like event as investors attempt to discern which ICO will rise and which offering will quickly plummet…. Read More

April 23, 2018 @ 9:57 am By JD Alois  |  

It is a truism that we need bank like services but we really do not need banks. The financial industry is going through a period of disaggregation where some services are being separated from a traditional, brick and mortar service, to Fintech verticals that may… Read More

April 23, 2018 @ 7:32 am By David Felsenthal and Jesse Overall  |  

In this article we discuss a number of lessons that we believe issuers of digital tokens can draw from recent enforcement actions brought by federal and state securities regulators. But we first need to define the perimeter we will be covering. There has been a… Read More

April 20, 2018 @ 3:01 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Well-known “Bitcoin Maximalist” and despiser of ICO’s (Initial Coin Offerings) Tone Vays has lately been so deluged with idiotic requests to advise on ICO’s that he has updated his LinkedIn profile to the following: “I am NOT interested in your ICO/Token Sale. Please send all requests… Read More

April 16, 2018 @ 1:09 pm By JD Alois  |  

Speaking at Vanderbilt University Law School this past week, Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo made some interesting comments. Giancarlo, a Commodore Alum, spoke about the digitization of finance (Fintech) and the subject of virtual currencies. Giancarlo reflected on time spent with… Read More

April 15, 2018 @ 1:49 pm By Aziz Bin Zainuddin  |  

2018 has been a miserable year for cryptocurrencies, as prices have dropped by as much as 70% since their highs since the start of the year. The market capitalization of the entire cryptocurrency market fell from a little over $800 billion in January to a… Read More

April 13, 2018 @ 1:27 am By Cali Haan  |  

French philosopher Roland Barthes once stated, “The world is a forest of signs.” Every object was a sign, he believed, and behind it lay a world of meaning. At at recent blockchain conference in Toronto, one entrepreneur presented her product to help, “Navigate the Token… Read More

April 12, 2018 @ 6:43 pm By Marina Evseeva  |  

As recently noted by Omkar Godbole, only two of the top 25 cryptocurrencies, VeChain’s VET token and Binance coin (BNB), saw gains in the first quarter of this year. That fact really gave me pause for thought. Stepping back from the hype and speculation, in… Read More