Category: spotlight

Blockchain, spotlight

ConsenSys Plans to Enter the Muni Bond Market. Will It Succeed?

Add one more name to the list of industries that blockchain intends to disrupt. After laying off 14 percent of its staff and splitting its operations into two separate units, Consensys Inc., announced yesterday that it was venturing into the municipal bond market. The Brooklyn-based company announced acquisition of Heritage Financial Systems, a Pennsylvania-based registered investment advisor and broker/dealer for muni bonds. The purchase is … Continue reading ConsenSys Plans to Enter the Muni Bond Market. Will It Succeed?

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crypto ratings council
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Can the Crypto Rating Council, Like, Explain Its Ratings System?

Is it the Facebook effect or teen slang?   “Likes” are slowly but surely wending their way into the crypto ecosystem. VanEck released a “Bitcoin ETF-like” fund recently. In partnership with other exchanges and crypto firms, Coinbase launched a token ratings system with several like-minded criteria. Consider the “investment-like language” criteria. Or, the “securities-like language” criteria. Like, can someone please explain all of CRC’s likes? … Continue reading Can the Crypto Rating Council, Like, Explain Its Ratings System?

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What Do the Latest SEC Settlements Mean For Crypto Startups?

In the tech industry, it is common for startups to ask for forgiveness and not permission from regulators. The basic idea is to gain user traction or launch a product quickly before building a case for it with regulators. The latest batch of SEC settlements with crypto startups illustrates the effectiveness of this strategy. In two separate releases earlier this week, the federal agency stated … Continue reading What Do the Latest SEC Settlements Mean For Crypto Startups?

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regulation, spotlight

A Time of Reckoning for Bitcoin ETFs

Approximately twenty months after it first listed a multitude of concerns as reasons for its refusal of a Bitcoin ETF, the SEC has come to the same moment of reckoning. The next couple of weeks are critical for Bitcoin ETFs as the agency takes a decision on applications filed by New York-based Wilshire Phoenix and San Francisco’s Bitwise Asset Management. The prospects of approval for … Continue reading A Time of Reckoning for Bitcoin ETFs

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Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Matt Hougan
cryptocurrency news, spotlight

Bitwise Chases America’s First Bitcoin ETF

As the decision date for a Bitcoin ETF enters the home stretch, Bitwise Asset Management is pulling out all stops to convince the SEC that crypto markets are ripe for a fund. Over the course of two weeks recently, senior executives from the San Francisco-based firm made presentations to and educated senior SEC officials, including commissioners and senior SEC lawyers, about the current state of … Continue reading Bitwise Chases America’s First Bitcoin ETF

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This is More of a Re-launch: A Conversation with Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto About Gemini’s Custody Solution

New York-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini launched a custody solution aimed at institutional investors yesterday. Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto, Managing Director of Operations at Gemini, says the launch is more of a re-launch of their previous custody solution and an extension of their product and feature set. In this edited interview, she discusses the solution and how it works. Can you talk about what an institutional grade solution … Continue reading This is More of a Re-launch: A Conversation with Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto About Gemini’s Custody Solution

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The Fallacies of Using Developer Activity to Value Cryptocurrencies

Can you value a company’s stock based on its employee count? In conventional valuation theory, such a metric might be heresy. But the idea is taking holding within the cryptoasset ecosystem. The haphazard and volatile price swings of cryptoassets has left most analysts and commentators scratching their heads to come up with suitable metrics to value them or predict their price movement. Developer activity is … Continue reading The Fallacies of Using Developer Activity to Value Cryptocurrencies

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cryptocurrency news, regulation, spotlight

Andreessen Horowitz Courts Regulators For Crypto

Notable venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz has bankrolled several blockbuster startups over the years. But the firm’s latest bet on cryptocurrencies is going awry due to regulatory bottlenecks. Now it is taking matters into its own hands. According to a recent WSJ report, the Menlo Park-based firm hosted a Crypto-Regulatory Summit in San Francisco in May earlier this year. The summit, which boasted top policymakers … Continue reading Andreessen Horowitz Courts Regulators For Crypto

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How Crypto Helps Make Small – Time Drug Traffickers Become Millionaires

This piece was first published at ICO Ranker. It was edited by Alissa Fleck. By all outward appearances, Aaron Shamo was a typical, if not upstanding, teenager. He earned his Eagle Scout badge by crocheting blankets for a hospital, and never experimented with anything harder than marijuana. By 2016, Shamo, then 26, was bouncing between jobs, working as a tech support executive for the local … Continue reading How Crypto Helps Make Small – Time Drug Traffickers Become Millionaires

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Four Interesting Takeaways From Crypto Miner Hut 8’s Earnings

For an asset class that claims to empower retail investors, cryptocurrencies can be incredibly opaque. The complex and self-involved techno-babble of entrepreneurs and CEOs can easily overwhelm and confuse investors. The scrutiny of public markets provides clarity and a necessary corrective. That is why Canadian crypto mining company Hut 8’s second quarter results recently are interesting. The Toronto-based firm swung to a profit of $33.7 … Continue reading Four Interesting Takeaways From Crypto Miner Hut 8’s Earnings

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How To Pay Crypto Taxes

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) arrived late to the cryptocurrency party. But it is making up for lost time. In less than a month, the federal agency is reported to have sent out three sets of letters to holders of cryptocurrencies. The first one was an informational missive to 10,000 crypto holders, educating them about their tax liabilities with regards to the asset class. The … Continue reading How To Pay Crypto Taxes

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cryptocurrency news, spotlight

Is Bitcoin A Safe Haven For Fearful Investors?

One of the favorite theories put forward by Bitcoin proponents is that its decentralized and global nature makes it an ideal safe haven. To prove their point, they point to instances in the past when the cryptocurrency’s price rose in response to global turmoil. But the relationship or correlation is far from clear. Recent events, however, have provided them with further ammunition to make their … Continue reading Is Bitcoin A Safe Haven For Fearful Investors?

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The Challenges of Auditing Crypto: Grant Thornton Edition

Even as they have gained traction as investment instruments, cryptocurrencies still have several problem areas in their ecosystem. The transparency of blockchain transactions is negated by their complexity and nascence of the underlying technology. For investment firms and financial services companies, new technologies can be problematic because they affect trust and compliance. Chicago-based accounting firm Grant Thornton recently announced that it has audited more than … Continue reading The Challenges of Auditing Crypto: Grant Thornton Edition

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