Category: 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… Read More ConsenSys Plans to Enter the Muni Bond Market. Will It Succeed?

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

crypto ratings council

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”… Read More 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… Read More What Do the Latest SEC Settlements Mean For Crypto Startups?

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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… Read More 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… Read More The Fallacies of Using Developer Activity to Value Cryptocurrencies

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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… Read More 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… Read More 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… Read More Four Interesting Takeaways From Crypto Miner Hut 8’s Earnings

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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… Read More The Challenges of Auditing Crypto: Grant Thornton Edition

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