Bitcoin Price: Is blockchain cryptocurrency still the future?
It’s highly volatile, can be extremely risky, and is something most have heard of but don’t know much about. And after a horror 12 months which saw Bitcoin plunge by more than 60 percent most investors who were bold enough to invest are now wondering if they will ever reap any reward from their investments. While nothing in economics is certain, those who trade and invest are fairly confident it will happen but not straight away. According to Fred Schebesta, Co-Founder of Finder-backed cryptocurrency financial services company HiveEx.com, crypto is basically digital gold and like the real thing, is more of a long-term investment. Mr Schebesta admits the high risk […]
Fears simmer about repeat of Storm Financial fallout
One fintech firm fears that the political reaction to the Hayne royal commission will result in more ineffective reforms, similar to the ones arising from the collapse of Storm Financial crisis. Raiz chief executive George Lucas said that when the royal commission hands down its final report by 1 February 2019, the odds are that it will call for more regulation. The government of the day will duly oblige, said Mr Lucas, rightly fearing “the political fallout if it fails to implement the report’s recommendations in the wake of the malevolent behaviour being unveiled”. “The legislation will pass the parliament, giving the regulators more power to keep the top end […]
OnRamp’s AUDRamp goes live as first AUD-pegged stablecoin cryptocurrency
Shortly after the announcement of a still-unnamed AUD-pegged stablecoin from Bit Trade and Emparta, set to launch in 2019, OnRamp Technologies has gone live with the world’s first fully operational and fully compliant fiat-backed AUD stablecoin. The move comes as part of OnRamp Technologies’ broader efforts to tokenise assets as part of an ASIC-approved registered managed investment scheme. AUDRamp (AUDR) is up first, along with the slightly mind-bending ERC20 bitcoin-pegged BTCR, which is, in a sense, putting bitcoin on the Ethereum blockchain. AUDR got the stamp of approval from Australian regulators on 8 June, making it one of the earlier projects to achieve that level of formal recognition. Beyond being […]
Xero backs itself with $413m convertible notes
Cloud-based accounting company Xero has backed itself to continue growing strongly, raising $US300 million ($413 million) in five-year convertible notes with an exercise price 70 per cent above its share price on Thursday. Capital raising via the issue of convertible notes is relatively commonplace among US technology companies – NASDAQ-listed Atlassian raised $US850 million this way in April – however Xero chief executive Steve Vamos said it was “groundbreaking” for an Australasian company. “If we think we’ve got strong growth potential in the future, we don’t want to issue stock at current prices and dilute our shareholders,” Xero chief financial officer Sankar Narayan said. “We were well placed to raise in […]
Ecosystems the way of the fintech future
Swiss tech giant, Avaloq, has high hopes for the future of fintech, pointing to an integrated ecosystem of start-ups that could look something like a larger-scale Silicon Valley. Avaloq’s group CTO, Thomas Beck, told Money Management that, while planners find siloed technology a problem, the solution was not to find one fintech to fix them all. Beck said leaving a particular solution to a fintech with the skillset to produce it is in fact best practice, but integrating all the vertical technologies on to the one platform would significantly improve efficiency and simplicity of use. Country head of Avaloq (Australia), Anantha Ayer, said the end goal was, at least in […]
Australian Fintech heavyweight to launch institutional-grade security token exchange in Malta
Rick Klink the founder of Paritech and OpenMarkets, Australia’s largest independent trading platform by trading volume of over AUD50 billion per annum, heads up Malta Digital Exchange (MDX) and brings his ground-breaking technology to the digital asset space. The cryptocurrency and blockchain sector saw exponential growth in 2017, now a push towards regulation will provide trust and a safe environment for institutional investors, allowing them to participate in the global economy. Security tokens are the next generation of regulated securities, which are being built on blockchain-based infrastructure rather than being restricted to legacy systems. MDX aims to become the world’s premier security token exchange, which will enable greater market efficiency, […]
FinTechAus reels as CEO departs
There are now discussions within the sector about the creation of a new, representative body separate to FinTech Australia, InnovationAus.com understands. But FinTech Australia chair Alan Tsen has defended the organisation’s track record, and said it’s impossible to please everyone in the wider sector all of the time. The lobby group’s chief executive Brad Kitschke, who took on the role in late May, tendered his resignation to the FinTech Australia board late last week, citing health concerns. The resignation comes at the busiest period of the year for FinTech Australia, with its two major conferences fast-approaching, the launch of its annual census, and the imminent passage of a series of […]
Wisr shortlisted for two Optus My Business Awards
Australian neo-lender Wisr (ASX: WZR) is in the running to take out one of county’s longest-standing business awards after being shortlisted for the prestigious Optus My Business Awards. Wisr has been shortlisted as a finalist in two awards in the Fintech Of The Year and Business Leader of the Year categories at the 2018 Optus My Business Awards, the premier event of the year for SMEs. Founded in 2014, Wisr offers personal loans and financial wellness solutions using its unique neo-lending platform. The company recently announced it had increased annual revenue by 37% last financial year, on the back of a 409% increase in loan origination volume. The Optus My […]
