Virtual currency sales jump in 2018
But results skewed by two big token sales. Virtual currency sales ballooned to US$9.1 billion ($11.9 billion) so far this year, exceeding the US$6.6 billion total for all of 2017, new numbers show. But the monthly trend actually showed a slowdown if the two biggest offerings are excluded. Digital technology startups around the world have raised funds by selling cryptocurrencies, or tokens, that sidestep banks or venture capital firms as intermediaries. Financial technology provider Autonomous NEXT reported the US$9.1 billion figure, noting that the total includes token sale offerings of Telegram, a messaging service founded by Russia-born entrepreneurs Pavel and Nikolai Durov in 2013, and Block.one’s EOS currency. Telegram raised […]
Macquarie slips $20m into Stocard’s mobile wallet
Mobile wallet firm Stocard has landed $20 million from Macquarie Capital, with follow-on financing from original investors Shortcut, Alstin, Rocketship, HTGF and Engelhorn. Stocard co-founder and chief executive Bjorn Goss said the company would use the funds to launch a mobile payment functionality, recruit 40 employees across engineering, sales and marketing, and expand into new markets starting with the opening of its Paris office this week, then Toronto in the coming weeks. “It’s no longer a question that wallets will go mobile; the question is around how to execute the transition with the consumer’s best experience in mind,” he said. “Digital will reshape the shopping process and experience, as mobile […]
$817M Later: LexisNexis partners with first institutional cryptocurrency exchange
Risk management giant LexisNexis Risk Solutions is now working with the first cryptocurrency exchange to use technology acquired in an $817 million deal earlier this year. The partnership to verify the identities of Melbourne-based Blockbid’s customers also marks the first time LexisNexis has combined its existing database of high-risk individuals with 1.4 billion unique identities brought to the company from ThreatMetrix, which was acquired in a cash deal announced in February. While Blockbid plans to use the two pools of identity data to gather information about its customers during the onboarding process, LexisNexis senior vice president Thomas Brown positions the newly combined products as part of a larger push within the […]
DomaCom acquires $100m lending facility
Property crowdfunding firm DomaCom and a number of private lenders have partnered to provide the DomaCom Fund with an initial lending line of $100 million. In a statement, DomaCom chief executive Arthur Naoumidis said the lending facility would allow the company to purchase up to $250 million in property. “We have been seeking a default lending solution for our platform for three years as it is clear that advisers are seeking to use debt to deliver long-term tax effective returns for their clients,” he said. “In addition to the recently announced capacity to being able to crowdfund their own debt, advisers can now simply select the debt level they are […]
Moss junior fires up blockchain, crypto investment firm
It’s been a wild year for digital currencies but that hasn’t deterred Stephen Moss from setting up blockchain assets and investments firm, Decentralised Capital. Street Talk understands Moss, the son of former Macquarie Group stalwart Bill Moss, plans to offer over the counter trading and asset management services for high volume customers interested in digital assets and cryptocurrencies. Decentralised Capital has the backing of boutique financial services firm Aura Group, proprietary trading group Tibra Capital co-founder Kinsey Cotton and Vicknesh Pillay, founding partner at TNB Ventures Singapore. The new group is said to have already engaged with the corporate regulator, Australian Tax Office and has signed up with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC). Prior to founding Decentralised […]
Ripple CEO: Bitcoin will eventually stop driving the crypto markets
Coins need start solving real problems, not each other’s problems, to be valued in their own right. If you want to know how your coin’s going, just look at bitcoin prices. When bitcoin goes up, so do all other cryptocurrencies. When bitcoin drops so does everything else. To date the crypto markets have simply tended to swim along as one amorphous blob, with the most distinctive anomalies usually being the result of foul play, accidental failure or deliberate price manipulation. Even as bitcoin’s market dominance waned the effect stayed strong. “There’s a very high correlation between the price of XRP [Ripple] and the price of bitcoin, but ultimately these are […]
Meet the Australian corporate initiative empowering India’s Top Women Entrepreneurs
An Australian-first program is helping a new wave of Indian women break through the cultural glass ceiling to put globally-scalable businesses in front of Aussie Investors. In what is the first Australian initiative of its kind, Sydney-based corporate advisory firm – CEO Strategic has launched a specialist program to support some of India’s most innovative women entrepreneurs raise investment capital directly from international investors. The Project shines a light on some of the best innovators from India where, although the number of women entrepreneurs is on the rise, parity when it comes to the support of female entrepreneurship, is still one of the lowest in the world. The program, […]
Crowdfunding in Australia – the first 4 months of equity crowdfunding
Equity crowdfunding started in Australia in January this year for public unlisted companies. It is early days but we are pleased to report that in this short period there have been two significant successful raises that a worthy of global note. One of the first campaigns off the block was the Xinja, Australia’s first 100% digital bank or ‘neobank’ which successfully raised $2,419,000 through the crowdfunding platform Equitise. At the end of April this early record raise was topped by DC Power Co. which raised $2,454,700 with OnMarket. What was interesting about this raise is that it attracted a whopping 17,574 investors making it the world’s largest equity-crowdfunding offer by […]
