Visa’s Margaret Reid on the future of passwords and financial products The SEC must solve its cryptocurrency custody conundrum After...
The Securities and Exchange Commission has at long last published their statement on the Framework for ‘Investment Contract’ Analysis of...
After several unsuccessful attempts at the creation of a bitcoin ETF, SEC Commissioner Robert J Jackson Jr. said in an...
Gizmodo shares the story of an ICO operated by Sohrab “Sam” Sharma and Robert Farkas; the company paid for endorsements from Floyd Mayweather Jr. and DJ Khaled and also lied about relationships with Visa, Bancorp and MasterCard; Centra Tech also lied about executives at the company who were allegedly made up people; the ICO was listed on exchanges such as Binance and Cryptopia; the filing asks the operators to return the money they received and aims to prevent them from serving as officers of a public company or participate in any securities offering; Farkas was arrested before trying to leave the country. Source
Mr. Clayton is chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Mr. Giancarlo is chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; in a Wall Street Journal article they share their perspective on regulation as it relates to cryptocurrencies; they discuss trading, listed bitcoin futures products, ICOs and more. Source
In news of cross-selling financial products across categories, roboadvisor Wealthfront has gathered a nifty $1 billion of deposit assets for its 2.29% interest-yielding non-bank cash account. Given that the firm has a little over $10 billion in managed investment assets, charges somewhere between 0 and 25 bps on those assets, and took years of wiggly pivoting to get to the current stage, it is fair to consider this influx a big win in terms of client traction. It is also $22 million of annual interest payments. A couple of things come to mind that are worth pulling apart.
Bloomberg is reporting that beleaguered fund manager, Brendan Ross, has resigned as CEO of Direct Lending Investments; citing a letter...
Last week there were significant developments in the legal troubles that have dogged both LendingClub and former CEO Renaud Laplanche...
Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, the heads of the SEC and CFTC said they are keeping an eye on the market but might need help from Congress; “We should all come together, the federal banking regulators, CFTC, the SEC — there are states involved as well — and have a coordinated plan for dealing with virtual currency trading markets,” SEC Chairman Jay Clayton as reported by American Banker; CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo said the technology behind cryptocurrencies should be considered differently that the currencies themselves; they also noted they are talking with global counterparts to learn their views on the market. Source.
The statement provides considerations for main street investors and market professionals; investors should be aware of the risks of these types of investments which have less investor protections compared to the traditional securities market; to date no coin offerings have been registered by the SEC; the statement notes, “A change in the structure of a securities offering does not change the fundamental point that when a security is being offered, our securities laws must be followed.” Source