Feb 7th, 2018 at the Harvard Club of New York
Sherwood Neiss, is a Principal at Crowdfund Capital Advisors and a Partner at Crowd Capital Ventures. He is an expert at building successful businesses.
Blaine McLaughlin is the Chief Operating Officer of VIA Folio, an innovative IPO, private and alternative investment platform that makes it easy for online platforms, issuers, investors, brokers and advisors to engage with IPOs, private and alternative debt and equity offerings.
Georgia P. Quinn is the CEO and co-founder of iDisclose, an adaptive web-based application that enables entrepreneurs to prepare customized institutional grade private placement
Sara Hanks, co-founder, and CEO of CrowdCheck, is an attorney with over 30 years of experience in the corporate and securities field.
By Paul Niederer, Founder Raiseworth. (Here is a post from 2015 when I started pushing for Crowdfunding to be moved to the Blockchain) If I go back to 2008, in the very early days of Equity Crowdfunding, the ASSOB platform has already been operating for around four years. This meant there were plenty of learnings in place even before any other equity platforms had started. There are parallels here with ICO’s as in the early days many people that approached us to raise capital on ASSOB had not much more than an idea or a sketch on paper. We learnt as the years went by that the existing regulatory structure was not detailed enough to protect investors so we put in place the ASSOB compliance framework. This stood the test of time as 300 odd raises later no evidence of fraud has emerged. This included an “offer document” not dissimilar to the “White Papers” that set out all aspects of the raise including: OPPORTUNITY KEY DETAILS KEY INVESTOR HIGHLIGHTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ABOUT THE COMPANY CORPORATE OBJECTIVES COMPETITION & RISK ABOUT THIS OFFER HOW TO APPLY FOR SHARES OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE STRATEGIC GROWTH PLAN USE OF FUNDS DIRECTORS DECLARATION DISCLAIMER GLOSSARY OF TERMS This was not […]
Wednesday, October 4, 2017 (10:00 AM) – Committee on Financial Services Hearing: “Examining the SEC’s Agenda, ICO’s Crowdfunding, Operations, and Budget”
By Navroop Sahdev Centre for Blockchain Technologies, University College London, UK Centre d’Économie de l’Université Paris-Nord, France June 2017 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. The Advent of Crowdfunding 3. Market design and Liquidity Considerations for CFE Trading on the Blockchain 3.1. Liquidity and Price Discovery 3.2. A game of Information 3.3. Asset Servicing and Voting 3.4. Market Making versus Tokenization 3.5. The impact of Transparent Holdings 4. Concluding remarks 5. Endnotes 6. References CLICK HERE FOR FULL REPORT Abstract Blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, promises to be nothing less than Internet 2.0. The financial services industry, in particular, is preparing for the disruption blockchain/distributed ledger technology promises to cause. In the current business environment, the majority of startups and small businesses have to look for alternative sources of funding given that ‘going public’ is increasingly expensive. The crowdfunding space has seen tremendous growth as an alternative way to raise capital by businesses. However, these crowdfunded shares cannot be traded for 7 – 10 years on average on any given platform in the U.S. currently. To build a trading platform on the blockchain which is completely P2P, immutable, fully transparent and low-cost presents some key design issues. […]
By: Sherwood Neiss and Jason Best, Principals Crowdfund Capital Advisors, LLC Into the second year of Regulation Crowdfunding there are now over 475 companies that have filed offering documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $1,070,000 from their customers, communities, friends and family. But in which industries are these investors most interested in deploying their capital? The good news for companies considering using Regulation Crowdfunding, is that these online investors have a diverse appetite. While software/gaming application companies receive the most commitments, breweries, entertainment companies, personal transportation vehicles, restaurants and personal services (i.e. fitness training, veterinary, grooming, etc) aren’t far behind. They key data points for potential issuers to understand are: 1) How much money do you need to raise for your business in relation to the average amount raised for your industry? 2) Where is the crowd is engaged in deals and dollars? Meaning is there enough interest in your business (industry) to crowdfund. And 3) what is the crowd’s average check size – to determine how much you can realistically raise from your network compared with what you need? At Crowdfund Capital Advisors, we track all Regulation Crowdfunding offerings across the […]
by Brandon Raatikka According to FactRight’s tracking, the SEC qualified 21 Reg A+ Tier 2 offerings in the second quarter of 2017, maintaining a brisk pace by the standards of Reg A+’s relatively short history. Approximately 45% of the 96 Tier 2 offerings qualified since late 2015 (not later withdrawn or used for merger purposes) have been qualified in just the first half of this year. Three issuers made headlines in June 2017, when each listed common equity (that had been previously issued under Regulation A offerings) on a national securities exchange: Myomo, Inc. (NYSE: MYO), Adomani, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADOM), and ShiftPixy, Inc. (Nasdaq: PIXY). In the wake of successful public listings, it will be interesting to see whether a growing proportion of issuers will seek to use Regulation A as a stepping stone to becoming a fully public company. Interact with FactRight’s database through the charts below to glean additional insights about the state of the Regulation A space through the second quarter of 2017. The charts below are dynamic; if you click on a single data point in any chart, it will filter the data displayed on the sidebar at left and in the remaining charts. (For instance, if you click […]
By Trudy-Anne McLeary, Associate, Corporate and Finance | Benjamin T. Brickner, Associate, Corporate and Finance In an investigative report and investor bulletin, the SEC concludes that offers and sales of cryptocurrency coins and tokens may be subject to federal securities laws. On July 25, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) released an investigative report with important implications for issuers and sponsors of initial coin offerings (ICOs) that raise funds for cryptocurrency ventures. The report, prompted by the recent proliferation of such activity, concluded that coins offered to purchasers in ICOs constitute securities regulated by the Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act) and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act). As a result, absent an exemption, such offerings must be registered with the Commission, similar to other public offerings. The press release accompanying the report notably quotes the new Commission chairman and the new heads of the Corporation Finance and Enforcement divisions. This combined statement gives the report unusual weight and makes clear to Commission Staff that its contents describe senior officials’ current thinking on cryptocurrency regulation. Background In early 2015, The DAO, an unincorporated association, organized an IPO-style offering in which investors were offered DAO Tokens in exchange for Ether, a cryptocurrency […]
Crowdfund Beat News Wire, SEC issued an investigative report stating, “tokens offered and sold by a ‘virtual’ organization known as ‘The DAO’ were securities and therefore subject to the federal securities laws.” U.S. Securities Laws May Apply to Offers, Sales, and Trading of Interests in Virtual Organizations FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2017-131 Washington D.C., July 25, 2017— The Securities and Exchange Commission issued an investigative report today cautioning market participants that offers and sales of digital assets by “virtual” organizations are subject to the requirements of the federal securities laws. Such offers and sales, conducted by organizations using distributed ledger or blockchain technology, have been referred to, among other things, as “Initial Coin Offerings” or “Token Sales.” Whether a particular investment transaction involves the offer or sale of a security – regardless of the terminology or technology used – will depend on the facts and circumstances, including the economic realities of the transaction. The SEC’s Report of Investigation found that tokens offered and sold by a “virtual” organization known as “The DAO” were securities and therefore subject to the federal securities laws. The Report confirms that issues of distributed ledger or blockchain technology-based securities must register offers and sales of such securities unless a valid exemption applies. Those participating in unregistered offerings also […]
A judge presiding over a district court in Tel Aviv has ruled that a branch of Union Bank in the Herzliya industrial district acted unreasonably when it closed accounts belonging to IsraMiner, a division of the Ukrainian cryptomining company Yashraminer, Calcalist reports. Judge Limor Bibi,... Read More
The post Court Rules Israeli Bank Cannot Close Crypto Miner’s Accounts but Can Refuse to Shelter Proceeds appeared first on Crowdfund Insider.
InstaReM, a payments platform operating in over 50 countries, has closed on a USD $ 41 million Series C funding round led by Vertex Growth Fund, their first investment in Southeast Asia. James Lee, MD of Vertex Growth Fund, will be joining the Board of... Read More
The post Fintech InstaReM Closes on $41 Million Series C appeared first on Crowdfund Insider.
Thirteen (13) cryptocurrency companies have been issued 43 code vulnerability reports from “vulnerability disclosure platform” Hacker One, all in the past 30 days, Hard Fork reports. The bugs were found by white hat hackers pursuing rewards from “bug bounty hunter” programs. All told, the hackers... Read More
The post Software-Bug Bounty Hunters Find 43 Errors in Coinbase, EOS, Monero, Brave, Tezos, OmiseGo and Unikoin Code appeared first on Crowdfund Insider.
The Chicago Board of Options Exchange (Cboe) has announced that it will not be adding new Bitcoin futures contracts this month or next. According to a release from the Chicago Futures Exchange (CFE), a division of the Cboe: “CFE is assessing its approach with respect... Read More
The post CBOE Will Not Issue More Bitcoin Futures in Immediate Future appeared first on Crowdfund Insider.
The newly formed Association for Online Investment Platforms (AOIP) visited Washington, DC last week to discuss improvements for access to capital for small business and better opportunities for smaller investors. The trip was organized in partnership with the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council (SBECouncil) –... Read More
The post Association for Online Investment Platforms & SBECouncil Visit US House & Senate plus SEC to Discuss Improvements to Crowdfunding Rules appeared first on Crowdfund Insider.
CoinNess, an Asian cryptocurrency and blockchain information provider, announced on Monday it closed its Series A round funding calculated in millions of dollars, led by Chinese leading venture capital ShunWei Capital, QF Capital, and FreesFund. Speaking about the investment, Peter TAN, CEO of CoinNess, stated:... Read More
The post Asian Blockchain Information Platform CoinNess Compelts Series A Funding Round led by Chinese Venture Capital ShunWei Capital, QF Capital, & FreesFund appeared first on Crowdfund Insider.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced on Monday IBM Blockchain World Wire, a real-time global payments network for regulated financial institutions, is officially accessible to more than 50 countries. According to IBM, World Wire was designed to optimize and accelerate foreign exchange, cross border payments and remittances... Read More
The post IBM Blockchain World Wire Set to Support Payments & Foreign Exchange to More Than 50 Countries appeared first on Crowdfund Insider.
Verseon (AIM: VERS), a California based clinical stage pharma company, is issuing preferred shares. The company is using its own blockchain based subsidiary BlockRules to sell the securities in a security token offering (STO) that seeks to be “one of the first global offerings backed... Read More
The post Verseon Creates Blockchain Subsidiary BlockRules. Launches Security Token Offering for Preferred Shares appeared first on Crowdfund Insider.
A veteran cybersecurity investigator has buttressed claims made in the Christopher Steele dossier that Internet infrastructure owned by Russian entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev was used by Russian intelligence to subvert Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid, Buzzfeed reports. Gubarev’s infrastructure was also allegedly used to disperse the... Read More
The post Investigator Links Russian Internet Tycoon to Hacks on Hilary Clinton Presidential Campaign and Financial Hacks appeared first on Crowdfund Insider.
Bitbond, an online lending platform, has launched one of Germany’s first Security Token Offerings (STO). The Bitbond STO has published a BaFin approved Prospectus in conjunction with the offering representing an important step in the validation of the emerging digital asset ecosystem. The Bitbond STO... Read More
The post Bitbond Works with Bitgo on BaFin Approved Security Token Offering, Seeks €100 Million appeared first on Crowdfund Insider.
