CarbonX is a peer to peer personal carbon trading company; it was formed in a joint venture between ConsenSys and a co-founding group which includes Don and Alex Tapscott who authored the book Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business and the World; according to Blockchain Daily News, “The company plans to purchase carbon credits, or invest in reduction projects, and re-cast the offsets as ERC20 tokens on an Ethereum-based blockchain, then distribute them through an open-loop style loyalty rewards program.” Source
Affirm has raised $200 million in its latest round led by GIC, a Singaporean sovereign-wealth fund; the valuation of the company is between $1.5 and $2 billion according to sources, which is about double the valuation of the company last year; Khosla Ventures and Spark Capital also participated in the round. Source
As the CBOE bitcoin futures product goes live there are lingering questions with the exchange where they will base their pricing; Gemini is run by the Winklevoss twins but has had a number of issues including low volumes and system outages; Gemeni is currently ranked 14th according to CoinMarketCap; while well connected because of the Winklevoss twins critics worry they can be potential targets for price manipulation; as the futures market goes live there will be a lot of interest to see how this plays outs. Source.
Bitcoin futures debuted on Wall Street Sunday by the CBOE and some of the biggest banks are unsure whether or not to offer them to clients; JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are playing a wait and see game; some firms are excited to get started though they are hesitant to open discuss it as they risk potentially contradicting previous statements by their CEOs; the volatility is the biggest concern for banks as they just are not comfortable with the wild swings. Source.
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance’s new report Entrenching Innovation showed that the UK online alternative finance market grew 46 percent in 2016; investors surveyed by the report said that online platforms offering debt based products were on equal footing to that of typical fixed income assets but more transparent; industry veterans say this points to the long term chances of the market and its wider acceptance in broader financial services. Source.
Looking to broaden their presence in Silicon Valley the e-commerce firm JD.com partnered with accelerator Plug and Play; JD.com said it will share technologies like artificial intelligence, cloud and smart supply chain tech with the new program; they will look to focus on companies in robotics, AI, AR/VR and the cloud; “Partnering with Plug and Play, we hope to unlock the potential of the next generation of companies, and help them succeed both in the US and China,” JD’s chief strategy office Dr. Jianwen Liao told TechCrunch in a statement. Source.
Lend Academy reviews LendingClub's Investor Day and shares the most interesting developments including a new “Exchange Traded Partnership”, details on direct payoff loans and new features of their auto finance product. Source
The CEO and Chairman of Elevate talks about the challenges of the short term loan space and what makes his company different. Source
This weeks PeerIQ Industry Update looks at strong job growth despite the hurricanes, Lending Club’s investor day and the latest in securitization; Rep. Patrick McHenry accused the Cleveland Fed, who recently had their p2p lending report retracted, of trying to block the bill entitled Protecting Consumers Access to Credit Act; Lending Club’s first Investor day was not received well by the markets as their stock hit all time lows; PeerIQ reviews the full scope of the investor day including positioning & strategy, product & financial innovation, funding mix, investor returns and stress tests. Source.
Karen Mills is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Business School focused on SME finance, entrepreneurship and competitiveness; she previously served as the Administrator of the US Small Business Administration; in her post on AltFi she discusses why London will remain a global leader in financial innovation despite uncertainty with Brexit. Source