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·Aug. 22, 2017

Forecasts for Bitcoin

Bitcoin's price has gained over 300% this year and analysts are competing for the highest price forecast; Bloomberg reports on some of the market's top analyst projections which include estimates of $6,000 by year-end, a $7,500 price target for 2018 and a target value of $25,000 by 2022; the cryptocurrency reached a record of $4,477 last week; it has a number of catalysts helping to fuel the market projections including increased transaction speeds and regulatory approval from the CFTC for bitcoin derivatives trading. Source

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Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 22, 2017

Blockchain VR Project Decentraland Raises $26mn in ICO

Decentraland is looking to create a virtual world where blockchain serves as a registry for digital plots of land; users who mine a block get ownership of the land which can eventually be traded; according to an article in March on the current version of the project, users can build structures using cubes, spheres and plains with more complex features being added in the future; the company hopes to bring support to VR headsets; the company raised 86,206 ether in a little over an hour. Source

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News Roundup Online Lending USA

·Aug. 21, 2017

Online Lending Market Risks Affecting Valuations

CNBC talks with Eyal Lifshitz of Bluevine who says fallouts from public companies have affected valuation discussions noting that investors are more skeptical now after struggles from Lending Club and OnDeck; Lifshitz expects companies will drop out of the market and Schwark Satyavolu, general partner at Trinity Ventures, says the industry is likely to see more acquisitions and consolidation. Source

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Fintech News Roundup USA

·Aug. 21, 2017

Wall Street Strategist Tom Lee Projects Bitcoin at $25,000 by 2022

Tom Lee, founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, is projecting bitcoin's value to reach $25,000 in the next five years; the strategist also projects a bitcoin value of $6,000 by mid-2018; the cryptocurrency is currently trading at $4,284.14, gaining approximately 330% in 2017; Lee cites bitcoin derivatives as a key catalyst since they have now been approved and are increasingly being used in wealth management strategies and also expects bitcoin derivatives trading will lead to increased institutional investment. Source

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Fintech News Roundup USA

·Aug. 21, 2017

Machine Learning and Amazon’s Alexa for Financial Advice

Amazon has a number of clients using Alexa for financial advice and solutions architect Felix Candelario says, "Natural language processing is the new rocket science."; clients include UBS, LPL, Fidelity, Capital One and Betterment; overall, machine learning innovation is providing for new technology solutions and pairing it with voice automated interactions adds a new element of service for customers. Source

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Fintech News Roundup

·Aug. 22, 2017

Zero Ex Intl Looks to Build Decentralized Trading

Zero Ex Intl, the company behind the Ox Project, recently raised $24 million in a token sale to help build what they see as a critical infrastructure for the token economy; the Ox Project is building a portfolio of projects to allow ethereum smart contracts to programmatically exchange ethereum-based assets; the Ox OTC product will allow for over-the-counter trades directly through the ethereum blockchain wallet; Zero Ex Intl estimates that the token market cap will range from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of USD by 2020 and the need for an exchange like this continues to increase. Source

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Asia/Pac News Roundup Online Lending

·Aug. 22, 2017

SocietyOne Celebrates Five Years in Business

Australian online lender SocietyOne is celebrating its fifth year in business with its first loan issued in August 2012; in June 2017 the platform reported cumulative originations of $300 million and since inception has helped over 13,000 customers; the firm says it has plans for expanding to new areas of lending over the long-term and will seek to obtain a 2% to 3% share of the $100 billion consumer finance market. Source

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Fintech News Roundup USA

·Aug. 21, 2017

ShapeShift Reviews Listings after SEC Report on ICOs

The SEC's report on ICOs as securities has prompted ShapeShift to review the listings on its cryptocurrency exchange; ShapeShift will likely delist some of its traded listings and says it does not want to be characterized as a securities exchange; ShapeShift and its legal counsel will apply the Howey Test to the cryptocurrency listings which is the current market standard also used by the SEC for determining whether an offering is considered a security. Source

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Fintech News Roundup USA

·Aug. 21, 2017

Overstock Allows for Payments from over 40 Cryptocurrencies

Overstock.com has announced it will allow customers to pay in over 40 cryptocurrencies through support from ShapeShift; the e-commerce website is the first well-known retail platform to allow coin payments beyond bitcoin; the payments are facilitated by an API built by cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift. Source

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News Roundup Online Lending USA

·Aug. 21, 2017

What is Responsible Online Credit?

The panel explores the spectrum of responsible online credit; discusses what is clearly irresponsible lending and what are some of the borderline cases of credit being deemed responsible; panelists discuss the many of things to consider when it comes to responsible lending including sales tactics, APRs, transparency and loan stacking/debt traps. Source

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