The SEC filed 13 charges against Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao, in the latest in a series of painful stories about the embattled fintech.
The House Financial Service Committee (HSFC) is promoting small business investment and growth through six new bills; provisions include an expansion of venture capital fund investing, changes to the number of shares available for employees at privately-held companies and more responsive action by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in findings and recommendations by the SEC's Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation. Source
The Securities and Exchange Comission punted again on allowing a passive Bitcoin ETF to enter the market. It failed to approve the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust, instead opting to open a commentary period to address several questions around Bitcoin price formation and the health of the exchanges. A similar outcome faces the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF. You can tell I am not a fan of this waffling, and there are two core reasons: (1) the years-long delay and uncertainty is responsible for financial damage to both traditional and crypto investors, and (2) the premise of the objections misunderstand the environment of the Internet and the way our world is shaping up in the 21st century.
Well this morning started out as a bit of a bummer! See -- Charles Schwab to buy TD Ameritrade in a $26 billion all-stock deal. The $55 billion market cap Schwab is gobbling up the $22 billion TD Ameritrade at a slight premium. Matt Levine of Bloomberg has a great, cynical take on the question: Schwab lowering its trading commissions to zero is actually what wiped out $4 billion off TD's marketcap a few months ago. For Schwab, the revenue loss from trading was 7% of total, while for TD it was over 20%. Once Schwab dropped prices, TD started trading at a discount and became an acquisition target. You can see the share price drops reflected below in the beginning of October.
This week, we look at:
What it means to ask questions and find answers
From asking simple questions that result in neobanks and roboadvisors. Who will win — Schwab or Robinhood?
To asking macro questions about the finance / high-tech competition. Who will win — Goldman Sachs or Google?
To asking profound questions about the nature of the work, and the art of finding your own questions.
We can't formulate the questions for you. But we can give you a framework of needs for both the individual, and the organization.
The questions that you ask are the answers that you will get.
It was one of the most tumultuous weekends in the history of fintech, as federal regulators and government agencies took swift action to stop the bleeding after Silicon Valley Bank suddenly collapsed.
Looking into the statistics of gambling is illuminating and depressing. The UK, where gambling is more widely accepted than in the US, sees rates of 40-60% across all adults according to 2016 research. Revenues for casinos are over $100 billion annually, and global gambling revenues, including sports betting and the national lotteries, amount to over $400 billion. That's like the equivalent of the entire software cloud industry. And it asymmetrically addicts and disadvantages the already disadvantaged (see academic research here, here, and here).
Podcast talks with former SEC Enforcement Division attorney Nick Morgan; Nick Morgan says the SEC is reviewing all types of cases and using the Howey Test to determine whether the deals are considered an offering of securities; explains that the Howey Test considers whether the expectation of profit relies on efforts of investors and also says that the investigations center around whether the investors are passively investing or actively involved in creating value; Morgan also noted that the SEC's resources are limited given the vast number of ICOs being offered and reports that the investigations will likely focus first on any fraudulent activity with potential investigation efforts also on exchanges that encompass the inclusion of many ICOs. Source
The SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy has issued an alert to investors, warning them about potential scams with companies claiming to be involved with ICOs; according to the report, fraudsters may use new technology such as ICOs to defraud customers in various ways; discusses recent trading suspensions, pump-and-dump, market manipulations and tips for investors. Source
Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a report on the initial coin offering (ICO) of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (the DAO), which raised almost $150 million from investors using this new capital raising method (before returning the money); the report explained that the SEC views this ICO as a sale of securities and that the DAO was in violation of securities laws, though no enforcement action was taken. Source