Trading cryptocurrencies has shown itself to be quite a lucrative business, at the same time the exchanges where trading occurs underscores how risky trading might be; exchanges can lack basics controls on know your customer (KYC), fraud prevention and more; there have also been a number of significant thefts or hacks where millions were lost; while the risk is real it has now slowed the market's growth as total value of all digital currencies has soared to over $140bn. Source.
According to reporting in CoinDesk last month money manager VanEck filed to create the VanEck Vectors Bitcoin Strategy ETF and last week that effort was given bad news by the SEC; the SEC sent a letter to VanEck stating that they cannot review the offering because "the underlying instruments in which the fund intends to primarily invest are not yet available." Source.
American Banker reports on the lobbying group called Financial Innovation Now and that some technology giants are meeting individually with government agencies; Amazon met with the OCC starting in the second quarter of 2016 and met again this year; PayPal has also met with OCC officials in several quarters last year. Source
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two companies who they claim were operating fraudulent ICOs; REcoin Group Foundation and DRC World were claimed to defraud investors and sold unregistered securities; both companies claimed they had significant operations and networks when in reality they were shell companies; this continues a worldwide trend by financial regulators who are beginning to come down on the exploding ICO market. Source.
Lend Academy looks at 10 years of data from Lending Club and Prosper; shares data on returns over the time period and where current returns are trending. Source
Kathryn Petralia, co-founder and head of operations of Kabbage talks about their SoftBank deal, tech partnerships, culture and more. Source
According to the WSJ, Goldman Sachs is considering a new trading operation dedicated to digital currencies; a spokeswoman for Goldman stated, “In response to client interest in digital currencies, we are exploring how best to serve them in this space.”; several banks have been exploring the use of blockchain technology; Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan Chase recently spoke out against bitcoin calling it a fraud. Source
Overstock.com launches a joint venture with RenGen and Argon Group for an automated trading system for tokens via ICOs; according to Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne the JV will be the first platform to meet regulatory requirements of both the SEC and Finra. Source.
The US Department of Justice has approved the real-time Payments network after a yearlong antitrust review; the Clearing House, a consortium of the biggest banks in the US, was pleased by the news as they plan to launch their leading system later this year; this is seen as a step in the right direction of helping to modernize the US payments system. Source.
Schwab Intelligent Portfolios now boasts $24 billion assets under management and has hired Cynthia Loh, the ex-general manager of Betterment for Business; article reports on Schwab’s robo-advice platform growth, the cannibalization the firm saw with the offering, and what the new hire might mean for Schwab’s future plans. Source