Financial headlines over the past week focused on Turkey’s rapidly depreciating lira. Meanwhile many citizens there, ignoring President Erdogan’s calls to exchange gold and foreign currencies to local currency, tapped into the crypto market: “Bunyamin Yavuz, a cardiologist in Ankara, said he no longer trusts local banks and now buys XRP, monero, lumens, among other … Read more
The big news this morning is that Intercontinental Exchange, parent of the New York Stock Exchange, announced the formation of a new company, Bakkt, a global platform to allow consumers and institutions to buy, hold and store digital assets. Its first use cases will be for trading and conversion of Bitcoin versus fiat currencies. Partners … Read more
Last week in NYC I shared a panel with Valerie Szczepanik, SEC’s “crypto czar”. We had a wide-ranging discussion on self-regulation, utility tokens, the SEC’s role in protecting investors, and accredited investor definitions. While the conversation was under Chatham House Rules and I can’t discuss her specific comments in this newsletter, she is very open to … Read more
As the United States celebrated its Independence Day on July 4th, several jurisdictions around the world, including South Korea, Bermuda and Malta, passed legislation to support crypto assets and virtual currencies. Of these, South Korea’s appears the most detailed by providing a classification scheme as a framework for regulation. This is the most sophisticated understanding … Read more
I just wrapped up 2 days of speaking at MoneyConf in Dublin, an annual conference dedicated to all things fintech. In contrast to previous years, at least 50% of the programming involved blockchain technology. I shared the stage with two early FPV portfolio companies, Blockchain and Bitpesa, and connected with a number of old friends … Read more
Blockchain Week 2018 came in with a bang — 8500 attendees at the Consensus conference (vs 400 the last time I spoke there in 2015), thousands more at side events. The price of major cryptocurrencies saw a run up to the week, with vivid memories of the boom last year’s conference started. However, the prices … Read more
I am back in NYC after a trip around the world — with stops in London, Mumbai, Beijing, Korea, Los Angeles and Palo Alto along the way. I wrote about London and India observations in the last newsletter. A few takeaways on the rest: Last time I spoke at the Milken Conference in LA, in … Read more
The first quarter was not a pretty one for cryptocurrency prices — from January 1-March 31, Bitcoin lost over 50% of its value, with a number of smaller altcoins down over 60%. Regulatory action, hacks and scams weighed heavily, with newer investors who came in during the gold rush of Q4 heading for the exits. … Read more
“Welcome to #Malta @binance,” Joseph Muscat, the country’s prime minister, tweeted on Friday. “We aim to be the global trailblazers in the regulation of blockchain-based businesses.” Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptoasset exchanges by volume, announced this past week that it moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to Malta. This move came on the … Read more
I took a hiatus from the newsletter last week, while meeting with entrepreneurs and speaking at SXSW in Austin. Similar to what I saw (at the very different gathering) at Davos in January, much of the conference chatter revolved around blockchain technology. Almost on cue, last Sunday night John Oliver broadcast an episode (link below) … Read more