This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first web page on the World Wide Web, which means a person has to be nearly half a century old to clearly remember the patchwork progress, the false starts and stops, and the trial and error that eventually gave us what is now the defining foundation of 21st-century life. We take the internet for granted in 2021, but it took us decades to get to this point. Throughout the years, the barriers toward adoption tumbled away, and there were clear signs that this new technology would fundamentally change the way the world …
The fintech industry has been changing rapidly. Digital assets, distributed ledger technology and central bank digital currencies are gaining momentum. Multi-trillion-dollar United States Federal Reserve System money creation has increased demand for digital assets, particularly Bitcoin (BTC). Banks, brokers, commercial lenders, investment advisors, private investment funds, family offices, mutual funds, fintech entrepreneurs, lawmakers and private citizens should take note of several developments in this space. Old wine, new bottles The use of ledgers to track events and transactions is of ancient origin. DLT and blockchain technology combine venerable record-keeping techniques with new technologies — like storing old wine in new …
Crypto is going mainstream, and the world’s younger generation, in particular, is taking note. Cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com recently predicted that crypto users worldwide could reach 1 billion by the end of 2022. Further findings show that Millennials — those between the ages of 26 and 41 — are turning to digital asset investment to build wealth. For example, a study conducted in 2021 by personal loan company Stilt found that, according to its user data, more than 94% of people who own crypto were between 18 and 40. Keeping children safe While the increased interest in cryptocurrency is notable, some …
On August 10, the United States Senate voted to pass a $1 trillion bill to revitalize America’s infrastructure. From the standpoint of the crypto community, miners in particular, the Senate’s foray into crypto legislation has been a disaster. Unless the language defining brokers in the bill is clarified, it will singlehandedly thwart the growth of a domestic industry just as it is taking off. As written, the bill allows for multiple interpretations of the term “broker.” In the English language, there is no real controversy — or ambiguity — about what a broker does. According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, a …
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s chairperson Gary Gensler announced this month that the crypto industry should not escape the purview of the regulator. He highlighted that decentralized finance (DeFi) trading and lending protocols need particular attention when it comes to investor protections. Regulation can extend into a menu of options that covers custody, reporting, counterparty verification and asset classification and issuance. Reports are surfacing that people are waiting with bated breath on how the SEC will regulate the DeFi industry, but Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, also known as BaFin, has found a way to apply existing securities …