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Legalizing And Regulating Blockchain And Distributed Ledger Technology

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CryptoCoin.News
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Legalizing And Regulating Blockchain And Distributed Ledger Technology
Legalizing And Regulating Blockchain And Distributed Ledger Technology

On Tuesday (12th October), there was some world-changing news in the sector of cryptocurrency, as the British territory of Gibraltar became the first jurisdiction to introduce laws to regulate all types of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) business. DLT such as blockchain are the backbone of cryptocurrencies around the world.
Gibraltar has already made a name for itself as one of the e-gaming capitals of the world, and now it looks set to become a hub for virtual currency (VC) as it lays out a full set of regulations to provide a framework for DLT businesses operating within its borders. The nine regulatory principles confirmed by the Gibraltar government and its financial regulator – the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) – are:

1. Conduct their business with honesty and integrity.

2. Pay due regard to the interests and needs of each and all its customers and communicate with them in a way that is fair, clear and not misleading.

3. Maintain adequate financial and non-financial resources.

4. Manage and control their business effectively, and conduct its business with due skill, care and diligence; including having proper regard to risks to its business and customers.

5. Have effective arrangements in place for the protection of customer assets and money when they are responsible for them.

6. Have effective corporate governance arrangements.

7. Ensure that all of their systems and security access protocols are maintained to appropriate high standards.

8. Have systems in place to prevent, detect and disclose financial crime risks such as money laundering and terrorist financing.

9. Be resilient and have contingency arrangements for the orderly and solvent wind down of its business.

Within the current VC landscape, some Ethereum Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) are banned in countries such as South Korea, Russia and China, and so Gibraltar hopes to provide them with an attractive option after putting in place the new DLT framework. The step Gibraltar has taken is truly unprecedented – only limited regulation has been applied in a small number of locations, up until now.

Gibraltar anticipates that the move will position it as one of the global frontrunners in cryptocurrency, as a nation ready to embrace the sector and as a leader of innovation in the field. The GFSC has confirmed that it will take into account variables such as size, business model and market when applying the conditions for the nine regulatory principles.

Organisations expected to fall under the new regulatory framework in Gibraltar include centralised virtual currency VC scheme administrators, non-custodian VC wallet service providers, trading platforms, peer-to-peer VC exchange platform operators, holdings, B2B payment network operators, escrow service providers, issuers of asset-backed tokens, issuers of income distribution tokens, custodian VC wallet providers, issuers of unregulated securities and peer-to-peer insurance platforms.

In such a fast-moving sector – both in terms of technology and legally – the government in Gibraltar is in agreement with its regulator that the framework should be adaptable enough to accommodate the future change which is bound to occur in new use cases of DLT.

Regulation has been high on the agenda in the cryptocurrency world after reports of problems such as money laundering – exemplified by the case of Bitcoin exchange BTC-e – which an unregulated sector has given rise to.

Amazon’s AWS Computing Network Falls Victim To Mining Malware

By
Ali Raza
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Amazon’s Aws Computing Network Falls Victim To Mining Malware
Amazon’s Aws Computing Network Falls Victim To Mining Malware

Hackers recently infiltrated the Amazon AWS network to mine bitcoin.

A team of security researchers from intelligence group, RedLock, recently discovered malicious attackers that used the Amazon Web Services (AWS) computing network in order to mine bitcoin.

The team of experts published their findings in a report which stated that at least two companies were targeted namely, Aviva and Gemalto. Both companies are multinational corporations.

The RedLock team became aware of the attack, after noticing that several administration consoles on AWS, including Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud platforms were not password protected. This security flaw ensured easy access for the hackers.

According to the report, a deeper analysis revealed that hackers were utilizing the AWS network to execute a bitcoin mining script for a Kubernetes container. The report continued to state that this instance had essentially evolved into a parasitic bot which performed malicious activities via the internet.

Kubernetes is an open-sourced network which was created to automatize deploying, scaling, and operating application containers.

RedLock researchers confirmed that all access keys, secret tokens, and passwords were all stored in plaintext on unprotected consoles. This gave malicious attackers easy access to the critical networks where they could easily have caused more damage.

Considering bitcoin growing’s popularity, there is an increasing concern on a nation-state level regarding the illicit procurement of bitcoin. This past year witnessed a significant onslaught in cybercrimes involving cryptocurrency. In early October, South Korean law enforcement authorities confirmed that their bitcoin exchanges were targeted by North Korean state-backed hackers to steal bitcoin.

This incident was initially reported by the cybersecurity firm, FireEye. According to authorities and experts, this attack campaign was launched using phishing emails. The attack is thought to have been active since July and has since targeted several employees working at four of the most prominent bitcoin exchanging platforms in South Korea.

In addition to this attack, a report published last month confirmed that the trend of digital mining malware would affect an estimated two million computers in 2017.

However so far, security experts at Kaspersky Labs, as well as Bleeping Computer, confirmed that during the first nine months of 2017, over 1.65 million computers were affected by malicious cryptocurrency mining software.

Chinese Crypto Users Defy Bans As Bitcoin Continues To Rise In Value

By
Daniel Wood
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Chinese Crypto Users Defy Bans As Bitcoin Continues To Rise In Value
Chinese Crypto Users Defy Bans As Bitcoin Continues To Rise In Value

As Bitcoin surges past the $5,000 barrier to reach touching distance of $6,000 in two days, some are seeing this as proof that China’s withdrawal from cryptocurrency trading no longer had the apocalyptic implications many thought it would.

When the news broke on China’s outright ICO ban in September, followed by the freezing of cryptocurrency exchanges, the markets reacted swiftly, leading to Bitcoin shedding much of the gains it had seen over previous months. Analysts predicted a long-term slump from regulatory pressure that seemed to have been triggered by China’s move.

Volumes on crypto/CNY pairs diminished and dropped off the radar as one by one, Chinese exchanges announced their indefinite closures. Although it was estimated that trading in Chinese yuan had only accounted for a fraction of global crypto trading volume, the almost overnight disappearance of a major market threatened long-term implications.

But as some analysts are discovering, perhaps China isn’t quite as absent as it would appear.

According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, trading and investing have merely moved offline, with large investor meetings and seminars on ICOs still taking place in physical boardrooms. Most Chinese traders see this as logical, with Leon Liu of Bitcoin trading company Bitcan saying that “the government doesn’t have any way of policing offline sales”.

Users on bitcointalk have also reported a growing number of Chinese exchangers operating via WeChat and Telegram, using automated bots to accept and execute trades, communicating through channels such as bitcoinchina.

While Yuan trading no longer exists on aggregators such as CoinmarketCap, CoinDance, which tracks volume by country on P2P exchange Localbitcoins, have recorded strong spikes since China’s crypto prohibition in September. In the week of September 23, Localbitcoins saw its highest ever China-based volume of more than CNY 115 million ($17.4 million).

With Bitcoin defying every obstacle thrown its way this year, it’s difficult to see how Chinese users will remain uninvolved in its current era of crypto prohibition. Certainly in China, crypto traders and investors have proven that where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Specialized Conference ICO Event Amsterdam: All About Investing In Cryptocurrency, November 29th

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Simon Cocking
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Specialized Conference Ico Event Amsterdam: All About Investing In Cryptocurrency, November 29th
Specialized Conference Ico Event Amsterdam: All About Investing In Cryptocurrency, November 29th

ICO Event Amsterdam will be held in the capital of the Netherlands on November 29. This is a conference entirely dedicated to the cryptocurrency crowdsales: ICO. The venue is the country’s largest state-of-the-art Postillion Convention Centre Amsterdam.

For the Dutch blockchain community, this is the first event from the Smile Expo. In 2017, the company launched a new series of conferences and held ICO Events in Moscow and London as well. The organizers were inspired by the demand for ICO topics around the world and the interest of business, investors and the state. Today it is the most discussed way to attract investments and increase capital: politicians and experts are arguing about ICO, but it works and today it is replacing venture capital step by step.

ICO Event attendees will enjoy practical advice on organization of crowdsales, success stories from well-known projects and recommendations on a profitable investment of cryptocurrency. Several blockchain companies will present their applications and platforms within the software exhibition. The speakers of the conference are renowned people of the European blockchain community, as well as politicians and investors.

Tickets can be purchased online on the website of the event until November 28 inclusive or at the reception desk on the day of the ICO Event Amsterdam. We advise you to follow the news of the conference and carefully study its program in advance to highlight important reports and effectively organize your day: Smile-Expo publishes detailed announcements of each speaker’s report and detailed program of the event.

ICO Or NO ICO: ClearPoll ICO Campaign Reviewed

By
Rick Nassar
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Ico Or No Ico: Clearpoll Ico Campaign Reviewed
Ico Or No Ico: Clearpoll Ico Campaign Reviewed

By Rick Nassar. Delighted to bring you the latest in our series of ICO reviews. This piece evaluates the prospects of ClearPoll.

There is a lot of interest in finding the best reviews or opinions about the up and coming ICOs. So this is a full disclosure, my articles are NOT any form of advice or recommendation. This post will be as neutral as possible with stating key points and facts about this Startup: ClearPoll.

Project Brief

ClearPoll is a digital platform where you can cast a vote on topics of interest and then once it gains enough popularity and most votes it becomes an active Poll. This is to keep what the trend on topics high. It somewhat reminds me of the good old 4chat with an extra layer of the polling system.

All polls are recorded on the Blockchain and the results are easily viewed by ClearPoll users, i.e. anyone who has the app installed into their phones or tablets. Since it in on the blockchain, tampering is virtually impossible.

The ICO (Pre-ICO already was done!)

Some good news, the pre-ICO was successfully over and with 100% funding. Their next stage is the Hard ICO.

The main ICO is running until 26th of October and halfway through November 2017 the POLL token will be generated and distributed to all the investors. As outlined in the provided whitepaper.

The POLL tokens will be submitted to be listed on Bittrex, Binance & Cryptopia exchanges. In my opinion though that might change due to the turbulent problems these exchanges are facing from governments around the World.

FYI, POLL is ClearPoll’s token name. The tokens are ERC20 based, which means you can easily manage them from your ETHER wallets.

Ico Or No Ico: Clearpoll Ico Campaign Reviewed

The way open investment has sprung out with Token sales or ICOs changed the how we assess these new startups for investment opportunities. There seem to be two main types the “Trader” investor and “Startup” investor. My aim is to evaluate to the best of my knowledge from a Startup Investor’s point of view. Obviously, there might be few points I will miss out and for that I say, tough luck! 🙂

Team

The website shows a total of ten on the team, 8 main members with 2 advisors. majority of the team are 4 developers, 2 designers, a Business Developer and a web developer. All in all, it looks like a decent core group.

There doesn’t seem to be any marketing specialist in the team who can be an asset for a product that is considered an “essential tool for marketing companies”. As for the expert advisors, few extra would help strengthen their project. with some industry knowledge in Blockchain ecosystem, Startups and data analysis.

Rating : promising team, but might need expanding

MVP

Any startup investor would tell you that one of the key components of investment is having either an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or at least a strong progress of a prototype build up.

With my search at the time of this article I didn’t find any proven development progress on Github, StackOverflow or anywhere online. The team might be in the development of the apps offline, but since it’s an ICO funded startup transparency is essential.

The fact that the pre-ICO was successful the funds are available to kickstart the project development, especially with potential 4-5 developers already on the team.

Rating : this is needed urgently, to show that it is something they have a strategy for

Whitepaper

“It’s not what was written but how it was written that is important”

Someone recently told me at a Blockchain conference that anyone with good writing skills can write a whitepaper. Reading between the lines is a huge part of how to read them. It can reveal a lot about team leaders, the attitude towards the concept and industry, and their approach with regards to the Business model itself.

ClearPoll’s whitepaper is a business and marketing plan for a great idea to revolutionise the way how people will truly perceive and visualise public opinion. It is basically a tool that if utilised correctly will be the go-to application for opinion sentiment & voting poll.

So the main thing is did it address some key points any true investor would ask before investing? Below are some of the points.

Dynamic Market Opportunity

How much research has been done on the market they are trying to service? Basically is there a commercially viable market that ClearPoll discovered and is able to potentially to cater for?

This is few indications that there are major issues with current media and more precisely politics. When one how social awareness influenced by centralised and controlled media, heavily swayed voting systems (if not rigged altogether), and the all infamous “Fake News”. The public is certainly fed up by it, ClearPoll is certainly a potential remedy but not sure it can be the cure.

Are there any good indications that the pain points in this market are warrant to be paid for?

This question is very important. How can ClearPoll make money? There is good indication that there is a pain point ClearPoll is addressing but how. Some further clarification can be very helpful for investment purposes.

Rating : it would be good to have more detail on how they plan to monetize this project

Milestone

This section is simple and direct. Looking at the figure below one can see the timescale of the product development. It is a bit vague and some are ambitious.

Ico Or No Ico: Clearpoll Ico Campaign Reviewed

It would be great if they elaborated more on every milestone. Plus there is a big gap between December 2017 and March 2018, are there going to be any marketing or awareness campaigns once the hard ICO is successful?

Rating : their milestones are good and achievable, but more detail would be even better

Value Proposition

The first Blockchain voting poll system. Something I had to come up with since there was none by the company. On one side it is very important to look attractive to investors and on the other, the customer who will buy into the concept. All investors will agree that customer acquisition in the most valuable part of a commercial business.

Rating : this needs to be developed further if it is to be an appealing ICO to invest in

Website quality

The website is built on WordPress, which is usually the starting point for any startup setting up a website. The fact that it is a secured with SSL certification is a good start. Although not much was available about the domain name it was registered at an Australian registrar, which is where ClearPoll is based.

Rating : this is all scores well at the moment, and suggests it should progress well

Social presence

The most obvious social medium you can find easily is their twitter account with 406 followers, which can be easily found if you google ClearPoll. After some research, I was able to find their Slack (I couldn’t sign up to for some reason), Telegram (52 members) and Reddit (138 Subs) accounts. None of them seems to be very active. Maybe in due time they will if they employ a Social Media Manager.

Note: all the numbers were at the time of posting this article.

Rating : good, but will be better once they have a social media manager hopefully

Marketing & PR

ClearPoll had some visible PR campaign runs with minimal media coverage. Some press releases and articles (I actually had one written about them HERE) can be found online once if you google their name. It is hard to tell if there has been any paid online advertising to attract further investors to the ICO.

Rating : lots more to do here, if the campaign is to be a success.

Bottom line

I can safely say they are a real startup under a newly registered company name Nextech Development (Reg. ACN 621 336 696). As a team, they truly have the interest to resolve all the issues they set out to. ClearPoll does seem to have the ambition but not right mindset toward a successful Startup. This startup does look like it is focusing all its resources to succeed in the ICO, taking advantage of all the hype surrounding the crypto hype. Many of the crypto traders would jump on this as a token sale, but as a startup investor, I’m not so sure. As it stands they will succeed in raising the desired fund, what they will do with the investment is a case that is yet to be detailed in full.

They definitely need an expert Startup advisor or investment Expert to help them with the post-ICO phase. Establishing a strong and robust company that can lead to great success. It is the ICO Gold Rush period and none want to miss out the potential value of Tokens when they are traded, missing the most important point, to really care about the success of the company as long the short-term gains are at hand.

Kickstarting Blockchain Fundraising Revolution, KICKICO Helps Funding Ideas Through Cryptocurrencies

The Risks And Challenges Of ICOs, A Quick Guide For Potential Investors

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CryptoCoin.News
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The Risks And Challenges Of Icos, A Quick Guide For Potential Investors
The Risks And Challenges Of Icos, A Quick Guide For Potential Investors

Great guest post by Jim Reynolds who is a fintech and cryptocurrency analyst, he shares his thoughts on Investitin.com. Image from pixabay here.

ICOs (initial coin offerings) are the latest fintech innovation which is radically and quickly changing how startups are being funded. An ICO’s objective is to collect money to finance an idea or an ongoing project. This is not to be confused with an IPO. An IPO is regulated while ICOs are not regulated or not legal in some jurisdictions such as China, the USA, South Korea and Singapore.

The basic premise of an ICO is the tokenisation of a product or service. This means that a company creates its own token which is used to buy its services or products. If the company’s services are in demand and the tokens are in short supply, these tokens should raise in value. An ICO campaign usually lasts for around a month. There are currently 100s of ICOs running at the moment.

Participating in an ICO is extremely risky, there are three kinds of ICOS. First SCAM ICOs, these are ICOs which are designed to separate fools from their money. Secondly, there are ICOs which have a viable idea and product but do not have either a competent team or enough capital to follow the idea through. Thirdly, there are a few ICOs that have the right team with the right idea and the right amount of capital to be a success. Investing in an ICO has different risk categories

Taxes and Regulatory ICO Risks

In some jurisdictions, it is unclear if ICO investments or divestment is a taxable event. It is still unclear if the returns be treated as capital gains or income and should the tax be paid immediately or once the profits are converted to a FIAT currency?

Some jurisdictions have declared that the creation and participation in ICOs is illegal. Some investors are finding creative ways to circumvent these measures, however this could prove to be a problem in the future as records are stored on the blockchain, and these actions can be traced in the future. The SEC has recently announced that they will be issuing an ICO team to catch scammers. 

Legal status of Token holders

Many ICOs or TGE (token generation events) design their campaign around the terms of a donation rather than an investment. This gives token holders no legal rights.

ICO and IPOs should not be confused.

An IPO (initial public offering) have a clear and detailed memorandum explaining the details of the proposed investment. ICOs have a non legally binding white paper.

ICO Flipping, Survivor bias

Investors are buying into ICOs with the hope of selling them at three times the price they bought in for. This mechanism is driven by the limited number of tokens which are created. This digital scarcity, drives demand for the tokens. There have been a number of spectacular results, with prices going double, triple and even up to 10 times the ICO price. However the survivor bias comes in, when investors think that they are smarter than everyone else and will outrun the crowd and sell their ICO tokens before the prices fall.

ICO structure risks

Not all tokens sold during the ICO have the same price. There are special deals reserved to advisors, preferred investor groups and hedge funds. These special deals mean that some investors will buy the tokens at a heavily discounted price, it is not uncommon for these discounts to be 50% or more of the ICO price. These luckily investors, can dump these tokens on the market at a cheaper price than what the majority have brought for and still make a profit.

The accounts of the companies issuing ICOs are rarely made public, unlike publicly listed companies. This means that the salaries, expenses, acquisitions can be scrutinised or challenged. In any case token holders do not have any voting rights and cannot change the board of the directors of the ICO company.

Technical Risks

Investing in ICOs requires certain knowledge on how to manage a cryptocurrency wallet and keep it safe. It is easy to lose these tokens if you are not careful. Ideally you should be folllowing good practices such as using a hardware wallet, taking backups and having a copy off-site, and using 2fa when possible.

Are ICOs the way of the future?

Innovation is crucial to improving our way of life. ICOs are a great tool to innovate many aspects of our lives they can fund ideas, which would never see the light of day without an ICO.

Fast moving jurisdictions have the opportunity to make ICOs transparent and fair. Creating a level playing field between shareholders and token holders in terms of legal rights, access to information and accounts, voting rights and the rights to company dividends.

A full list of ongoing ICOs can be found on the ICO Calendar

Jim Reynolds is a fintech and cryptocurrency analyst, he shares his thoughts on Investitin.com

 

Good News For Rahul Sood And Unikrn As Europe Legalizes Cryptocurrency Gambling

By
Ali Raza
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0
Good News For Rahul Sood And Unikrn As Europe Legalizes Cryptocurrency Gambling
Good News For Rahul Sood And Unikrn As Europe Legalizes Cryptocurrency Gambling

Title image from pixabay here.

Malta recently extended a license to cryptocurrency betting platform, Unikrn.

Unikrn announced just earlier this week that Malta has granted them a license to operate, meaning that cryptocurrency gambling will soon be available in the majority of Europe.

The eSports giant will facilitate gambling using its own coin, the UnikoinGold crypto token. This coin is based on the ERC-20 ethereum principle and is currently being made available via token sale or initial coin offering (ICO). This coin will be used as a substitute for real money in licensed areas.

The Malta license means that cryptocurrency gambling will now be available in 80% of Europe.

Chief executive of Unikrn, Rahul Sood, confirmed that the European license will mean an even bigger market audience of an already growing platform. Including Europe in its area of operations, Sood seemed confident that Unikrn will appeal to a large number of users across different age groups and backgrounds.

Unikrn has already shown immense growth since its infancy, and the European expansion is sure to help their numbers grow even more. Unikrn EU was formed jointly with the French gambling platform, RBP. Currently, RBP has over 300 000 registered users and over 1 million unique monthly visitors.

In addition to having access to this database of users, the mere growing success of eSports is sure to attract users, especially younger users. Essentially eSports comprises of competitive video game playing, either online or in-person during tournaments. Since its inception, eSports has become the fastest growing sport in the world. According to market research conducted by the firm Newzoo, eSports will rake in over $696 million in revenue for 2017. This number shows a 41% growth from their 2016 revenue. By 2020, eSports will generate $1.5 billion.

The promise of Unikrn has attracted many investors including, Mark Cuban, Ashton Kutcher, and Elisabeth Murdoch.

Up until recently, Unikrn was only available in Australia and the United Kingdom. However, in unlicensed areas, Unikrn provided users with free betting on several games including Counter Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and Dota 2.

Free betting was facilitated using the company’s previous free Unikoin tokens. However, these will become discontinued as the company unveils their Unikoin Gold Token. A free token, Unikoin Silver, will also be released in unlicensed areas in an attempt to keep users engaged.

The Unikrn platform and its Malta licensure may prove to be critical steps towards making the gambling industry more appealing to younger users. Many experts in the industry have considered eSports to be the next trend in betting, as younger users seemed to have lost interest in traditional gambling and betting.

The casino industry especially has been frantically looking for ways to become more appealing to the younger market. Just last week the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, held panel discussions regarding the younger market’s lack of interest in the casino industry.

While eSports and Unikrn might be the much-needed answer for the dwindling interest in traditional gambling, Sood maintained that Unikrn will remain committed to giving their users a wide variety of uses from their Unikoin Gold tokens, in a safe and user-friendly way.

Sood stated that the latest Malta licensure was nothing if not a confirmation of his company’s dedication to their users to keep betting safe, fun, and interesting.

Can Blockchain Solve India’s Land Rights Corruption?

By
Daniel Wood
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Can Blockchain Solve India’s Land Rights Corruption?
Can Blockchain Solve India’s Land Rights Corruption?

India’s state of Andhra Pradesh has partnered up with Sweden-based startup ChromaWay to work on a blockchain-based solution to tackle a growing problem with land ownership corruption.

The battle to claim land in India in the wake of rising real estate values has become an increasingly dirty business in a country that ranks 76 out of 176 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2016.

Politicians, social rights activists and economists all agree that the real estate sector is one of India’s biggest offenders, with bribery, corruption and even violent intimidation all contributing to vast amounts of illegal money exchanging hands.

Delhi-based Liberty Institute reported in 2012 that all the land transactions, including those related to natural resources like mining, generate $20bn (£12.54bn) to $40bn of illegal revenue each year – about 2 per cent of India’s GDP.

The local government in Andhra Pradesh, India’s tenth largest state by population, has now turned to blockchain technology as a possible means of addressing the prevalent corruption in the current system. It believes that by storing encrypted data in vast, tamper-proof groupings through distributed ledger technology, it can be maintained across a network of computers without any central authority to oversee it.

J.A. Chowdary, special chief secretary and IT advisor to the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh told CNBC that some $700 million in bribes are paid each year at land registrars across the country, leading to title disputes in court.

Land-related court settlements currently take up two-thirds of civil cases in India and can take as long as 30 years to clear, costing thousands of dollars.

The pilot blockchain project will be based on ChromaWay’s “Postchain” platform to include features from India’s traditional land registry database alongside new architecture combining blockchain with database.

“ChromaWay have made a registry that is transparent, resilient and secure, but also the traditional database features necessary for a registry,” said ChromaWay CEO Henrik Hjelte as reported by CNBC.

The Swedish tech firm has already piloted a blockchain project in Sweden, focussing on real estate buying and selling.

First Exchange Traded Product For Ethereum, Coinshares Launches Ether Tracking, Exchange Traded Notes On Stockholm Nasdaq

By
Simon Cocking
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0
First Exchange Traded Product For Ethereum, Coinshares Launches Ether Tracking, Exchange Traded Notes On Stockholm Nasdaq
First Exchange Traded Product For Ethereum, Coinshares Launches Ether Tracking, Exchange Traded Notes On Stockholm Nasdaq

Investors seeking exposure to the price movement of ether, the native token of the Ethereum platform, just got a new, but familiar option: two Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) which track the price of Ether – Ether Tracker One (COINETH:SS) and Ether Tracker Euro (COINETHE:SS).

XBT Provider by CoinShares, the issuer behind the world’s first bitcoin ETNs, is announcing that the first Ether ETNs are now available for trading on Nasdaq Stockholm.

“The listing of these two Ether ETNs is a major win for European investors who have been requesting these products for over a year now. As of today, if investors want hassle-free exposure to the price movements of ether, they simply call their broker or trade on their normal brokerage platform – that’s truly remarkable. We are thrilled to be able to deliver on investor demand via a safe, familiar route in Nasdaq,” says Laurent Kssis MD of XBT Provider by CoinShares.

The two ETNs, COINETH and COINETHE are denominated in SEK and EUR respectively. In similar fashion to the group’s bitcoin ETNs, the ether ETNs are structured to track the price of ether, as determined by an index rate comprising the average of the 3 most liquid of a select group of exchanges, daily. The ETNs are traded during normal market hours on Nasdaq Stockholm.

“We are happy to be able to provide investors with this new investment opportunity. Given the high interest we have experienced for the previous listings from XBT Provider it is exciting to now expand the offering into this unique exchange traded certificate. While it is important to acknowledge that exposure to an asset in its early stage of development, such as a digital currency, comes with a risk, trading Ether on Nasdaq Stockholm provides investors with the protection provided by a regulated infrastructure, well-known marketplace and accessibility through their ordinary brokers,” says Helena Wedin, head of ETP Services Europe at Nasdaq.

This is the second major crypto-asset ETN Nasdaq has listed for the CoinShares group, noteworthy as this listing makes Nasdaq Stockholm the only European exchange to offer investors exposure to two of the leading crypto-assets (bitcoin and ether) in a familiar structure.

“Today is a historical moment for Ethereum and ether as an asset; and for the future of crypto-assets. It was a little over two years ago that the bitcoin ETNs began trading – offering investors exposure to bitcoin via an established exchange for the first time. Today, we are able to bring ether to the market and mark another major first. It is important to remember how far and how fast the space has matured in the less than 8 years since this revolution began,” says Ryan Radloff, Co-Principal at CoinShares.

CoinShares, which has been called the ‘iShares® equivalent for Crypto-finance,’ now represents six professional grade crypto-investment vehicles, all of which are pioneering products in their category. With the addition of ether to the platform, CoinShares represents the most diverse investment product line-up available in professional crypto-finance; and notably, the only way for European investors to add ether to their portfolio via an established exchange.

“We’ve stated before that as a group, CoinShares is committed to delivering world-class research and professional-grade access to crypto-assets. Today marks a critical step in delivering on that mission. This launch is the result of a tremendous amount of hard-work from the CoinShares team, key partners and our counterparts at Nasdaq. We could not be more proud to bring this latest set of pioneering product to the market,” says Daniel Masters, Co-Principal at CoinShares.

Abu Dhabi Announces Regulatory Guidelines For ICOs

By
Ali Raza
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0
Abu Dhabi Announces Regulatory Guidelines For Icos
Abu Dhabi Announces Regulatory Guidelines For Icos

By Ali Reza

The country’s financial regulation authorities recently released guidelines for ICO investors.

Regulating bodies based in Abu Dhabi recently announced that they will start regulating initial coin offerings (ICOs). This announcement follows many warnings that financial authorities have released in regards to the risks involved in investing in ICOs.

ICOs work on a similar principle as crowdfunding but uses digital money. Essentially an ICO operates as a start-up, in order to raise money, they issue a new cryptocoin an in return, investors pay in bitcoin or ethereum. According to coinschedule.com, in 2017 start-ups have collectively raised $2.4 billion from ICOs alone.

Earlier this week, the Abu Dhabi Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), made guidelines available to the public which pertained to ICOs and cryptocurrencies.

These guidelines stated that once an ICO has security characteristics, such as giving the investor shares in a company, it will fall under FSRA regulation.

The head of fintech strategy at FSRA, Christopher Kiew-Smith, stated that the ICO market offers investors a lot of diversity, but many ICOs also has a risk investment risk. Risky ICOs involve those who do not provide disclosures or financial statements and could be damaging for investors seeking a return.

According to Kiew-Smith, the FSRA is currently collaborating with firms who wish to implement ICO technology to generate funds transparently.

Under the guidelines stipulated by the FSRA, companies who wish to create an ICO must approach the FSRA before the FSRA will consider including it in their regulation. In addition, companies will be required to publish a prospectus. The process will work similarly to the process a firm has to undergo to create an initial public offering (IPO) when selling stocks.

Any secondary market operators who deal with ICOs must first be approved by the FSRA.

However, some ICOs will remain unregulated. Any investor who intends to invest in an unregulated ICO has been warned to exercise extreme caution when it comes to unregulated ICOs.

According to the FSRA guidelines, the risk of fraud and a loss of capital are significantly higher when investing in a non-regulated ICO. The risk increases when the token issuer promises a high return on investment.

The FSRA also stated that cryptocurrencies are not considered legal tender within Abu Dhabi, but are considered commodities instead. In this way, cryptocurrencies can be compared to previous metals or fuels.

Despite the increased warnings and regulations, Abu Dhabi appears to be committed to finding a middle ground between allowing investment and innovation and doing so safely.

Concerns regarding ICOs have risen amongst regulating bodies across the world. Dubai recently issued warnings regarding the dangers of investing in ICOs. China has banned ICOs and domestic cryptocurrency activity outright. While Japan has declared cryptocurrencies to be legal tender, they still have not released their official standing in regards to ICOs.

According to the FSRA, they are currently engaged in talks with the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) to collaborate on bitcoin regulation. Abu Dhabi authorities have stated outright that they have not ruled out the possibility of bringing cryptocurrencies under their national regulatory bodies.

According to the executive director of capital markets at the FSRA, Wai Lum Qwok, the FSRA has experienced several challenges in regulating something which is decentralized in nature. To address this, the FSRA has established a fintech department and sought contact with the Japanese FSA in order to learn from their regulating policies, and perhaps implement these into their own policies.

Despite ICOs many critics, the FSRA believed that when efficiently regulated, ICOs can be an innovative and transparent way in which to generate funds.

Title image from pixabay here.

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