Category Archives: Crypto-currency

FinTech Exchange, Chicago

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Now in its fourth year, Barchart’s FinTech Exchange* event seems largely designed to address the specific needs of the Chicago trading community: technology and data vendors; brokers and intermediaries; and commodities, futures and derivatives markets – with an emerging thread of Blockchain and crypto.

In fact, the Keynote Speaker, Dr. Richard Sandor, spoke of Blockchain as being as significant as the invention of double-entry bookkeeping, the launch of stock markets, the introduction of electronic trading, and the creation of financial derivatives combined.

Other topics included: the evolution of global financial markets; the threat or potential of enterprise Blockchain and FinTech solutions; the role of cryptocurrency exchanges; understanding big data and data analytics; deploying AI and machine learning within FinTech; and the rapid expansion of API solutions as products and services in their own right (not just as a means of data delivery).

There was also a panel discussion with the winners of the previous day’s Startup Exchange pitch event.

On behalf of Brave New Coin, I ran a series of round-table discussions on the current state of cryptocurrencies, token sales and digital assets; and the prospect of so-called security tokens (a topic which is sure to feature in this blog in coming months).

Finally, the notion of “alt data” is gaining attention, and not just among hedge funds. In part a by-product of big data (how to make sense of all this data), alt data is set to become the high-octane fuel for generating yield (if data is the new oil).

* Declaration of interest: Barchart syndicates Brave New Coin news and technical analysis content

Next week: Corporate purpose, disruption and empathy

 

Startup Exchange, Chicago

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As part of its annual FinTech Exchange event in Chicago last month, Barchart* ran the Startup Exchange pitch competition, where 16 hopefuls competed in front of a stellar panel of judges.

The presentations in order of appearance were:

Mercaris – A market data and trading platform for niche agri-products e.g., organic, non-GMO, certified and other niche food products and commodities where identity preservation (IP) is critical.

KTS Operations – A configurable software development solution for data handling and trading. It aims to automate redundant data tasks, such as putting CPU processing on a Blockchain.

HALO – Is a platform for trading structured notes. Currently working with 10 banks and 5,000 financial advisors.

UCX – Offers a consolidated market place and platform for buying Cloud services.

Demand Derivatives Corp – Allows clients to design new derivative instruments for listing on futures exchanges, as compared to standard futures and options contracts. As well as supporting unique instrument design, the service focuses on IP protection, exchange listing and liquidity.

UpTick Technology – Identifying the in-house talent gap at many firms, this spreadsheet-based analytical tool integrates with any data set, multiplies internal development capacity and supports data distribution within the client organization.

MaterialsXchange – Is a raw commodities exchange offering a B2B e-marketplace to digitize and automate trading data. It features a live, two-sided (bid/offer) venue with full execution and delivery, plus connectivity to ancillary services. First product is a lumber market place.

Coinifide – Has launched a P2P crypto trading and auction market place, combining elements of a social trading platform with an emphasis on providing investor education, It features key influencers and subject-matter experts and a simulator to replicate trading strategies.

Upper Room Technology – Is a new analytics solution for professional bond traders, with algo-based modelling and trade execution services.

Tipigo – A decision-support and information tool aimed at self-directed investors and day traders. It combines machine learning and fundamental research (450+ data sources tracking 8,300 US companies) to screen and funnel investment strategies, with trade execute via 8 traditional brokers.

TrendyTrade – Designed to encourage millennials to invest, it aggregates 400+ data sources, as well as Twitter, StockTwits and traditional media. An AI-based algo model makes recommendations, and explains why a specific stock might be moving. Currently has 30,000 users (under a freemium model) and boasts 79% accuracy.

Peak Soil Indexes – Aiming to “democratize farmland”, this is all about so-called “precision agriculture” – financializing farmland, creating a new asset class and offering a passive investment product, tracked by their own farmland index. It recognizes the demand for farmland, while offsetting some of the inherent risks of highly volatile crop prices.

SixJupiter – This is text-based robo advice platform. Focuses on liquidity, diversification and aggressive growth. Data suggests that 36% of the US population don’t get financial advice.

FreightWaves – A trucking futures marketplace, developed in response to a lack of market transparency and the corporate headwind of freight costs. Combines insights from market trends, regulatory factors and the impact of new technology. Primarily a content site, the service has achieved 1 million paid views per month.

PanXchange – An OTC marketplace for physical commodities – agri, energy, food and metals. Provides Instant access to realtime and historic data, for price discovery and for
trading futures and derivatives. Live data includes bid/offer spreads and trades (as opposed to traditional price reporting agencies. Its first key product has been a weekly benchmark price for Frac Sand.

Matrix Execution Technologies – Trading solution for active traders in equities, futures and options. Includes order management and executions services, especially for trading spot markets against listed contracts (such as CME and CBOE Bitcoin futures). Aimed as family offices and HNWIs.

Based on the judges’ verdict, the winners were:

1. PanXchange
2. Coinified
3. FreightWaves

* Declaration of interest: Barchart syndicates Brave New Coin news and technical analysis content

Next week: FinTech Exchange, Chicago

CoinAlts Fund Symposium, New York

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Following on from last week’s theme on Blockchain, crypto and asset management, the recent CoinAlts Fund Symposium in New York brought together various parts of the fund industry to discuss issues connected to crypto investment, portfolio management and back office solutions.

Although conducted under a veil of non-attribution, it wouldn’t be betraying any confidences to describe some of the key talking points. If anything, the main themes echoed much of what I have heard at similar events over the past 6 months: scaling transaction capacity and establishing Blockchain interoperability; building industry standards for this new asset class; and creating valuation models for new token issuance projects.

In addition, the conferences addressed operational matters such as crypto fund administration, audit, custody, taxation and client reporting. All the usual back office functions that are taken for granted in other asset classes.

What was particularly noticeable about this event was the lack of international participation. In fact, a number of the speakers almost berated the audience for choosing to ignore overseas industry, market and regulatory developments at their peril.

For example, on regulation, it was suggested that if the SEC doesn’t provide some constructive guidance on new token issuance (especially so-called security tokens), the USA could be left behind. Indeed, one industry representative stated that for his company, the USA is only their third largest market. Another presenter drew attention to the fact that South Korea (a leading marketplace for Blockchain and crypto) produces 15 times as many engineers as the USA, while the USA produces 40 times as many lawyers as South Korea.

A recurring theme throughout the day was that without formal standards, clearer regulation, and institutional-strength tools and infrastructure, major asset managers, pension funds and Wall Street firms will remain very cautious about investing in digital assets, whatever their current level of interest.

Next week: Startup Exchange, Chicago

 

Token Investment Summit, Vienna

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To demonstrate how far Blockchain, cryptocurrencies and digital assets have permeated the traditional world of asset management, the Token Investment Summit in Vienna (organised by Crypto42 and hosted by the Vienna University of Economics and Business) covered a number of topics of particular interest to institutional investors.

Brave New Coin Head of Research, Rafael Delfin introduces the General Taxonomy for Cryptographic Assets

William Mougayer kicked the day off, discussing the need to define “Blockchain fundamentals”. In particular, some of the token jargon needs to be better explained (air dropping, locking, burning), and some industry practices (token definition, protocol design, staking, and on-chain governance) require more formal and consistent standards. Projects need to address their “Token-Market Fit”; chains need to think about their scaling and interoperability; and tokens need to deal with decentralized exchanges, post trade clearing, and asset classification.

Next, Rafael Delfin from Brave New Coin presented the General Taxonomy for Cryptographic Assets (covered here before), followed by pitches on behalf of Rigoblock (decentralized fund infrastructure), HydroMiner (green mining), Conda (equity tokens via a crowdfunding platform), Artis (time-based value or asset transfer on chain), Streem (“start & end” events only) and Ocean Protocol (the data exchange network from BigChainDB).

There was an overview of ICO regulation, comparing some of the developments in Germany (Bundes Block’s Token Regulation Paper), Austria (University of Graz’s KryptoStaat project), Switzerland (FINMA paper on ICOs) and Gibraltar (GBX token listing using a risk-based model).

Much of the day was given over to discussing compliance, taxation, accounting, token economics and investment research (such as token valuation models, correlation analysis and crypto returns). There was also a local case study on the Optioment scam, and the potential criminal and civil breaches.

Finally, a panel of VCs provided their perspective how to navigate this asset class, as the industry weighs up the recent wave of more speculative tokens, and moves to more structured capital gains, especially from so-called security tokens.

Next week: CoinAlts Fund Symposium, New York