Report Executive Summary
More than 350 fraudulent cryptocurrency tokens were created per day this year, defrauding millions of investors, according to blockchain risk monitoring firm Solidus Labs.
The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) today published 
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Research
FT Partners Jan 2023 Blockchain and Crypto Market Update Report
FT Partners | Jan 9, 2023
FT Partners is pleased to present you with the latest installment of our "CEO Monthly Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies Market Update & Analysis." The report can be downloaded here.
FinTech Financings
* Revolut Raises $1.25 billion in Financing at a $33 billion Valuation (FT Partners Advised)
* Bolt Raises $355 million in Financing at an $11 billion Valuation (FT Partners Advised)
* Upgrade Raises $280 million in Financing at a $6 billion Valuation (FT Partners Advised)
* Nium Raises $200 million in Financing (FT Partners Advised)
* CloudWalk Raises $150 million in Series C Financing (FT Partners Advised)
* Abra Raises $55 million in Series C Financing (FT Partners Advised)
* Amber Group Raises $300 million in Series C Financing
* TRM Labs Raises $70 million in Series B Financing
* Sardine Raises $52 million in Series B Financing
See: a16z: Big Fintech Ideas to Tackle in 2023
IPOs
* Robinhood Completes its IPO Raising $2.1 billion
* Coinbase Completes its Direct Public Offering
View the 66 page Docsend January 2023 report --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Generative AI Seed Deals Explode Despite Concerns
Pitchbook | Marina Temkin | Dec 23, 2022
Source: Pitchbook (as of Dec 23, 2022)
Generative AI has been around for years. But in the last 18 months, the language models that power most tools in the field have become stunningly good at creating art, writing and making other content with a human-like touch.
- Access to these innovations had been limited until late summer, when OpenAI and Stability AI made their so-called foundation models available to developers at an affordable price or in an open-source environment. Since then, the number of existing and new companies building products on top of these technological capabilities has exploded, and VCs are taking notice.
See: Gmail Creator Says AI Could Replace Google’s Search Engine Results Page Within 2 Years
- Seed deals explode: In 2022 alone, investors bet at least $1.37 billion on this crop of VC-backed companies across 78 deals—almost as much as was invested in all of the previous five years combined, according to PitchBook data. That's a rare bright spot in a year that saw deal values slump in most categories.
- Scale led a $10 million Series A for Regie.ai, a startup that automates blog posts and sales emails.
- In December, Runway, a developer of image-to-text and image-to-image generation tools, raised a $50 million Series C led by Felicis at a $500 million valuation.
- Other recent deals include a Series A for copywriting company Jasper, which garnered a $1.5 billion valuation in October.
- In November, Descript, an audio and editing company, was valued at $575 million in a deal led by OpenAI Startup Fund.
- Rapid adoption despite worries over ease of build: Much of the hype among VCs has focused on the rapid adoption of OpenAI's ChatGPT bot, which gained 1 million users in the first five days after its release in November.
- Olteanu said that she believes that foundation models could eventually become a commodity, and most of the value will be realized by the companies that customize the models for specific use cases.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Digital Assets Research: Blockchain Accounting and Tax Solutions
FT Partners | Steve McLaughlin | Dec 27, 2022
Report Executive Summary
- Growing demand for accounting/tax tools: As digital assets became more widely accepted, the need for corresponding tooling to meet accounting, reporting and tax requirements of both individuals and corporate users grew.
- Following a long period in which cryptocurrency traders and participants in the broader ecosystem were largely left to their own devices, tax authorities now apply increasingly elevated levels of scrutiny and enforcement action.
- In response, consumers and enterprises seek the means to both reactively and proactively ensure compliance with tax regimes.
- Recent market turbulence as the consequence of FTX's failure further underlines and incentivizes the need for appropriate accounting tools and procedures, whether for risk management, reporting purposes, or tax loss harvesting.
See: According to a Group of Economists, Unregulated Wash Trading is Impacting Tax Revenue
Key discussion topics of the report include:
- An overview of solutions designed to help meet reporting and tax obligations across a range of jurisdictions, including both general accounting and tax-reporting specific solutions targeting individuals, organizations, and tax professionals
- A detailed landscape of companies in the space
- A proprietary list of financing transactions
- Exclusive interviews with executives from eight leading companies
- Profiles of 30 highly relevant companies in the space
Access the 96 page report hosted on DocSend --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Linklaters: Crypto and DeFi: Understanding the Risk Landscape and Tackling the Shifting Outlook
Linklaters | Martyn Hopper | Dec 20, 2022
Credit: Linklaters
The digital asset market as a whole is experiencing turbulence. In the past year institutional investors have increasingly embraced crypto and other digital assets in their portfolios. As is often the case in distressed markets, there are now signs of a “flight to quality”.
- The decentralised finance (DeFi) space remains nascent, and faces challenges to be addressed over time.
- In light of some of the recent disruptive market events and apparent frauds involving arguably trusted, centralised crypto projects and entities, some point to DeFi’s potential for transparency and disclosure as a potential bright spot for the industry.
See: BoE Speech by Carolyn Wilkins on DeFi Governance Limits and Opportunities: Get Up, Stand Up!
- In this report, our global fintech team:
- Focuses on three significant jurisdictions in the global digital asset market – the U.S., the EU and the UK.
- Looks at the key legal risks associated with dealing with cryptoassets and decentralised networks.
- Explores the destabilising impact of key market events including insolvencies in 2022, which have in part arisen from well documented issues in the crypto and DeFi markets, and which have created a situation of heightened risk.
- Sets out the matrix of players, products and services in the mainstream and emerging finance markets.
- Considers how risks can play out in terms of increased regulatory scrutiny and enforcement and increased litigation.
- Suggests some practices for achieving and embedding a good legal risk management strategy for players in these markets.
Continue to the full article --> here
Download the 36 page PDF report --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Solidus Labs Research: 350 New ‘Scam Tokens’ Created Daily in 2022
Cointelegraph | Jesse Coghlan | Dec 18, 2022
More than 350 fraudulent cryptocurrency tokens were created per day this year, defrauding millions of investors, according to blockchain risk monitoring firm Solidus Labs.
- From the start of the year to Dec. 1, 117,629 “scam tokens” were deployed, according to Solidus’ 2022 “Rug Pull Report.”
- That’s a 41% increase from the nearly 83,400 scam tokens that Solidus detected in 2021.
- The report claims that BNB Chain harbors the greatest number of scam tokens, with 12% of all BEP-20 tokens being fraudulent.
- The Ethereum network was second, with a purported 8% of ERC-20 tokens alleged to be scams.
See: Trust Fallacy: 75% of Payment Fraud in Crypto is Carried Out by KYC-verified Accounts
- The most popular type of scam token was a “honeypot," which is a token smart contract that doesn’t allow buyers to resell.
- The most prolific “honeypot” in 2022 was the $3.3 million Squid Game (SQUID) token scam which grew 45,000% in a few days before anonymous founders apparently ran off with investor funds
- Centralized exchanges (CEXs) are also affected by rug pulls, as many behind these malicious tokens use them to fund their fraudulent project and cash out the ill-gotten gains.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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TransUnion: US Credit-Card Loan Delinquencies to Rise in 2023
BNN Bloomberg | | Dec 14, 2022
Image: Pexels/Monstera
US credit-card and personal-loan delinquencies are likely to rise in 2023 to the highest in a dozen years, with lenders cutting back on originations as a potential recession looms.
- Forecast released Wednesday by credit-reporting firm TransUnion:
- Serious card delinquencies are expected to climb to 2.6% at the end of next year from 2.1% at the close of 2022.
- Delinquency rates for unsecured personal loans are also expected to gain, to 4.3% from 4.1%.
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See: Walmart-backed Fintech Startup to Launch BNPL Loans
- Credit-card originations are expected to slump 7.6% next year while still remaining higher than last year’s total. The projected dropoff would follow two years of aggressive loan growth, especially for credit cards and personal loans, and serious-delinquency rates close to pre-pandemic levels.
- Outside of credit cards and personal loans, another area of lending is seeing a dropoff in originations: mortgages. The Federal Reserve has been boosting interest rates in an attempt to damp inflation, increases that have made their way into home-loan costs. The average rate for a 30-year, fixed loan surged past 7% this year — the first time it’s broken that level in two decades.
- Opportunity for lenders is in auto-loan originations, TransUnion said, with an expected growth of 6% across all borrower risk tiers in the fourth quarter of next year.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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OSC Report: How Gamification Influences Retail Investors
OSC | Nov 17, 2022
The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) today published Staff Notice 11-796 Digital Engagement Practices in Retail Investing: Gamification and Other Behavioural Techniques about a study that examined the influence of gamification and other behavioural techniques on retail investor behaviour.
- Tyler Fleming, Director of the Investor Office, OSC: It is easier now to start investing thanks to digital platforms, but those same platforms may influence retail investor decision-making in a way that impact outcomes — both positively and negatively. Our study examined and tested gamification and other behavioural techniques and their likely impact on retail investor behaviour.
- Experiment: A randomized controlled trial, involving 2,430 participants were given $10,000 in play money to buy and sell stocks in a simulated, digital trading environment.
See: CSA releases 2022-2025 Business Plan focused on investor protection
- Giving investors points for buying or selling stocks — a gamification technique.
- The experiment found participants who were rewarded with points for buying and selling stocks made 39% more trades than the control group even though the points had inconsequential economic value.
- Increasing the number of trades investors make is important because, on average, trading more frequently has a negative impact on investor returns. The concern that certain techniques may result in investors trading more is amplified given that low or no commission trading has reduced barriers to entry, and retail investors trading volumes have grown considerably.
- Showing investors a list of top traded stocks — a combination of two other behavioural techniques (i.e., salience and social norms).
- Participants who saw a list of top trades were 14% more likely than the control group to buy and sell those top listed stocks.
- This suggests that showing participants a top traded list can affect their trading decisions, nudging them to buy and sell stocks on the list. This can result in herding — a behaviour where a person follows what others are doing rather than deciding independently.
View the original release --> here
Download the 89 page PDF report --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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