Overview
Introduction to the Deal Points Report
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
Crypto Pragmatist: Checkout these free crypto (trading) tools
Crypto Pragmatist | Newsletter | Apr 14, 2022
During our time in crypto, we've found hundreds of tools that promise to give you an edge—some good, some not so good. Finding the right tools is half the job, and garbage inputs yield garbage results. Today, we're sharing some of our favourite tools that help us successfully navigate the crypto space. While it's not a comprehensive list by any means, we've tried to include the tools with the highest signal-to-noise ratio, all of which are tools in our daily (or at least weekly) rotation. Oh, one more thing: they're all free.
Dune Analytics
Dune Analytics offers one of the best and most intuitive on-chain analytics platforms for both technical and non-technical investors. Crypto companies will sometimes create dashboards specific to their protocol via Dune, and these dashboards can be a useful tool to gain some additional insight into a potential investments. One of our favorite dashboards in Dune is DEX metrics, and although it doesn't give completely comprehensive data on DEXes, it fills in a big piece of the puzzle. The best part of Dune is that, at least for retail investors, you don’t really need the to pay for the 'full' version–the paid tool is primarily for protocols and institutions.
DexScreener
DexScreener, tackles the long-tail universe of crypto assets, supporting price charts for nearly all cryptos on any major blockchains. If you’re looking to track price data on a recently launched microcap, DexScreener is the way to go. Our favorite part, however, is the order book function that allows you to see and sort all of the trades that have happened on a given exchange. This feature helps you get a better idea of the magnitude and quantity of buys and sells that are taking place.
See: Are millions of NFT gamers in for an unpleasant surprise this tax season?
Koinly
Tax day is right around the corner, but tools like Koinly (we also like TaxBit) are extremely simple to use and could provide last-minute help to those that need it. Plug in your Coinbase, Binance, and Ethereum Address info (they’ll never need your password/seed phrase) and it’ll spit out the total capital gain/loss that you’ll be taxed on. Most crypto tax tools are quite rudimentary and nowhere near perfect, so we recommend reconciling transactions before accepting the tax bill that gets returned to you. But compared to doing it by hand, these tools are lifesavers.
Coindix
Coindix is a tool for yield farmers, showing users dashboards of interest rates and yield farms all in a single place. Whether you’re looking for super-high-yield degen ponzi farms or you just want some strong yields on your stablecoins, Coindix can point you in the right direction. Keep in mind–the service doesn’t really evaluate risk, so it’s important to perform due diligence before trying a new strategy.
See FintechCanada.io Directory: Blockchain, Crypto, Digital Asset companies in Canada
DeFi Llama
DeFi Llama is a DeFi dashboard that helps you explore the universe of DeFi not by token price, but by a whole host of secondary metrics from TVL to market cap. With a wide range of crypto asset types from Oracles to DEXes to Bridges, DeFi Llama is a one-stop-shop for anyone looking to explore DeFi below the surface level. We like to examine TVL and dig into the graphs that show how different layer one ecosystems develop relative to each other.
Visit Crypto Pragmatist --> 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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BIS Report: Can CBDCs be designed to help financial inclusion?
BIS | Raphael Auer, Holti Banka, Nana Yaa Boakye-Adjei, Ahmed Faragallah, Jon Frost, Harish Natarajan and Jermy Prenio | Apr 12, 2022
Overview
Central banks are considering how retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) may help support financial inclusion. While they are not a magic bullet, central banks see CBDC as a further tool to promote financial inclusion if this goal features prominently in the design from the get-go. In particular, central banks are considering design options around promoting innovation in the two-tiered financial system (eg allowing for novel non-bank payment service providers), offering a robust and low-cost public sector technological basis (with novel interfaces and offline payments), facilitating enrolment and education (via simplified due diligence and electronic know your customer) and fostering interoperability (both domestically and across borders). Together, these features can address a range of existing barriers to financial inclusion.
See: New UK report: Access to financial services: 1 in 7 people are financial excluded
This paper draws on interviews with nine central banks with advanced work on CBDCs and financial inclusion, as well as ongoing research and policy work at the BIS and World Bank. It gives concrete examples from the central banks' work and discusses challenges, risks and regulatory and legal implications. It aims to facilitate peer learning on a key set of issues around CBDCs and financial inclusion policy faced by societies around the world.
Summary
- Central banks are actively considering how retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) may fit with policy goals around financial inclusion.
- The interviewed central banks take the view that, while CBDC is not a panacea, it can represent a further tool to promote financial inclusion if designed with this goal.
- Barriers to financial inclusion differ across countries, but there were some common elements that came out in the interviews.
- Some central banks consider CBDCs as key to their mandate as a catalyst for innovation and economic development.
- Several central banks see CBDC more as a potential complement to existing financial inclusion initiatives.
See: BoC and MIT announce joint CBDC collaboration
Major challenges
- Obtaining buy-in from stakeholders and safeguarding data privacy were highlighted as two major challenges.
- BDC issuance may require new laws and regulations to be enacted, or existing laws to be revised.
Continue to the full article --> here
Download the 39 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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Major US Clearing House DTCC Building ‘Project Lithium’ to Test CBDC Real-Time Settlement
The Defiant | Samuel Haig | Apr 13, 2022
It takes a lot of complicated financial engineering to make it look like your stock market trades settle instantly. But in reality, it takes a vast shadow network of clearinghouses several days to shift your money around the market.
A new central bank digital currency (CBDC) prototype from the U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation wants to speed things up.
Read: Crypto Payments Report 2022: How digital currencies are revolutionizing commerce, corporates and culture
On Apr. 12, the DTCC announced that it’s building ‘Project Lithium’, a CBDC prototype that it’s using to explore whether a Federal Reserve-issued digital currency could clear a trade as soon as a brokerage sends the money.
The DTCC is very important; it processed $2.37 quadrillion worth of securities in 2021. Greasing its wheels could increase the efficiency of the financial markets by freeing up liquidity that would otherwise be tied up for several days.
“Project Lithium represents the next major step in our exploration of DLT, tokenization, and other emerging technologies,” said Jennifer Peve, who heads strategy and business development at the DTCC. “[It] will lay the groundwork for the financial community to better evaluate the implications of a CBDC across the trade lifecycle.”
China Ahead
China is further along in this race. Beijing first trialed a digital yuan in December 2019 and launched pilots in Shenzhen and Suzhou during the first half of 2020. Those pilots had expanded to more than 20 cities by the Winter Olympics in February.
See: Rich Turrin on EUs digital euro vision, U.S. eCash and China’s e-CNY + Shanghai Lockdown
Last month, Chinese officials estimated that the central bank had issued wallets to close to a fifth of China’s population – 261 million people – and that the network had processed nearly $14B billion.
Continue to 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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New UK report: Access to financial services: 1 in 7 people are financial excluded
LexisNexis | Apr 4, 2022
According to the World Bank, 1.7 billion, or around 30% of people across the globe lack access to useful and affordable financial services that meet their needs.
Access to affordable financial services can play a huge contributory role in social mobility. Those with a basic bank account, for example, are more likely to apply for credit and savings products, to own their own home and to protect their assets through insurance. Financially included people are more likely to be offered affordable rates on utilities and other credit risk-dependent services. Inclusion can vastly improve personal and economic outcomes – increasing the likelihood of people accessing proper healthcare and education, encouraging
entrepreneurialism and boosting consumption.
See: World Bank’s investment arm injects $10 million into FintechOS to help boost financial inclusion
Fintech is making it better but long way to go
The global financial inclusion picture has already vastly improved over the past 10 years. Since the last financial crash, an estimated extra 1.2 billion global citizens have gained access to basic financial services, driven in part by the rise of Fintech. Yet, inequality remains, with those from poorer households, rural areas and ethnic minorities disproportionately underserved.
One in seven financially excluded in the UK
Analysis shows that around 7.1 million people (one in seven, or around 14% of the adult population) in the UK fall into the definition of ‘financially excluded’, meaning they could potentially struggle to access affordable and fair financial services. It also found that over 637,000 people fall into the definition of Credit Invisibles, rendering almost three-quarters of a million people effectively un-scorable in credit-risk terms.
Regional matters
Combining 2.6 billion records with powerful statistical linking technology, the analysis also provides a detailed, regional overview of financial exclusion and its underlying causes across the UK adult population. Using data across 380 UK local authorities, LexisNexis® Risk Solutions has provided a granular picture of the extent to which populations, right down to community levels, could be suffering from financial exclusion and vulnerability. An interactive heat map shows how financial exclusion is distributed across the UK population, and how regions compare.
At the heart of the issue is the way in which providers traditionally determine risk.
See: So what is financial exclusion in the era of Open Finance?
Credit checks pull data from credit bureaus, which only look at a very narrow view of an individual. And they don’t just discriminate against bad credit history, but also look disapprovingly at so-called ‘thin credit files’, otherwise known as a lack of a credit history.
Continue to the full article --> here
View interactive Financial Exclusion heat maps --> here
Download the 27 page financial inclusion 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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Crypto Payments Report 2022: How digital currencies are revolutionizing commerce, corporates and culture
Checkout.com | Jess Houlgrave | Apr 5, 2022
Checkout.com surveyed 3,000 businesses and 30,000 consumers worldwide to help us look more closely at the use of cryptocurrency in payments today and the key implications of this shift for merchant businesses.
The outcome of this research is our Demystifying Crypto report, a comprehensive look at how both consumers and merchants in 11 countries are evaluating opportunities to adopt digital currencies.
We found several areas of innovation that stood out across commerce, corporates and culture. Here is a selection of the main takeaways from the report.
1. Commerce
There's been a sharp rise in people wanting to use cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. That’s up from less than 30% last year, marking a notable shift in how consumers are thinking about using cryptocurrencies.
- That growth looks set to continue this year, with 40% of 18-35-year-old consumers citing their desire to experiment with using crypto as a payment method.
See: Ignite Accelerator (ex-Tendermint) launches with $150 million for Web 3 projects
Curiosity amongst businesses around whether or not they should accept crypto payments is also increasing. Those who've already taken the leap are seeing impressive results.
- Many newcasinos-au.com/games/slots and gaming outlets have started accepting crypto.
- Over 80% say offering crypto has attracted new customers and they've observed a reduction in chargebacks.
- This success has led 77% of businesses that accept crypto to double down, iterating and experimenting with different coins to see which has the most benefits in attracting more customers and operational efficiency.
Trust and understanding of crypto particularly remain a significant barrier for many consumers. Consequently, a full-scale Web3 revolution looks highly doubtful. Instead, it's more likely that we'll continue to see a convergence of Web2 and #Web3, powered by those building the bridges between the two worlds.
2. Corporates
Businesses still have concerns about how regulation will impact the crypto space. It's therefore not surprising that a lack of a clear regulatory framework is the number one reason businesses cite for not using crypto.
See: Meta’s WhatsApp has launched a crypto payments U.S. pilot
- 65% of C-level executives surveyed believe that Web3 will change the B2C dynamic as consumers become creators or owners (of data).
- 69% of the businesses surveyed said the speed with which crypto payments can be made and settled has the potential to revolutionize their business models.
- 76% say accepting payments in crypto enables real-time revenue sharing while enhancing transparency to facilitate back-office reconciliation.
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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ESG report: Startups struggle on the E…but okay on the S and the G
Sifted | Freya Pratty | Mar 31, 2022
When it comes to ESG, startups are good on the S and the G; but struggle on the E.
Environmental, social and governance factors have gone from being a concern of specialist investors to a key part of mainstream investment strategy but, for all the talk, how are VC firms’ portfolio companies actually doing? Well — much better on the S and the G than the E, new research shows.
Better on diversity and mental health; bad on emissions and Startups struggle on net zero and emissions reduction
The average score for environmental metrics was 1.4 out of 4, compared to 2.6 for social and 2.7 for governance. In particular, startups showed strong progress on diversity and inclusion in the workplace and mental health provision. 57% of companies said they would provide diversity and inclusion training for their teams this year, and 58% said they have a mental health policy in place. Likewise, nearly 40% of businesses are looking to measure the gender pay gap.
See: Report: ESG Ratings and Data in Financial Services – Practitioners Perspective
The average performance of early-stage startups on environmental metrics is almost 50% lower than social and governance metrics. Just 7% of startups have a policy in place to achieve net zero carbon.
Fintech and SaaS score lowest on environmental metrics
There are some differences between sectors too. The research found that SaaS and fintech companies have struggled to adopt environmentally friendly practices at the rate of other industries. 65% of SaaS companies surveyed scored 1 out of 4 stars on environmental metrics. Ecommerce and manufacturing companies did well — scoring 3 stars on average.
Change has to come from investors as well as startups themselves, McCormick says. “It’s our responsibility as investors to take some of the burden away from startups that are struggling to know how get started,” she says.
Continue to the full article --> here
Download the 11 page PDF ESG 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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Osler Deal Points Report: Insights into Venture Capital Deals and Financings
Osler | Michael Grantmyre, Natalie Munroe, Ryan Unruch, David Jamieson, André Perey | Mar 22, 2022
Introduction to the Deal Points Report
Welcome to Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP’s inaugural annual comprehensive report on venture capital and growth equity financing transactions in the emerging and high growth companies ecosystem: the Deal Points Report: Venture Capital Financings.
The report synthesizes data from 332 venture capital and growth equity preferred share financings completed by Osler from 2019 to 2021, representing more than US$5.68 billion in total transaction value. The report is unique within the market as it draws on both publicly available data, as well as Osler’s confidential anonymized data sources, to deliver deeper access to comprehensive financing-related data.
See: Crowdfunding is Now a Serious Way for Private Ventures to Raise Capital
Select Highlights from the Deal Points Report
- There was a marginal decline in series A financings which is consistent with findings from other Canadian reports, such as those prepared by the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) and CPE Analytics.
- While 2020 saw a material increase in Series Seed and Series A financings and fewer Series B and later stage financings, the data for 2021 shows significant increases in Series B and other later stage financings, with only marginal declines in Series Seed and Series A financings.
- Companies in the Information Technology industry (including artificial intelligence, blockchain, adtech, edtech and cybersecurity) made up over 39% of all companies raising a financing round covered by the Deal Points Report, with Consumer / Retail based companies having the second highest concentration of financings, representing 19% of the financings covered by the Deal Points Report.
Osler has undertaken publishing the Deal Points Report as we believe this data should be available to all stakeholders within the emerging and high growth companies ecosystem.
See: Decentralizing Venture Capital: DAO
- Ontario and British Columbia have the highest concentration of companies raising a financing round – representing, respectively, 58.7% and 18.2% of all Canadian companies included in the Deal Points Report. This is consistent with the recent Year-End 2021 – Canadian VC & PE Market Overview released by the CVCA, which highlights a high concentration of investments in emerging and high growth companies located in Ontario and British Columbia.
- Steady increase in the number of companies founded by women at the seed financing stage covered by the Deal Points Report from 13.5% in 2019 to 20.5% in 2021, and overall representation of women founded companies in approximately 15% of all financings covered by the Deal Points Report.
- Pricing direction for financings – Up, Down and Flat rounds –generally aligned with U.S. reports, such as Fenwick’s Silicon Valley Venture Capital Survey [PDF] and Wilson Sonsini’s The Entrepreneurs Report [PDF]. In our Deal Points Report, 88.2% of financings covered were Up Rounds, with only a minority of transactions (7.2%) being Down Rounds.
- Valuations for companies in the Information Technology industry (including artificial intelligence, blockchain, adtech, edtech and cybersecurity) represented significant valuation increases between financings of, on average, 235%.
- The overall timing to close a financing, measured from the date a term sheet is executed until the initial closing date of the financing has steadily declined from 2019 to 2021, from 62 days to 52 days.
Continue to the full article --> here
Download the 42 page Deal Points 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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