Critics question plans to unwind Trump-era rules
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Voices
4 Online Marketing Strategies to Expand Your Digital Presence and Boost Your Sales
Guest Post | July 7 , 2021
Without the right online marketing strategies, keeping up with the ever changing ecommerce landscape and running successful campaigns become exceedingly challenging.
Failing to create, maintain, and refine agile marketing strategies, such as streamlining and scaling your content marketing process, also leads to wasted resources and little returns for your efforts.
The good news is, there are tried and tested online marketing strategies to increase your visibility and, ultimately, skyrocket your sales, which you’ll learn in this guide.
Timeless online marketing strategies
In this guide, we’ll look into the fundamental online marketing strategies and their related tactics and approaches to help you reach your marketing goals.
1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
Optimizing your website and content for search engines helps you increase your online visibility and drive organic search traffic to your site.
You need to optimize for mobile first indexing, make sure your pages load fast, add proper metadata, etc.
Keyword research is also crucial.
Performing keyword research gives you insights into what your audience searches for online, which keywords to rank for, and which ones to target for your content marketing strategies (among others).
Use SEO tools such as Ubersuggest to get valuable keyword data, such as the estimated monthly search volume, competition in organic and paid search, the average cost per click, etc.
The tool also gives you keyword ideas from search terms people type into Google, including questions, prepositions, related, comparisons, and suggestions.
If you’re targeting keywords such as IT marketing, for instance, you’ll get content ideas through the top page titles and URLs ranking for the same keyword, including their estimated monthly traffic, incoming hyperlinks, and social shares.
This helps you assess the keyword’s feasibility to help increase your search visibility and bolster your marketing for technology efforts.
2. Content marketing
Content marketing is crucial because it helps you educate prospects about the value of your products and services.
Your content marketing strategies also let you share relevant information that answers your audiences’ problems, allowing you to be a thought leader in your industry.
Fuel your content marketing strategies by publishing blogs and following these tips.
- Post relevant articles to drive traffic to your website. Publishing valuable blog posts grows the number of web pages search engines will index, which can help increase your search results ranking and visibility.
- Increase brand exposure through high-quality content. Create excellent content that resonates with your audience. This makes your blogs highly shareable on other channels, such as social media.
Tools such as Grammarly help you check your content for clarity, grammatical errors, and your blog post’s overall quality.
The tool also analyzes your write up and provides specific suggestions to improve the correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery.
- Use proper format. Properly formatting your blog post helps your readers consume your content easily, stay longer on your website, and, ultimately, act on your conversion goals.
Additional tip: Ensure proper formatting throughout your site when you follow a WordPress customization guide to provide excellent navigation and content readability to your visitors.
3. Email marketing
Email marketing provides you a direct channel for your business, current customers, and prospects to communicate and interact.
However, you need to carry out the right approach carefully. This helps ensure your email marketing campaigns are successful, and you don’t end up getting flagged as spam, which could put your efforts to waste.
See: 4 Aspects in Your Ecommerce Business You Should Automate
Here are some quick email marketing 101 tactics to help drive your strategy.
- Offer lead magnets. Entice your prospects to sign up and give you their email addresses by offering them something valuable in return.
This could be anything, from free ebooks and training to exclusive offers and discount codes, including other offers related to your products and services.
- Segment your audience. Group your audiences according to many factors such as age, demographics, buying behavior, level of engagement, and more.
Doing so allows you to send personalized and targeted emails to specific audience segments, such as leads you want to nurture into sales and those you’re building brand and authority.
- Split test your emails. Test different versions of your email marketing conversion elements to check which ones your audiences respond to best.
See: How to Boost your Crowdfunding Campaign with SEO
Split test elements including your subject line, design elements (such as the layout, length, color, etc.), content, call-to-action, and more.
4. Create a mobile app
There are tons of advantages to having a mobile app if you own an ecommerce business.
When you have a mobile app, you make it convenient for your customers to transact with you.
You can also skyrocket your conversion rates to nauseous heights since you have your customer's full attention when they’re on your mobile app. Unlike other platforms where your customers can see ads or competitor products that might distract them from purchasing.
Repeat purchases is another benefit you can enjoy. Because your customers have your app, there’s a high chance they’ll buy again from you since they can view your products when they’re on your app.
One thing you should remember when creating apps is you should backup your critical business codes. Suppose your using Azure DevOps to create your mobile app, you need to be religious about executing your Azure DevOps backups to protect your company against cybercriminals, reduce your downtimes, and comply with certain government regulations, among other things.
Consistently backing up your codes is crucial to protect your business from needless downtimes and cybercriminals.
5. Social media marketing
Social media platforms let you build a following and connect with your audience to help raise your brand awareness, generate website traffic, and boost sales.
Social media marketing includes listening to and engaging your audience, publishing great content on your pages, running social media ads, and others.
Bolster your social media marketing strategy by considering these tips.
- Create campaigns for the right social channels. Know which social media platforms your target audiences are on to help you tailor your marketing efforts.
For instance, avoid running ads on Pinterest if your target audiences are older males audiences since most Pinterest users are females.
- Perform social listening. Establish your brand’s reputation by building an active social presence and learn what people are saying about your brand on social channels.
Use social listening tools such as Social Searcher to get real-time mentions monitoring about your brand on the web and in social media from one platform.
This helps you manage your social media presence, shape your strategies, increase positive hype about your brand, and handle the potential negative press.
Learning these evergreen marketing tips that work will help drive your strategies forward and you’ll gain excellent returns.
Streamlining your marketing campaigns
Now that we’ve shared with you five tried and tested marketing strategies you can implement to grow your online sales, take inventory of the buying process your customers undergo when they’re making a purchase.
See: 4 Important strategies to help your business recover from coronavirus
Make sure the process is seamless and frictionless.
If you’re running a brick and mortar store, you need to pique the attention of your casual web visitors, entice them to visit your store so they can purchase your products, take out their wallets so you can process the transaction through your computerized cash registers, set up a relationship building sequence so those who bought from you will purchase again, etc.
The more frictionless the process becomes for your customers, the easier it is for them to make the purchase.
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
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
SEC faces backlash as it lays out regulatory agenda
Investment Executive | James Langton | Jun 14, 2021
Critics question plans to unwind Trump-era rules
Following a surge in retail trading this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering rules to address the “gamification” of trading on mobile apps, yet critics say it’s missing the mark by seeking to undo work carried out under former U.S. president Donald Trump.
In its latest regulatory agenda, which sets out an array of short- and long-term actions the regulator is planning, the SEC said it’s considering measures to enhance retail investor protection. For instance, the commission is considering potential rules to address “gamification, behavioural prompts, predictive analytics, and differential marketing.”
Whether the SEC addresses the issue remains to be seen — work in this area is still at the “pre-rule” stage.
Other areas that are facing possible scrutiny include tougher investor protection in the exempt market; a possible consultation on the role of index providers and other third-party firms, and their implications for the asset management industry; and possible rules to combat fraud and manipulation in the security-based swaps market.
See: US financial regulator warns against strict cryptocurrency rules
These potential new areas for SEC action are in addition to its existing rule making efforts in an array of areas, including climate risk disclosure, board and workforce diversity, market structure modernization, and enhancing shareholder democracy.
However, the proposed agenda is coming under fire from a couple of the SEC’s conservative commissioners —
Hester Peirce and Elad Roisman — who issued a joint statement saying
"the agenda is missing some important priorities including rules to provide clarity for digital assets, allow companies to compensate gig workers with equity, and revisit proxy plumbing.”
These omissions may reflect the fact that the SEC is also looking to scrap some of the work done under the previous administration, they suggested.
“As far as we can tell, the agency has received no new information which would warrant opening up any of these rules for further changes at this time. We are disappointed that the commission would dedicate our scarce resources to rehashing newly completed rules,” they said.
See:
-
SEC v. Ripple: Implications of Ripple’s Fair Notice Defense
-
FFCON21 On-Demand Video: Digitally Connected Retail Investors and IPO Innovations
“We hope chair Gensler will reconsider the need to revisit freshly minted rules, but we look forward to working with him and our fellow commissioners on other rulemaking initiatives reflected on the agenda and on addressing issues of perennial importance such as elder investor fraud and small business capital formation,” they concluded.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
Go Beyond ROI With Return on Experience in Banking
The Financial Brand | Jim Marous | Jul 2, 2021
Measuring return on experience (ROX) across the customer journey is becoming more important as a measure of a company’s success. Moving beyond traditional return on investment (ROI) metrics, financial institutions must evaluate how well they are meeting customer and employee expectations around products and services, digital delivery, cross-channel integration and sustainability.
With differentiation of product and pricing increasingly difficult, and convenience being defined by the simplicity of mobile and online engagement, financial institutions are rethinking how they deliver an exceptional experience across the entire customer journey. With consumer expectations increasing faster than ever, delivering emotionally rich journeys that lead to higher levels of engagement becomes an imperative.
Leading financial institutions are improving experiences by simplifying back-office processes and delivering intuitive solutions across all channels. Research from Forrester found that organizations that invest in experience transformation across people, process and technology demonstrate superior performance, including reduced costs, improved employee satisfaction, increased revenues and greater loyalty.
See: How HR Leaders are Building the Organization of the Future
In fact, Forrester found that experience-driven financial institutions were 1.3x more likely to exceed revenue growth expectations, 1.8x more likely to see improved customer satisfaction scores, and generate 2.5x more website visits compared to other firms. “Banks and credit unions must transform their organizations with an obsession for the customer, with processes that drive continuous improvement through customer insights, people who can design and deliver great experiences, and technology that enables those experiences,” stated Forrester.
Consumer Behaviors Changed by the Pandemic are Sticking
During the Covid shutdown, consumers had to respond immediately and adopt new habits. Many wondered whether these changes – many of which accelerated trends that were already in motion – would be temporary or permanent. PwC’s June 2021 Global Consumer Insights Pulse Survey, conducted in March 2021, found that the most changes are sticking.
Consumers are more price-sensitive, more savings-oriented, more digital and more conscious of the environment. They also want organizations who know them, look out for their well-being, and are “local.”
In fact, research from PwC revealed that companies that make customer experience a priority can charge a premium of up to 16% for their products and services.
See: Financial data unbound: The value of open data for individuals and institutions
The Importance of Return on Experience
Financial institutions are increasingly exploring return on experience (ROX), a metric that captures the results of investments in digital experiences. The benefit of tracking these metrics is that it expands beyond traditional satisfaction scores or product-line measures to provide a global perspective on the bottom-line benefits of delivering superior experiences. This metric can also keep experience projects on track and make them more successful.
The ROX Equation: Net Value of Benefits / Cost of Investment x 100%.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
10 Highlights From Goldman Sachs’ June 2021 Digital Asset Thought Piece
Lou Kerner on Medium | Jun 20, 2021
In its June cryptocurrency report entitled “Digital Assets: Beauty Is Not in the Eye of the Beholder,” Goldman Sachs’ Investment Strategy Group opined for 60 pages on the cryptocurrency ecosystem with the purpose of providing “ … an objective and balanced view on the role of cryptocurrencies in a portfolio.”
While the authors of the Goldman Sachs report believe that “It is likely that blockchain technology will be as high impact in the future as the internet has been over the past several decades,” they see a much more uncertain future for cryptocurrencies and how it will be used by their clients.
For all the disappointment, I applaud the effort, and assume they’ll get it right over time. So I suggest serious crypto investors read the entire report. But recognizing that most people won’t read it, here are the 10 points made in the report that I found most telling:
1. Goldman Report Highlights A Wide Spectrum Of Thoughts On The Crypto Ecosystem
At one end of the spectrum are proponents whose basic premise is that the U.S. government is on an inexorable march to currency debasement. Hence, the the world needs trusted alternatives like Bitcoin.
See: Goldman Sachs Reconsiders Whether Bitcoin is Legitimate Asset
At the other end of the spectrum are naysayers who dismiss cryptocurrencies as having no tangible value as discerned via traditional valuation methods.
Unfortunately, Goldman Sachs is very much in the latter camp, and the report’s authors state that proponents ignore that “ … the reserve currency status of the US dollar is arrived at by world consensus and backed by a $21 trillion economy.”
3. Goldman: ‘Of the three roles that Bitcoin was purported to play in the real world, we believe that none has materialized,’ including store of value
Goldman’s report noted that the original objective of Bitcoin was a peer-to-peer payment system (i.e. a currency). However, the digital currency is too slow, and its throughput is too limited, to serve that purpose. Goldman also stated that Bitcoin is too volatile to be a medium of exchange. Its volatility also precludes the cryptocurrency from being a unit of measurement for pricing goods like crude oil.
See: ‘Last year we saw about a 300% increase in transactions just using cryptocurrency’: Coinpayments CEO
Most notably, the authors of the report don’t believe that Bitcoin’s a long-term store of value or an investable asset class for diversified portfolios. Interestingly enough, Goldman Sachs has stated before that it doesn’t believe gold to be an investable asset class either. So claiming that Bitcoin is “digital gold” doesn’t confer any value to the digital currency.
3. Goldman On The Bitcoin Blockchain: ‘Its greatest success has been in inspiring the development of blockchains with faster transaction speeds and far greater functionality’
Goldman highlighted Ethereum’s enablement of decentralized applications (DApps) on its blockchain, built to use smart contracts, which allow computer programs to be executed on the blockchain. Goldman highlighted these six blockchains but Goldman gave no insight as to why these six blockchains were highlighted, while others, like Cardano, Hedera, Stellar, Casper, and Avalanche, were not. The first section of the report (Understanding the Digital Assets Ecosystem: Bitcoin, Blockchains and Web 3.0) finishes with “Use Cases of Blockchain Technology,” with only a brief discussion of DeFi.
4. Goldman: “We do not believe that cryptocurrencies are a strategic asset class that adds value to our clients’ portfolios”
The Goldman Sachs report describes Bitcoin as “the oldest and has the largest market capitalization among cryptocurrencies.” Bitcoin was not the first cryptocurrency, as various parties worked on cryptocurrencies before the first units of bitcoin were mined in 2009. The second claim made in the report, that bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market value, was true at the time of this report, according to CoinDesk data.
See: BuyProperly Raises $2M to Bring Accessible Real Estate Investing to Canada and the US
Due to bitcoin’s prominence in the word of digital currencies, Goldman focused on this particular digital asset to present the analysis that crypto is not an investable asset, as it does not meet at least 3 of the 5 criteria:
- Generate steady, reliable cash flow on a contractual basis, like bonds
- Generate earnings through exposure to economic growth, like equities
- Provide consistent and reliable diversification benefits to a portfolio
- Dampen volatility
- Provide consistent and reliable evidence of hedging inflation or deflation as a store of value
According to Goldman’s “robust optimization model,” given it’s volatility, risk premium, and Sharpe ratio, Bitcoin would need to return 165% per annum to strategically allocate 1% of a moderate-risk portfolio to Bitcoin. Since January 2014, Bitcoin has provided an annualized return of 69%, far from the levels Goldman would need to justify an allocation.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
Day Trading Tips for Beginners
Guest Post | Jun 18, 2021
Day trading was hugely popular back in the 1990s but its popularity waned with the turn of the millennium. Now, it's starting to make a comeback in a big way, with more and more people taking an active interest in these unique forms of trading. Some hope to use it as a side hustle for a little extra money on the side, while others hope to turn it into a career or make enough money to live from.
Whatever your dreams and aspirations for day trading happen to be, it's important to take some time, learn about your options and risks, research different strategies, and find all the help you can get before you get started. Becoming a successful day trader isn't something that happens overnight, but with patience and hard work, along with strong stock market analysis and strategy, you can get there.
The More You Know
The first tip to get off to a good start with day trading is to be willing to learn. As stated in the introduction, this isn't something you can rush into and succeed at without any planning, preparation, or education, and there are a lot of myths about day trading you need to dispel before you start.
Many people are drawn in by the allure of instant profits that are associated with day trading, but this method, like any other trading method, requires patience, skill, and hard work. You have to take the time to learn the basics, look online for guides and tutorials, educate yourself on strategies, etc.
Stay Up to Date on Stock Market News
As well as educating yourself on the ways of day trading, you also need to keep up with stock market news and updates connected to the companies you're interested in trading with. After all, a lot of day trading strategies are based around volatility, and you need to know what's going on with companies and markets in order to spot volatility in the first place.
No matter what sort of strategy you want to try, you need to keep yourself informed and up to date on economic outlooks, stock market updates, events that might affect the stocks you care about, company information on the stocks you trade with, and so on. Find a few good sources of business and financial news you can rely on.
Manage Your Funds with Care
A big part of being successful in any kind of trading is knowing how to manage your capital. Too often, people risk too much or invest inconsistent amounts, leading to a lack of consistency in their results. Or you might make the mistake of chasing losses or risking too much on a single trade.
You have to be really careful with your cash, only investing whatever you're willing to lose and setting yourself rules for investment amounts. For example, a lot of day traders only invest 1% of their accounts on each trade. So if you're starting off with an account of $10,000, this rule would let you put $100 on each trade.
Be Prepared to Put in a Lot of Time
Even though day trading can be a successful side hustle, you'll need to be willing and able to put a lot of time into it if you really want to see success. It's not necessarily something you can do for a couple of hours a day if you hope to see real returns. You need to be willing to dedicate most of the day to it.
Volatility and good buying/selling opportunities can arise at any time of day and may appear and disappear at a moment's notice. The more time you're online monitoring the markets, the more likely you'll be to spot these opportunities and take advantage of them.
Start Small
A good method for beginners when it comes to day trading is to start small. There's no need to rush in and confuse yourself with too many different stocks. Try to pick just one or two stocks to focus on over the course of your first sessions.
See: Fintech Trends to Watch for This Year
It's a lot easier to spot trends and opportunities if you only have to keep your eyes on a small amount of stocks, as compared to managing lots of different stocks all at once. Start off small like this and gradually build your way up to more advanced day trading.
Final Word
Day trading can bring you a lot of success and money, but you have to be willing to start slowly and patiently, putting in the requisite time and effort to learn the systems and spot the opportunities. Follow these tips to get off to a good start.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
How blockchain and cryptocurrencies can help build a greener future
WEF | Stephen Stonberg | Jun 17, 2021
As with the feverish debate around Bitcoin and its carbon footprint, there has been no shortage of discussion surrounding cryptocurrencies and the energy they consume. But this back and forth around crypto’s environmental impact is missing a glaring point. It is important to recognize that crypto is still in its very early stages, not dissimilar to where the internet was in 2002. The entire space is going through its Amazon moment. The first decade of this cryptocurrency experiment has grown far beyond anybody’s wildest expectations. At the same time, it has allowed those of us in the industry to identify what works and what doesn’t.
For example, the proof-of-work consensus algorithms (the mathematical problems that Bitcoin miners must solve) that power the Bitcoin network do indeed require a lot of energy. But what these arguments about Bitcoin’s environmental impact obscure is that the broader crypto ecosystem is in the midst of a shift towards a cleaner, greener, more sustainable future that will result in significantly lower carbon emissions.
See: Ethereum cryptocurrency to slash carbon emissions
This can be seen with the launch of Ethereum 2.0 and the move from a proof of work (PoW) consensus to a proof of stake model (PoS) allowing miners to mine and validate block transactions based on the amount of coins that they hold. Because PoS demands significantly lower hardware requirements than PoW, the energy needed to facilitate secure transactions will only continue to fall in the future. Some forecasting models show that Ethereum 2.0’s PoS model will be 99% more energy efficient than PoW models.
We are already seeing the results of what we can expect from PoS, with the Ethereum network consuming almost 100 Twh less than the Bitcoin network. Ethereum is hardly alone in this consensus revolution, with ascendant, next-generation blockchains like Cardano, Polkadot, EOS and Cosmos each implementing their own versions of PoS.
But even if we put aside these developments and focus strictly on the assertion that crypto is a threat to the planet, it is important to distinguish the sources of energy that crypto miners use, with data indicating that most of the electricity used for crypto mining comes from renewable sources.
Research from the University of Cambridge shows that the renewable share of these energy mining pools is as high as 78%. Although there are exceptions depending upon which region of the world you’re focusing on, hydroelectric power, in particular, is rapidly emerging as the de facto power source for crypto-mining operations.
Another factor to consider is that crypto miners are increasingly using excess electricity that would otherwise go to waste. The emergence of crypto mining farms has soaked up extra capacity and prevented the waste of unused renewable energy.
See: Cryptocurrency and energy consumption debate
It is also important to note that the traditional international financial system requires significantly more energy than the Bitcoin network. All of the disparate parts that make up the whole of the global banking network – banking data centres, card network data centres, ATMs and bank branches – use a lot of energy. In fact, the traditional financial sector provides financing for some of the most environmentally damaging projects on Earth.
If we’re really looking for an ecologically destructive force, we should focus on gold mining. After all, this is an industrial sector that is heavily dependent upon fossil fuels. Even the industry’s main lobbying arm, the World Gold Council, has acknowledged the metal’s huge carbon footprint, highlighting in a recent report that the industry's emissions need to fall by 80% over the next 30 years in order to meet the Paris Climate Agreement targets.
So if we acknowledge that traditional finance and mining account for a significantly larger share of greenhouse gas emissions than crypto, the question we should be asking ourselves is how crypto and blockchain can actually lead the way and become a positive, transformative force for the energy sector, slashing operating costs and opening up a new window of transparency.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
Doug Ellenoff on US Reg CF Increasing Issuer Caps to $5 million: Investment Crowdfunding Will Challenge Traditional Venture Capital
Crowdfund Insider | | Jun 15, 2021
The US investment crowdfunding industry received a boost this year as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adjusted the securities exemptions that platforms and issuers utilize to raise growth capital online. Along with other improvements, key changes include the adjustment of Reg CF (Regulation Crowdfunding) to allow for the funding of up to $5 million – from a previously anemic $1.07 million, and a boost to Reg A+ to up to $75 million from $50 million.
Many, if not most securities crowdfunding platforms, utilize the three main crowdfunding exemptions – Reg CF, Reg A+, and Reg D 506c. Reg D, currently available only to accredited investors, remains the most popular securities exemption in the US powering a $1 trillion private capital market.
Recently, Crowdfund Insider connected with Doug Ellenoff, Managing Partner of Ellenoff, Grossman, and Schole – a top legal firm engaged with the Fintech sector, as well as a leading SPAC advisor, for his thoughts on the future of online capital formation. Ellenoff has been engaged with securities crowdfunding since before the JOBS Act of 2012 emerged as the legislative path to legalize raising capital on a digital platform. Counsel to the Association of Online Investment Platforms, and a regular suspect within the halls of Congress and financial regulatory agencies, Ellenoff has long been an advocate for the emerging industry. CI asked Ellenoff for his expectations for the industry in the coming years.
Reg CF received a material boost from the SEC in March by increasing the funding cap to $5M. Beyond more money, how will this impact the ecosystem? More quality firms? What else?
Doug Ellenoff: Limiting Reg CF to a million served several regulatory functions, it contained the severity of any problems that may have arisen with investors had the program had inherent issues, it marginalized its utility to issuers and as a result stigmatized it as being “rink dink”. This caused large law firms, accounting firms, and investment firms to explain it away as something without much use and more of an amusing fad. The miscalculation though in my judgment was that entrepreneurs aren’t dissuaded by passive-aggressive roadblocks, they are emboldened, and used the 5 last years to demonstrate that the stated concerns for fraud were without statistical merit.
See: NCFA Response to CSA on NI 45-110 Harmonized Securities Crowdfunding Rules
If regulators and investor protection advocates were self-reflective, they’d go back and remind themselves of their standard narratives in 2012 and learn how misguided they were in frustrating the landmark legislation. The peddling of concerns of fraud were never legitimate for Reg CF and merely a tactic. Raising the $1mm threshold amount to $5mm is a simple and clear statement that the industry from the platform operators to the entrepreneurs have conducted themselves admirably because if they hadn’t, the program wouldn’t be poised for continued and expansive growth.
The $5mm cap will attract bigger and more interesting dealflow, addressing larger addressable markets, and likely but certainly no guarantee, quicker and larger exits.
Besides more entrants to becoming platforms, I’d expect more established capital markets professionals and firms to tiptoe in as well. At $1mm, you are competing directly with “friends and family” funding rounds, at $5mm you are becoming more competitive with smaller venture firms and family offices. It’s exciting and validating and the trajectory couldn’t be more clear.
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
| | |
|---|---|---|
| | |
