INX got SEC approval for a groundbreaking token sale. But companies need to weigh the risks of engaging with regulators, General Counsel Cathy Yoon argues.
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Fintech Interviews and Podcasts
Toronto Centre interview with Dr. Kyrylo Shevchenko, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU)
Toronto Centre | Apr 1, 2022
Over the past month, almost a quarter of Ukraine’s population has been displaced. The UN estimates that over 6.5 million are displaced inside Ukraine and nearly 4 million have been forced to flee the country.
To put this into perspective, these numbers are larger than the population of many countries. As the devastating war continues to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis and destroy lives and livelihoods, the world is awed by the resilience and heroism of the Ukrainian people. The support shown by individuals and organizations from all over the world is inspiring and shines a ray of hope in these dark times.
Things that are happening in Ukraine because of Russia’s attack are indeed shocking. But we are strong and united. We protect our independence and have global support. I am sure that we will win! The NBU ensures its uninterrupted operation. We keep up the financial defense of the country. Dr. Kyrylo Shevchenko, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU)
See: Ways you can help support Ukraine
Babak Abbaszadeh, President and CEO [at Toronto Centre] was honoured to interview Dr. Kyrylo Shevchenko, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). We discussed financial stability, operational resiliency, the role of finance in this war, and the human dimension. Due to security concerns the interview could not be conducted live.
Download the 11 page PDF interview --> 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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Lex Fridman Podcast with Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal
Lex Fridman Podcast | Mar 27, 2022
Brett Johnson was a US Most Wanted cybercriminal, called the Original Internet Godfather by US Secret Service for building the first organized cybercrime community called ShadowCrew, which was the precursor to today's darknet and darknet markets.
OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
3:15 - Early years
37:32 - Phishing and social engineering
55:36 - SolarWinds cyberattack
1:01:23 - Future social engineering fears
1:04:04 - Early cybercrimes
1:16:38 - Cybercrime entrepreneurship
1:20:06 - ShadowCrew
1:51:10 - Dark web
1:59:56 - ShadowCrew arrested
2:11:55 - Cybercrime
2:17:02 - Love
2:49:06 - Prison
3:17:18 - Life after prison
3:39:06 - Advice for young people
3:40:30 - Hope for the future
3:43:59 - Meaning of life
Continue to the podcast video --> 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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Successful Founders Weigh In: 10 Key Things to Do When Starting A New Venture
Inc. | Doug Cantor | Mar 31, 2022
Successful founders weigh in on the issues you need to think about--and the ones everyone forgets to--when you're getting ready to launch. Check out 501Words for more information.
1. Define Your Purpose
"Begin by writing out a paragraph that is your brand story, authentic to only you. The who, what, where, and why of your purpose. This process is a great community-building exercise--editing and wordsmithing your company's essence. Take that paragraph and continue to whittle it down until you've created a tag line synonymous with your mission."-- Donie Yamamoto Founder, Vital Pet Life
See: Startup advice is confusing. Here’s how to make sense of 6 common contradictions
"Read it out loud and see if it sounds like something you could really say to your friends and family. Strip out all the jargon. If you can't say it out loud on a single breath of air, it's too long." -- Ethan Rasiel Co-founder and CEO, Lightspeed PR
5. Find Your Market
"Market first, problem second, idea last. I don't fall in love with an idea too quickly. Instead, I spend time up front understanding the market structure, confirming that there's a widespread, high-value problem to solve. If you've picked the right market, you can refine the problem you are working on. If you pick the right market and the right problem, you can refine your idea. The hardest thing to do is to pivot to a completely different market. Not impossible, but it's a painful transition." -- Ajeet Singh Co-founder and executive chairman, Thoughtspot
See: Decentralization of Startups (and Capital) Spur Economic Growth and New Startup Cities Across the U.S.
"When you aren't confident that your product directly serves a large enough market, you'll tend to open up your aim to a broader market, and you'll end up targeting no market at all. An overly broad message doesn't speak to anyone. A wide positioning just confuses potential buyers across a lot of various categories. A long feature list may lead you to believe your product will find a wider audience, but you risk never being the right solution for any single use case. Instead, have faith that if you pitch and serve one customer amazingly well, other customers will conform to your product, not the other way around." -- Joe Procopio Founder and CEO, TeachingStartup.com
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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Meridian CEO says Open banking is ‘an opportunity’ for credit unions
FP | | Mar 23, 2022
Meridian Credit Union Ltd. is looking at open banking as “an opportunity, not a problem,” says Jay-Ann Gilfoy, who took over as president and chief executive of Ontario’s largest credit union in January.
“We’re looking at it as: ‘How can this help us grow? How can this help us do the right things for our members?‘”
Gilfoy said in a recent interview with the Financial Post.
See: PwC’s Abraham Tachjian to be Canada’s open banking lead
I think we’re on a good path in terms of being able to address that as it relates to fintech partnerships and opportunities,” she added. The credit union system as a whole has certainly come from a cooperative framework … and then on top of that, we also share back-end resources — all of the technical things that help with making payments happen,” she said.
Settlement and clearing, for example, are done through credit union “centrals” that are cooperatively owned by credit unions in each province where they operate.
The big banks, by contrast, have legacy internal technology systems built up over decades and many more customers across the country.
“If you have a banking system, you’ve got millions and millions of customers on it. The risks of getting off that core banking system are really high,” said Gilfoy.
See: Ontario Credit Unions will be permitted to sell exempt market securities including 45-108-Crowdfunding
“Whereas credit unions have a variety of different core banking systems, but more modern, I think, in terms of design and ability.”
“We’re looking at our own technology, and our abilities to share data, protect data, make sure it’s safe from an information security perspective, but (also) we’re finding those potential partnership relationships that bring some kind of opportunity to our members, that maybe they would have had to go to a number of different places in the past to do so.”
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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Facebook-like metaverse potential disaster says Second Life creator Philip Rosedale
Nikkei Asia | | Mar 18, 2022
Philip Rosedale says technology is not yet ready for 3D immersive VR
TOKYO -- "Metaverse" has become a buzzword in tech, business and beyond since Mark Zuckerberg changed the name of his company from Facebook to Meta Platforms last October, signaling a new focus on creating a virtual world where people can "live" in the form of avatars.
But what is effectively a kind of metaverse has actually been available to consumers for nearly two decades -- ever since Linden Lab of San Francisco launched its Second Life platform in 2003.
Philip Rosedale, the inventor of Second Life and founder of Linden Lab, has a vision for the metaverse that contrasts sharply with Zuckerberg's plans. Now an adviser to Linden, he shared his views with Nikkei in a recent interview. Edited excerpts follow.
Q: How do you view Zuckerberg's version of the metaverse?
A: I have two observations. One is that we are not technologically ready yet for the 3D metaverse for virtual reality headsets. [The] technology does not yet exist. The second thing I would say, more specifically about Meta, is that the business model Facebook has historically used, based on a very sophisticated kind of advertising involving behavioral targeting with a lot of surveillance and personal data, is not a safe model to apply to the metaverse.
If you imagine putting people as avatars into a virtual world with that kind of surveillance and behavior modification going on, it would be extremely dangerous for everyone. In my opinion it simply cannot be allowed to happen.
See: 7 Ways the Metaverse is Changing Enterprises
Second Life is proof, at least for a certain size of audience, that you do not have to rely on that kind of business model and that you can create a virtual world where people have privacy.
Second Life's business model is based on fees. There are two kinds of fees. One is, if you choose to own a piece of land in Second Life, which is about the size of Los Angeles, you have to pay a monthly fee of about $20 per acre. The second type of fee is charged, when you sell some virtual merchandise to other people, on listing and transactions. It is like a single-digit percentage of the value traded. Not as large as Apple's App Store.
And you know what? Second Life is making more annual revenue per active user than Facebook or YouTube does. That shows a metaverse does not require the Facebook-like business model. But if Meta chooses to apply the Facebook model to its metaverses, that would be a terrible thing, even an existential threat.
Q: What do you mean when you say that technology is not ready yet?
A: One thing that sets a metaverse apart from the conventional internet is that it always has other people there. When you go to a conventional website to do shopping or to read news, there is nobody else there with you. You cannot look to your left or right and see other people. In a metaverse, experiences that we would like to realize there, like a college classroom or a live music event, require us to enable hundreds or even thousands of people to be there near each other with sight and sound of each other. And that is very difficult technology.
See: Meta reveals it’s built one of the world’s fastest supercomputers to power the metaverse
We at High Fidelity have worked on spatial audio for the last 10 years and today we can enable a couple of hundred people, or a little more than that, to share the same space with sound. But having a bunch of people visibly standing around at an event, looking interesting enough that you would want to walk up and talk to them, it is not technologically possible yet. There have to be advances in cloud computing, rendering and a number of other things to make that possible. I think it will happen in the next five years.
And VR headsets, they are more like 10 years away. Those are in a very early stage. Today they are very uncomfortable. Actually we do not have the scientific approach to fix the dizziness we feel when we wear the headsets. The problem is that any time you move in VR but your head or actual body is not moving, eventually it makes you sick. And it tends to make women somewhat sicker than men and that is a terrible problem if you are trying to create a social experience.
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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What Due Diligence Are VCs Looking For and Will You Pass?
Sifted | Julius Bachmann | Feb 7, 2022
Source: Unsplash
If you’re a founder pitching to a VC, chances are that investors are going to do due diligence not just on your company, but you and your founding team too. We call this “founder diligence”.
In part one of this series I wrote about how this process is failing investors and founders. Too often, evaluation processes are built on personality tests and frameworks that don’t capture founders’ potential to develop.
Elena Pantazi, talent partner at Northzone, says the VC looks for six dimensions in a founder; while the first three are considered on a “more the merrier” scale, the latter three have to balance out advantages and risks.
See: 7 Types of Investors to Avoid Like The Plague When Trying To Raise Capital For Your Startup
According to the firm, they look for founders with (1) a deep drive and personal motivation to be an entrepreneur, paired with (2) a growth mindset and openness for self-development. This in turn, enables them to (3) attract talented people around them when scaling the business. Similarly they view (4) having a healthy dose of self-confidence as a positive attribute that enables founders to go through the rough patches while staying humble. Finally, in terms of skill-sets, they (5) encourage founders to identify their own superpower and evolve into a thought partner across other business functions without (6) needing to exert too much control across all areas.
Digital+ Partners evaluates founders throughout a range of interactions, including the founder’s participation in deal meetings and pitches, and throughout the entire due diligence process. The assessments inform the investment decision, but also what support to provide post-investment, and are based on five dimensions: leading self, leading others, leading by results, leading as a founder and leading with knowledge.
“In the diligence process, I participate in most of the meetings and observe teams and individuals: how do they act? How do they respond to questions? How do they interact with each other? Sometimes, I also provoke and push founders on their answers, to see how they react,” she says.
See: Are you a Pig, Gazelle or Bear? Beyond Unicorns, Zoology of startups
Entrepreneur First looks at five criteria in determining founder ability but emphasises that founders rarely score highly on all of these. These abilities also don’t necessarily have to have been demonstrated in work or study, but in hobbies, side projects or sports.
“We don’t believe past experience or knowledge is relevant to your future success. We don’t select or put in our first money based on ideas at all,” says founder Alice Bentinck. “What we are interested in is the behaviour and abilities that you have relative to your peer group.”
They are:
- Challenges convention: individuals who have taken surprising paths or decisions or challenged the status quo, compared to their peers.
- Drive to achieve: individuals with a bias to action, who are driven to build and create.
- Followership: individuals who have had people follow their decisions and actions in the past and can unite people around a common goal.
- Smart, with clarity of thought: individuals with problem-solving skills to tackle the macro and the micro. They can develop and communicate complex ideas to a range of stakeholders.
- Technical knowledge, and applicability or commerciality: EF looks for technical knowledge from potential future chief technology officers (CTOs) and specifically, individuals with the ability to apply this knowledge to solve problems, or “applicability”. And with CEO candidates, EF looks for an understanding of technology as it can be applied across industries and how that relates to the customer, or their “commerciality”.
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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Top Crypto Lawyer says Don’t wait for the SEC
Protocol.com | Benjamin Pimentel | Feb 4, 2022
INX got SEC approval for a groundbreaking token sale. But companies need to weigh the risks of engaging with regulators, General Counsel Cathy Yoon argues.
INX made history last year with the first-ever public offering of a digital security registered with the SEC.
That move by the blockchain-based service for trading cryptocurrencies and digital assets was a big deal at the time: The SEC has had a reputation for being particularly tough on crypto, and companies have long complained that the agency hasn’t put out clear rules for how they should operate. This was highlighted by legal disputes between the SEC and players like Coinbase and Ripple.
General Counsel Cathy Yoon said INX’s IPO was a triumph for a company whose CEO, Shy Datika, wanted to “issue something digital without having the SEC come after me,” she told Protocol. INX did it by working closely with the SEC and doing everything by the book, a process Yoon described as “a 950-day journey” with the regulator.
See: SEC Regulation: Constructing a Crypto Regulatory Framework – New Tech, Old Rules
But Yoon offers this advice to crypto companies: Waiting for the SEC’s blessing isn’t always the smart move.
“My biggest concern is that companies will go to the SEC or other regulators with the idea that if you can get permission before you do it, that you're going to be OK,” Yoon said.
Yoon elaborated on how she thinks crypto companies should deal with the SEC in an interview with Protocol. She also talked about what to expect in the coming regulatory battles over crypto, why she’s unimpressed both with SEC Chairman Gary Gensler and Coinbase’s proposal for a separate crypto regulator, and her misgivings about a plan for a digital dollar.
What is your biggest worry on the regulatory front this year?
My biggest concern is that companies, projects and founders will go to the SEC or other regulators with the invitation, “Come speak with us,” with the idea that if you can get permission before you do it, that you're going to be OK.
But in order to get to the place where you go to the SEC with your proposal, you've already [spent] a lot of money. You have to build the team. You have to build the tech. You've incurred legal fees, auditing fees. [Maybe] the SEC is going to make a good-faith effort and try to help you find a solution. But that might take 18 months. If you're pre-revenue, how are you going to survive for 18 months while waiting for the SEC?
See: Gensler Speech Addresses Dynamic Regulation And Market Modernization
What allegedly happened with Coinbase when they went to speak with them — I only know Coinbase’s side — but they were served with a Wells notice. There would be potential enforcement action based on that meeting. Why would anyone go speak with the SEC if that's a potential outcome?
My approach is: I have a pretty good understanding of the existing rules and regulations. I’m a pretty smart lawyer. I’ve been doing this for a while. I think I can make a good-faith effort or attempt to look a regulator in the eye and say, “You know what, I'm not going to ask for permission. These are the current rules and regulations, and this is how I'm going to steer my company to do things.”
I'm not going to wait. I'm going to make sure that we try to bring revenue in the door and survive. And I'm hoping that approach will work. Instead of being shut down, [the regulator would say,] “We understand why you did it. We don't like why you did it this way. So maybe you can do it this way.”
See: Deloitte: Financial Markets Regulatory Outlook 2022
I think that would be the better approach. My fear right now is that it doesn't seem to me that the SEC, even if you went to them, would even be able to work with you to come out with a workable solution. So why are you going to wait when you can do things in a compliant manner, put something down and give the SEC something to work with?
As an operating company, I juggle every day: How much do I go and try to help move my company forward without asking for permission? What is that risk profile? Or do I stop everything and ask for permission? My biggest concern is that people will stop everything.
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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