digital

Jan 22 2021

YIELD App, Created by Fintech and Cybersecurity Experts, to Expand its DeFi focused Digital Banking Solution to Avalanche

YIELD App is getting ready to expand its decentralized finance (DeFi) banking solution to Avalanche.

According to a blog post published on January 22, 2021 by Ava Labs, which supports the ongoing development of Avalanche, a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-focused platform and project, this new integration will allow YIELD users to more easily gain access to new opportunities within Avalanche’s evolving DeFi ecosystem so they can “maximize their crypto returns.”

As confirmed in the update, the YIELD App will be expanding to Avalanche following the completion of the integration during the second quarter of this year. The initiative will aim to take advantage of the “rapid growth of opportunities” in Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem.

As noted in the announcement:

“YIELD App is led by an experienced team of capital markets, Fintech, cybersecurity, and crypto professionals, and adheres to internationally recognized standards under global financial, regulatory, and licensing best practices.”

The YIELD App’s main product combines two major components its team believes were not found in the majority of DeFi apps. They include a “proprietary” portfolio management engine on the back-end and a digital banking and wealth management app on the front-end.

By leveraging all these capabilities, the app can regularly monitor and assess/evaluate the overall profitability of strategies across the DeFi space, such as liquidity mining, arbitrage, liquidations, margin and collateralized lending, and various other income-generating methods.

It employs an advanced risk management solution, allowing consumers to “achieve their optimal risk/reward ratio.”

YIELD App users are able to generate a “minimum of 12% APY and up to 20% APY–returns are maximized by eliminating gas fees and paying interest daily,” the announcement noted.

Tim Frost, CEO of YIELD App, stated:

“DeFi’s growth has been undeniable, but in order to bring it into the mainstream, hybrid crypto financial services providers, DeFi project owners, and innovators must collaborate to build better, more accessible products and services. This collaboration with Avalanche provides an opportunity for YIELD App to work with a best-in-class DeFi protocol developer and blockchain pioneer to make it easier for all investors to acquire digital assets and participate in DeFi services.”

YIELD App’s user-friendly application and web platform allow users across the globe to generate fairly high returns from various DeFi products “without having to go through a lengthy, complex, and often costly learning process.”

YIELD provides an investment fund that’s managed by a team with considerable experience in the Fintech and cybersecurity space.

As noted in the update, at “the core of its strategy is the YLD token, which rewards community members and allows them to boost their APY from 12% to 20%.”

As previously reported, Avalanche is an open-source platform for creating DeFi apps and enterprise-grade blockchain or DLT deployments in “one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem.” Software engineers who create solutions on Avalanche are reportedly able to develop robust, reliable, and highly-secure software and customized DLT networks with “complex rulesets” or build on various private or public subnets (sub-networks).

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Jan 22 2021

VanEck Launches New Bid for Crypto ETF

VanEck, a top investment management firm, has been fighting to get the first crack at a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) for years now. With a new set of hands helming the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the firm is giving its pursuit another try.

Switching Things Up

Earlier this week, the New York-based investment firm filed for a new Bitcoin ETF with the SEC. Dubbed the Digital Assets ETF, the financial product is designed to monitor the performance of the Global Digital Assets Equity Index.

Launched in 2018 by VanEck’s subsidiary MV Index Solutions, the Digital Assets Equity Index gets equities prices from three over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks – Cumberland, Genesis Trading, and Circle Trade.

It provides a reliable pricing index for institutional investment tools like ETFs while also allowing investors to execute institutional size trades more transparently.

Speaking about its new product, VanEck explained that the Digital Assets ETF would invest at least 80 percent of its assets in securities that make up its benchmark index. The index itself tracks digital asset companies’ performances – firms that operate crypto exchanges, payment gateways, mining operations, technology services, and more to the crypto industry and others.

Prospective companies would need to get at least half of their revenues from digital asset projects, or projects that could potentially generate such revenues. VanEck’s filing added:

“Companies with less than 50% of their revenues from the global digital assets segment, including semiconductor and online money transfer companies, may be added to the Index to reach a minimum component number.”

A Lingering Lawsuit

The new ETF attempt will be the latest in a long line of trials from VanEck. Many of its previous attempts were either blocked by the SEC or withdrawn due to frustration with the agency. However, the SEC is undergoing a shakeup, with former Chairman Jay Clayton vacating his position at the turn of the year and reports of a pro-crypto candidate set to replace him.

Now, the investment management firm appears to fancy its chances at another go. Still, this trial isn’t without its controversies.

Weeks back, SolidX Partners, a software development firm with ties to VanEck, sued the company for violating their partnership in a recent ETF filing. VanEck and SolidX had partnered to apply for the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust, a Bitcoin ETF, back in 2018 after the former’s initial failures. Still, their efforts didn’t mean much as the SEC remained a sound barrier between them and their aspirations.

The partners eventually aerated in August 2020, and VanEck immediately announced that it would file a new ETF – presumably, the Digital Assets ETF – on the last day of the year.

In its suit, SolidX Partners alleged that VanEck had taken parts of its work in ETFs and repackaged them into its filing. The software development firm added that VanEck worked on its ETF while the two were still partners. It added that the latter’s ETF filing structure was similar to that of the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust, and that VanEck’s actions can easily be seen as plagiarism.

VanEck Launches New Bid for Crypto ETF

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Jan 21 2021

InsurTech NY Teams Up With the Bermuda Business Development Agency for InsurTech Early Stage Competition 2021

InsurTech NY, a global InsurTech hub, announced on Thursday it has joined forces with the Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA), Bermuda’s independent economic development public-private partnership, to launch the 2021 InsurTech Early-Stage Competition. According to the duo, this competition attracts up to 100 promising startups from around the world with an opportunity to showcase their business and market potential to early-stage investors and insurance leaders.

“Adding to the existing prize pool of $200,000, the BDA will award the winning team with a four-night stay in Bermuda, a business concierge service to connect startup founders to professional advisors, and pay the fees associated with participating in the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) regulatory sandbox or innovation hub. The winning team’s proposal will be subject to the BMA’s formal application review, and once approved, will benefit from the Regulator’s extensive guidance.”

Susan Pateras, a BDA board member and an insurance industry expert with more than two decades of experience, will join the list of investor and insurance carrier judges. Judges comprise angel investors, venture capitalists, and insurance carriers including New York Angels, Park City Angels, Anthemis, Six Thirty, Sure Ventures, Luge Capital, Transverse, Nationwide, GreenlightRe, and Grange Insurance. While sharing more details about the competition, David Gritz, co-founder of InsurTech NY. stated:

“Finding an initial regulatory sandbox and access to reinsurance partners is one of the biggest challenges for new digital MGAs. The Bermuda market represents an exceptional opportunity for new InsurTechs and our partnership with the Bermuda Business Development Agency is one example of how we strive to be an international gateway for InsurTechs to find global opportunities for growth.”

Jasmine DeSilva, the BDA’s Business Development Manager responsible for Risk and Insurance Solutions, added:

“The InsurTech Competition will connect some of the brightest InsurTech founders to Bermuda’s world-leading and innovative insurance and reinsurance market. We encourage those looking to accelerate innovation in the industry to apply and look forward to welcoming the winning team to Bermuda, the world’s risk capital with over $100 billion in reinsurance premium, access to specialty market carriers, and a friendly regulatory environment for quality startups.”

Early-stage companies eligible for the competition are InsurTechs that generated less than $250,000 in annual revenue in 2020. The top 10 finalists will be invited to present at the InsurTech Spring Conference and will be announced in early March 2021. The deadline for submissions is January 29th.

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Jan 21 2021

President Biden Walks Back FinCEN’s Self Hosted Wallet Proposal

There have been many discussions over what the Biden administration has in store for the crypto industry once it settles in. So far, the 46th President appears to be showing promising signs towards the industry with his latest move.

A Great Start

Less than a day after taking office, President Joe Biden has enforced a freeze on all federal regulatory processes. In a White House memorandum for all federal agencies’ heads, the President confirmed that he would halt all agency rules that are pending reviews for at least sixty days.

While the memorandum doesn’t mention it explicitly, it will also apply to a recent controversial ruling from former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Last month, the FinCEN published a proposal to limit money services businesses, including crypto exchanges registered in the United States, from doing business with self-hosted wallets.

As the announcement explained, the rules will require crypto exchanges to verify their customers’ identities if a counterparty uses an unhosted wallet and the transaction exceeds $3,000. The rue’s proposal was open for comments, and reactions have been swift.

The latest company to react to the ruling is VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. A blog post from the company earlier this month described the ruling as “a rushed, non-vetted rule under the cloak of the holidays that violates the government’s own established rulemaking procedures.”

Kathryn Haun, Andreessen Horowitz’s general partner, added that such a stringent ruling doesn’t apply to any other type of financial institution. She added that apart from failing to solve any of the problems it claims to address, the rule also violated the Fourth Amendment by expanding the Bank Secrecy Act’s scope.

Now that the Biden administration has put a clamp on it, the new President has a chance to approach crypto regulations from a more nuanced perspective.

Mnuchin’s Many Failures

The 11th-hour ruling isn’t the only legislation that had caused a significant headache for many crypto companies. Through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the former Treasury Secretary, along with the Federal Reserve, published a notice to modify a long-standing anti-money laundering (AML) rule from the government.

The notice, published last October, proposed reducing the $3,000 threshold for international transactions that had been in place since 1995. It essentially meant that financial institutions would need to exchange client information for all transactions greater than the new threshold of $250. Compliance with the new rule would have especially put pressure on crypto exchanges.

The FinCEN and Federal Reserve published the notice and asked for comments, and many in the crypto space immediately voiced their dissent towards it. Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of payment processor Square, sent a letter earlier this month warning that the rule change would drive customers out of the United States en masse.

As Dorsey explained, the rule change goes far beyond what is expected for cash transactions. He also asserted that some companies could be forced to collect “unreliable data about people who have not opted into our service or signed up as our customers.” Eventually, the rule could drive cryptocurrency users towards non-custodial, unregulated crypto services based outside the United States, effectively damaging the country’s stance in the digital finance space.

President Biden Walks Back FinCEN’s Self Hosted Wallet Proposal

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Jan 20 2021

Gemini Becomes World’s First Digital Assets Custodian and Exchange to Complete SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 Examinations

US-based digital assets exchange Gemini has completed SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 examinations.

The Gemini team noted in a blog post published on January 19, 2021 that they’ve successfully cleared the SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 examinations, which covers their exchange operations and Gemini Custody products as well.

As confirmed by Gemini, the exams were carried out by Deloitte & Touche LLP and reportedly make the digital assets firm “the world’s first cryptocurrency custodian and exchange to demonstrate this standard of financial operations and security compliance.”

The cryptocurrency exchange and custodian stated:

“At Gemini, we aim to foster trust by demonstrating through action that as a company we follow through on the commitments we’ve made to upholding the highest levels of security and compliance for the benefit of our customers. We have done so by showing definitively through these independent third-party SOC evaluations that our operations and security compliance structures meet robust industry standards. We believe that these standards should be upheld by any cryptocurrency exchange and custodian.”

Gemini confirmed that in January 2019, they notably became the first digital asset exchange and custodian in the world to successfully complete a SOC 2 Type 1 examination, and followed it up with a SOC 2 Type 2 examination in January of last year. Gemini further noted that “building on these milestones, we completed a SOC 1 Type 1 examination in April 2020 and recently completed our SOC 1 Type 2 examination in December 2020.”

As explained by Gemini, the SOC 1 aims to assess or evaluate the overall design and implementation of their financial operations and related reporting controls, meanwhile, the SOC 2 aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the design and implementation of their “security, availability, and confidentiality controls.” As noted by the crypto exchange, the Type 1 examinations “assessed those processes at a point in time while our Type 2 examinations test that our system controls across our exchange and custody product have been operating over the period covering 2020.”

The US-headquartered firm confirmed:

“Gemini will continue to uphold the highest standards of security and operational compliance by undergoing SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 examinations on a yearly basis moving forward.”

As reported recently, Gemini, a New York Trust Company and Qualified Custodian, now has over $10 billion in digital assets under custody

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