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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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3 key reasons why Polkastarter (POLS) price rallied 500% since December

Polkastarter (POLS) is a cross-chain token pool and auction protocol built on the Polkadot (DOT) blockchain. It launched in October of 2020 as a way for projects to raise capital in a decentralized environment and since January the token has rallied 500% to a new high at $1.78.

Three possible reasons for the recent growth of POLS are the strong rally seen from Polkadot, strategic partnerships and exchange listings and an expanding list of token launches via auctions.

POLS/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The rise of Polkadot

The rising popularity of the Polkadot network is arguably the most significant influencer on the price of POLS. Similar to Kusama, Polkastarter’s association with Polkadot could attract additional user and investor attention.

POLS price vs. Social engagement. Source: LunarCrush

Polkadot’s rally began on Dec. 27, 2020, and it culminated on Jan.15 as DOT saw a 75% price increase in one week. POLS strong rally also reignited on Dec. 27 and followed a similar trajectory to DOT.

Now that DOT has flipped XRP to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, further price strength for Polkadot has the potential to have a positive impact on the overall performance of Polkastarter.

Exchange listings and partnerships

Prior to Jan. 14 POLS was only available on Uniswap and Poloniex. At the time its liquidity was limited and high ETH gas fees also complicated matters for those thinking about trading the token.

After the Huobi exchange announced plans to list POLS on Jan. 14, its trading volume increased from an average of $2 million to $22 million overnight.

Now the POLS community is working on being listed at OKEx and a recent tweet from the project informed supporters that the project only needs 2,000 more votes to qualify.

Listing POLS on another high-volume exchange has the potential to further boost the token’s price as more people will have access to one of the fastest-growing Polkadot based projects.

Successful auctions and token launches

Similar to the initial coin offerings (ICO) that occurred in 2017 and 2018, Polkastarter is gaining momentum due to its ability to attract capital heavy investors looking for the opportunity to get first access to the newest blockchain projects.

Polkastarter’s protocol is designed to enable cross-chain token pools and auctions as a method of raising capital in a decentralized fashion. To date, the platform has conducted 12 separate Initial Decentralized exchange Offerings (IDOs) with 20 different pools consisting of both public and private offerings. To date, only one pool failed to sell out.

The strong rally seen from DOT has only increased the desire of projects wanting to develop on top of Polkadot in order to capitalize on its growing popularity as well as avoid the challenges associated with building on Ethereum.

List of initial decentralized exchange offerings on Polkastarter. Source: Polkastarter

Tosdis, the most recent IDO conducted on Polkastarter, tweeted the following after its successful auction as an example of the platform’s growing popularity:

“We are really delighted to announce that our IDO on Polkastarter is sold out. POLS pool was sold out in record 30 seconds. After fixing some overloading and gas issues, the public pool was sold out in 90 minutes. We are overwhelmed by the support. Thank you and Stay tuned.”

Polkadot’s rise, successful IDOs on the Polkastarter platform and the listing of POLS on new exchanges have helped propel the value of the token to new highs and investors are optimistic that these strong fundamentals will push the price higher.

In addition to these fundamental factors, Ether’s (ETH) recent surge to a new all-time high has many analysts calling for the start of a new ‘altcoin season’. According to Raoul Pal, the CEO and co-founder of Real Vision Group and Global Macro Investor, traders are likely to plow into “higher risk alts” after Ether secures a new all-time high.

If this prediction does come to pass, it could also mean even brighter days are ahead for the Polkastarter ecosystem.

3 key reasons why Polkastarter (POLS) price rallied 500% since December

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Representative Maxine Waters, Chair of House Committee on Financial Services, Asks President Elect Biden to Suspend “Midnight Regulations”

Representative Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, has sent a letter to President-elect Joe Biden asking him to “temporarily suspend any midnight regulations” promulgated by the Trump administration. This includes any rules that have not yet been published in the Federal Register.

Additionally, the letter asks the incoming administration to “postpone the effective dates of rules at least 60 days that have already been published in the Federal Register but which have not yet taken effect.”

Following the election, Representative Waters, along with her Democrat colleagues on the Committee, sent a separate letter to President-Elect Biden with a long list of requests to roll back “Deregulation under the guise of innovation.” Some of the requests may impact Fintechs that seek to provide new services to consumers and businesses that frequently improve upon existing practices.

While it is not yet entirely clear as to how the Biden administration will deal with innovation in financial services, some industry insiders remain concerned that greater regulatory scrutiny and a heightened focus on investor protection may hamper Fintechs and dim competition. Many Fintechs strive to provide financial services to underserved markets or, provide access to capital for early-stage firms.

The letter from Representative Waters is available here and embedded below.

Maxine Waters midnight_rulemaking_letter_1.14.21

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Mike Novogratz Sees More Institutions Flocking into Bitcoin in 2021

Bitcoin’s recent rally has been mostly due to the influx of institutional investors into the market. However, there have been questions about how long this could continue. For crypto entrepreneur and investor Mike Novogratz, things appear to just be getting started.

Institutions Will Hop on Price Dips

Novogratz runs crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital. He sat down for an interview with Yahoo! Finance, where he discussed the state of the crypto market.

The crypto investor said he expects the arrival of more institutions in 2021.

In the interview, Novogratz gave a quick overview of the market so far, heralded by Bitcoin and its volatile performance last week. The investor pointed out that there should be even further dips soon, although he wasn’t overly concerned because he expects an influx of institutional investors.

As explained earlier, 2020 was the year of institutions rushing into crypto. Fearing the weakening dollar’s effects, companies like MicroStrategy, Square, Ruffer Investments, and MassMutual made Bitcoin plays worth tens and hundreds of millions. However, as Novogratz explained, the trend should continue, with more investors seeing Bitcoin’s long-term value.

“The institutions who are coming into this space now that weren’t in the space six months ago, [a] year ago, don’t have their fill yet. Not even close. We’re in the first inning of a 9-inning game with insurance companies, asset managers,” Novogratz said in part.

The billionaire investor added that Bitcoin would have more dips soon, and there will be institutions waiting to pounce at the opportunity. So, the market remains strong, thanks in part to projected increases in demand.

The Coming Liquidity Shortage

Novogratz also explained that the influx of institutions represents a significant shift in the market’s structure. Most institutions appear to be long-term holders who don’t have much use for Bitcoins other than as a store of value.

Considering that these large companies tend to make hung plays at once, their reluctance to plow back any of the Bitcoins they own could lead to a liquidity crunch.

Trading platforms are already complaining about a possible liquidity problem. eToro told customers that massive demand for Bitcoin could cause it to place limitations on buy orders over the weekend. Coinbase’s daily volume also reached $9.5 billion on January 12 – surpassing its previous all-time high of $6.5 billion.

On the same day, volumes on Binance hit $30 billion for the first time. With institutions like Grayscale Investments and MicroStrategy snapping up Bitcoins every chance they get, it seems more likely that there will be less and less for retail traders to play with.

Mike Novogratz Sees More Institutions Flocking into Bitcoin in 2021

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Wall Street Veteran Howard Marks Reconsiders Bitcoin Stance Amid Bullish Run

Despite a few setbacks, it’s safe to say that Bitcoin is continuing its forward trajectory. At the same time, several skeptics are starting to change their tone concerning the leading cryptocurrency.

The latest skeptic-turned-enthusiast is Howard Marks, the co-founder, and co-chairman of asset management giant Oaktree Capital Management.

Son Convinces Daddy

Oaktree is the largest investor of distressed securities in the world. Based in Los Angeles, the company holds about $140 billion in asset management. 

In an investor memo shared earlier this week, Marks explained that he was beginning to change his skeptical views on Bitcoin, with the asset showing considerable maturity over the past few years.

Marks was a staunch critic of Bitcoin in the 2017 bull run. 

At the time, the investment guru warned that Bitcoin was no more than a fad, and that investors would eventually lose a fortune when its bubble popped. In his memo, Marks explained that Bitcoin was essentially a pyramid scheme, with enthusiasts ascribing it a value based on peoples’ willingness to pay for it.

The value investor turned out to be right as Bitcoin plunged after reaching almost $20,000 per token. 

However, with Bitcoin now leaving its previous all-time high in the dust, even Marks has alluded that he could have been wrong.

In his recent memo, the investor explained that he had been talking with his son, Andrew Marks, about cryptocurrencies. He added that Andrew was a strong Bitcoin enthusiast and had “thankfully” bought up a few on behalf of the family. Apparently, Andrew had been able to convince him.

As Marks explained, he had not been fully pro-Bitcoin. However, he acknowledged that he would need to at least examine the asset and its potential.

“When innovations work, it’s only later that what first seemed crazy becomes consensus. Without attaining real knowledge of what’s going on and attempting to fully understand the positive case, it’s impossible to have a sufficiently informed view to warrant the dismissiveness that many of us exhibit in the face of innovation,” the value investor said.

Wall Street Loves Crypto

Marks is just the latest Wall Street giant who appears to be warming up to crypto. 

Last month, Ray Dalio, the founder of hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates, explained in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session that gold and Bitcoin provided the best alternative investment for people looking to divest from stocks and cash.

The billionaire hedge fund manager has previously criticized Bitcoin for its volatility and other failures as a currency.

With Wall Street stalwarts interested in crypto, there is hope that they will back some of that interest with investments. Institutional investment helped the crypto space grow last year, and with retail looking strong again, a push from top firms could take the leading cryptocurrency to unprecedented heights.

Wall Street Veteran Howard Marks Reconsiders Bitcoin Stance Amid Bullish Run

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