Biz Builder Mike

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On Final Day of Securities Offering, Mintos Tops £7 Million on Crowdcube

Peer to peer lending marketplace Mintos has surpassed £7 million on Crowdcube on the final day of the securities offering. The Mintos security offering should be one of the largest offerings on Crowdcube for 2020.

Mintos is raising equity capital at a pre-money valuation of £68 million. Currently, 6816 individuals have participated in the securities offering that set an initial hurdle of just £1 million.

Mintos is an interesting platform as it aggregates p2p loans from regional platforms and then consolidates the debt offerings for investors to select specific loans.

Mintos reports an investor base of approximately 340,000, growing at over 125% per year for 5 years. It claims a 45% market share in continental Europe with €5.7 billion in loans funded. While Mintos growth has been strong during the past few years, it has been hit by the COVID health crisis as some of its partner lenders have struggled in the challenging economic.

It is important to note that Mintos, headquartered in Latvia, expects to secure Investment Firm and EMI licenses by early 2021. By receiving this regulatory approval, Mintos will be able to operate across the EU providing a larger portfolio of financial services and perhaps operate more like a digital bank.

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Paxful Successfully Defended Against 220,000 Bot Attacks In Two Months

Peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto marketplace Paxful recently announced that it successfully protected its platform against 220,000 bot attacks in two months. Crypto companies have been under siege from bot attacks in recent months. The attacks aim to steal money from the victim’s accounts.

Thousands of attacks

According to Paxful, it suffered over 220,000 requests from web-bots in the past two months. However, it was able to successfully manage these issues using Group-IB’s online fraud prevention platform. The high volume of attacks showcases that crypto companies continue to be a lucrative target for online threat actors who want to steal users’ crypto assets. Last month, hackers were able to steal $5.4 million from Eterbase and about $200 million from KuCoin.

Paxful Successfully Defended Against 220,000 Bot Attacks In Two Months

Paxful is working with Group-IB, a threat hunting, and intelligence company. It is using Group-IB’s online fraud prevention platform Secure Portal to manage the bot attack problem. In a statement, Group-IB noted,

“The platform has managed to fight off over 220,000 requests from web-bots in just two months, shielding its 4.5 million customers against possible attacks.”

Bot attacks becoming common

Bot attacks have become very common in the crypto industry. Dmitry Moiseev, the chief security officer of Paxful said that bot attacks are usually designed to steal a client’s money by taking over their account. The bot can trade on behalf of the user or even transfer all their existing funds into the accounts of the hacker.

The hackers create special databases that contain the login and passwords to start their attack on a platform. They are able to get access as users frequently use similar credentials on their social media networks and other platforms. The login pairs are then filtered twice to find a match. Once done, they are able to get into the user’s account and steal their assets.

Secure Portal from Group-IB helps in detecting a wide range of online threats. They will include bot activity, fraud and social engineering attacks as well.

Paxful Successfully Defended Against 220,000 Bot Attacks In Two Months

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Paxful To Provide Fiat On-Ramps to Singaporean Crypto Exchange Bityard

P2P trading platform Paxful recently partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Bityard to provide fiat on-ramp services in Singapore. It will provide users access to more than 300 different payment options.

Kiosk available on Bityard

Paxful’s web-based Virtual Bitcoin called Kiosk will be available immediately to Bityard users. It will be accessible to all new and existing customers of the platform. Paxful’s peer-to-peer trading network can be used to buy Bitcoin with 160 different fiat currencies. With this integration, Paxful will act as a fiat-to-crypto on-ramp for Bityard customers. It provides access to more than 300 different payment methods for cryptocurrency purchases.

Paxful To Provide Fiat On-Ramps to Singaporean Crypto Exchange Bityard

Paxful To Provide Fiat On-Ramps to Singaporean Crypto Exchange Bityard

The feature will help cryptocurrency exchanges in onboarding people who are new to digital currencies by enabling the purchase of supported coins using local currency. The platform will support domestic wire transfers, bank transfers, online wallets, gift cards, etc. The platform will support various fiat currencies like Canadian Dollar (CAD), Euro (EUR), British Pound (GBP), Russian Ruble (RUB), Mexican Peso (MXN), and Argentine Peso (ARS).

Paxful existed in the Venezuela market

Though Bityard has other fiat-to-crypto on-ramps, it provides one of the most diverse ranges of payment methods, even in countries that follow restrictive banking rules. In such countries, people can use gift cards to buy Bitcoins using Paxful. Bityard also comes with an additional capability of allowing users to buy and sell crypto using Tether via a number of currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.

The Virtual Bitcoin Kiosk from Paxful lets users match with sellers instantly if they meet the criteria of the trading needs like payment method and currency. After its launch in 2015, the company has expanded its reach from Bitcoin and now comes with Tether (USDT) support as well. Despite its expansion plans, Paxful recently stopped servicing the Venezuela market, which is the largest in the Latin American region in terms of volumes. The company apparently decided to pull off the market because of US sanctions on Venezuela.

Paxful To Provide Fiat On-Ramps to Singaporean Crypto Exchange Bityard

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P2P Lender Robo.cash Claims it’s Been Successful During Current Crisis Because of Profits from 2019 and Working with Affiliated Loan Originators

A study recently performed by the European peer to peer (P2P) lending platform Robo.cash reveals that the main factors for its success during COVID were the profits it generated in 2019 and “work with affiliated loan originators.”

Robo.cash claims that “remarkably, interest rates, funding volumes and the platforms’ experience do not play big roles here.”

Robo.cash’s research study looked at the 15 most popular or widely-used P2P platforms from 6 different European countries – which includes platforms that have been “performing successfully” during the pandemic and those that have recovered “at least 80% of their pre-crisis volumes.” This is category A of businesses, Robo.cash noted.

Another category of businesses that Robo.cash looked at were those platforms that are trying to bring back their volumes “after the first wave of COVID-19 and have not yet reached 80% of the funding levels prior to the crisis.” This is the second or category B of lending platforms.

Robo.cash wrote in a blog post:

“[Our] research indicates 2 major factors that have apparently determined the platforms’ successful performance. First, all the A-category platforms except one work with their own or fellow loan originators. Second, profitability matters. All the platforms (or financial groups they operate within) from the category A have reported positive profits in the previous year. The B-category platforms, on the other hand, finished the FY 2019 with negative profit – or have not published any reports for this period at all.”

They added:

“Surprisingly, interest rates and the period of the platforms’ operation have shown little to no correlation with their success during the crisis. The ‘size’ of the platform does not determine its successful performance either. Large platforms might seem more capable of weathering the storm, but as they often work with third-party loan originators, it is not always the case. In the meantime, smaller platforms are more flexible.” 

As reported in early September 2020, Robo.cash had claimed that it was still profitable, despite COVID related Issues. The company said that it was preparing for its initial public offering (IPO) in December 2020 in Australia.

Sergey Sedov, CEO at the Robocash Group, had confirmed during a webinar last month that the IPO will take place toward the end of this year. He also mentioned that Robocash is planning to secure AUD 60 million (appr. $43.7 million) in capital.

Sedov added that most of the funds will be directed towards developing Robocash’s existing line of products and also to expand further by offering new products. The P2P lender will also be entering new markets in 2021, Sedov said.

The funds raised from the planned IPO will also be used to establish a virtual bank in the Philippines.

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Southeast Asian Countries are Increasingly Adopting Digital Payments, but Regulatory Issues May Slow Adoption, Fintech Exec Argues

Fady Abdel-Nour, Head of Global M&A and Investments at PayU, a Fintech firm that provides payment technology to online merchants, has noted that regulators in Southeast Asia are working hard to ensure that digital payments are adopted by consumers.

Abdel-Nour has pointed out that UPI, digital wallets, and various mobile-based payment apps are now being supported by progressive regulations which have led to their successful adoption in many Asian countries.

He claims that there are still several Southeast Asian nations that need to be doing a lot more, in order to help consumers with conducting digital transactions. For instance, Indonesian Fintech companies have revealed that they’re now waiting for a really long time before their applications for banking licenses are reviewed by regulators.

Abdel-Nour argues in a blog post published by Fintech Magazine that these types of issues can slow down the adoption of digital platforms and services, which have become essential following the COVID-19 outbreak. Abdel-Nour recommends that regulators should ensure that they are taking measures and introducing policies that offer consumer protection (like appropriate KYC and AML guidelines).

In addition to regulatory challenges that may be slowing down the adoption of digital services, the Southeast Asia region has been hit hard (especially small businesses) due to the pandemic.

As reported in late September 2020, Indonesian regulators and Fintech firms are now focused on balancing regulations with responsible innovation.

While the payments sector of Fintech has managed to grow steadily, with more consumers conducting digital transactions, peer to peer Fintech lenders in Asia are struggling right now. As reported recently, the Indonesian Fintech Lenders Association has set up a task force to help P2P lending firms deal with the rising number of bad loans.

Other challenges faced by the Fintech sector in Asia include a general shortage of qualified finance industry professionals. As covered, the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam needs more qualified workers and better overall policies to expand its Fintech sector.

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