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Wisconsin State Candidate Launches Bitcoin Donation Platform 

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Bitcoin’s prominent role in politics is coming to the limelight once more as a state assembly candidate in Wisconsin launches a Bitcoin donations page. Earlier this month, Phil Anderson, a candidate for Wisconsin’s State Assembly, announced that he would be accepting campaign donations in Bitcoin.

Another Try at Bitcoin Donations

In a statement to the effect, the Republican candidate explained that his campaign had set up a Bitcoin donations channel through a partnership with crypto payment processor BitPay. The former real estate broker and businessman highlighted his belief that Bitcoin is a form of money, explaining that nothing should restrict him from using the asset to generate funds.

Anderson’s resolve comes after a contested Bitcoin campaign effort back in 2018. At the time, he had run for Governor of the state on the Libertarian platform and was one of the first politicians to accept Bitcoin in donations openly.

In the spring of 2018, the Wisconsin Libertarian Party had asked the state’s Ethics Commission to clarify if it was legal to use Bitcoin for political donations. The Commission passed the matter to the state legislature, explaining that allowing crypto donations could challenge its ability to ensure financial compliance.

Despite the Commission’s concerns, however, Anderson’s campaign moved ahead with the donation campaign. Speaking with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Anderson pointed out that his defiance didn’t mean he was thumbing his nose at the Commission. However, he believed that they would still be abiding with the law by accepting bitcoin.

“We will not allow the lack of appropriate interpretation of the current statute [to] affect the First Amendment rights of those who want to show support and contribute. I have no faith in the Assembly to handle this fairly nor expeditiously,” he said to the news source.

Now that he’s running for public office again, Anderson is sticking to his guns. He has also openly disagreed with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission on their crypto interpretation and its perceived risks. In part, he communicated his belief that cryptocurrencies are a legitimate form of money, adding that he would push for progressive crypto laws in the state.

“People have the choice as to how they contribute, and it’s my intention to honor those choices. If my opponent or the Ethics Commission are interested in challenging me, I’m ready for a fight,” his statement asserted.

Bitcoin in Politics

While Anderson appears defiant in his belief, he won’t be the first pro-crypto person running for public office. Most notable amongst the crypto advocates has been Andrew Yang, the Democrat candidate who ran for President last year.

Supporters of Yang — a philanthropist and tech entrepreneur — launched a PAC called the Humanity Forward Fund (Humanity FWD) that accepted Bitcoin donations in collaboration with the Lightning Network. Seth Cohen, the fund’s founder, said that they hadn’t determined whether the contributions would be converted into fiat. It’s also unclear if Yang had anything to do directly with the fund or not. Sadly, he didn’t go too far in the polls, and he dropped out of the presidential race in February.

Humanity FWD is also not the first crypto-centric PAC to be launched. In fact, data from the Center for Public Integrity showed that about $750,000 in donations were given to politicians between 2017 and 2018. 

Wisconsin State Candidate Launches Bitcoin Donation Platform 

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Virgin Money Makes Debut on Experian’s Pre-Qualification Platform

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Multinational consumer credit reporting company Experian announced on Tuesday that Virgin Money has launched on its pre-qualification platform to help streamline the mortgage process. According to Experience, Virgin Money will put mortgage eligibility in the hands of homebuyers and intermediaries upon the platform with a goal to help wide its reach in the digital marketplace.

“The partnership sees Virgin Money become the latest brand to join Experian’s panel of lenders that appear on pre-qualification websites and adviser platforms. It helps to match prospective customers to the mortgage deals they are eligible for and provides a far more accurate decision earlier in the application process.”

Experian further explained that by ombining Virgin Money’s mortgage affordability requirements with its soft search capabilities, the solution provides customers with an automated decision based on their credit history to determine whether they match the mortgage lending criteria. If accepted, the application will be supported with details of the maximum amount they may borrow.

“Experian’s pre-qualification platform, which now includes Virgin Money’s standard residential and Help to Buy ranges, helps set clear expectations around people’s borrowing power and the options available to them.”

Speaking about the partnership, Simon Wallace, Head of Mortgage Transformation, at Virgin Money, stated:

“By using technology to give customers and brokers more certainty on lending decisions at the very start of their journey, the search for the right mortgage just got easier and faster.”

Experian added that Virgin Money mortgage products are now available through pre-qualification platforms, including Mortgage Gym, New Homes Group, Mojo Mortgages, Property Pal Mortgages, and Iress Xplan Mortgage.

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Cadre Cash: Real Estate Investment Platform Offers Cash Savings Account with 3% Reward

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Real estate investment platform Cadre has announced the launch of “Cadre Cash,” a cash savings account with an annualized reward of 3%, according to a note from the company.

Beginning today, qualified individuals who invest in Cadre’s real estate offerings may earn an annualized reward of 3% on their Cadre Cash savings deposits for an initial period of 12 months. Cadre states that the savings account balances are eligible to be insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) up to an amount of $750,000 through its partner banks. Banking services are provided by Evolve Bank & Trust.

Ryan Williams, CEO and co-founder of Cadre, say that in a volatile economic climate marked by low yield, investors are looking for safety, liquidity, high growth, and high yield.

“With the introduction of Cadre Cash, we will uniquely offer all of these benefits to those individuals participating in the Cadre Cash program. Cadre is already a leading platform with more than $3 billion of institutional-quality commercial real estate investments around the country, and with the Cadre Cash rewards program, even more investors will be provided access to a carefully curated real estate portfolio and one of the highest cash rewards in the nation,” said Williams. “This is all part of our mission to provide more individual investors with greater access to financial products that drive their futures forward.”

Cadre seeks to offer individuals with access to institutional-grade real estate. Since inception, Cadre reports that it has closed more than $3 billion in real estate transactions across 16 markets and delivered more than 18% annualized returns to investors on four complete property sales, resulting in the return of more than $130 million of capital to Cadre investors so far.

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