Blog and News
News and Trends
Selling in Modern Art and Modern FinTech
I was at #ArtBasel Hong Kong exhibition in March 2019. If you don’t know about Art Basel – it’s one of the most prestigious art fairs, mainly focused on contemporary art. One of my main curiosity points this time around Read more…
My favorite companies
2018: The Year of Building Communities
Based on my observations, 2018 was a year when smart FinTech startups deliberately focused on building online communities. From what I have seen, very few startups were able to improve their profitability or add substantial new revenue streams. Very often, Read more…
AML
Regulated or Non-Regulated? That is the Question
It is not uncommon to see regulatory requests for cryptocurrency-focused businesses to split activities into 2 parts: regulated and non-regulated. For example, the licensed (e.g. regulated) entity may be dedicated to operations with fiat funds and fiat deposits, and Read more…
corporate governance
#1 Startup Question From 2018
“How to get more partnerships and get them faster” has been a common theme during 2018. Many startups joined acceleration programs not because they needed exposure to get funding, but because they needed exposure to secure partnerships. Even regulatory approvals Read more…
Crypto
Unfortunate Hype About Luxembourg Blockchain Act
​ It’s been reported recently by a number of news outlets (here or here) that Luxembourg introduced a new Blockchain law. Why I refer to it as an “unfortunate hype” is because, factually speaking, this regulatory statement did Read more…
Career
About Compliance Immunity
If you work in compliance, you have told your business partners (multiple times) that they must “own their risks” and make the final decisions – and that the role of compliance is to remain independent and to offer expert advice. Read more…
Licensing
Key Takeaways After Reading New SG Payment Services Bill
Regulator provided clear distinction between e-money (formerly stored value) and digital payments tokens. Digital payment token: Expressed as a unit Not denominated as a currency and isn’t pegged to one Is / will be a medium of exchange, will Read more…
AML
How To Prepare for the Audit?
I was recently preparing a team for an external on-site audit visit and the basic guiding principle I declared was: “You are going to do all the work and they are going to get paid”. I meant it. It sounds Read more…
