Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

By Daniel Palmer Canada-based messaging app firm Kik has launched a crypto crowdfunding campaign to support a likely court battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its 2017 initial coin offering (ICO). Announced by Kik founder and CEO Ted Livingston and Patrick Gibbs, a partner at law firm Cooley LLP, on the UnChained Podcast Tuesday, the campaign is being launched in the hopes that “a lawsuit would eventually result in a new Howey test for crypto tokens, to determine which ones are a security.” A dedicated website – dubbed Defend Crypto – has already been set up allowing supporters to contribute to the fundraising effort, that its founders say is not only in support of Kik but many crypto firms that face potential action from the U.S. regulator. The site offers donation options in 19 cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and XRP, as well as less standard options like augur (REP), DAI and, of course, Kik’s kin (KIN) token. ...

Bruce Flatt put Wall Street’s biggest private equity players on notice that the Canadian juggernaut was coming for them three years ago. The head of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. told Bloomberg Television then that his firm -- pushing into private equity -- should be mentioned in the same breath as Blackstone Group LP , Carlyle Group LP and KKR & Co. It was an unusually brash statement from the understated Winnipeg native. He’s more than backed it up. On Wednesday, Brookfield Asset Management agreed to buy a majority stake in Oaktree Capital, a move that will create a $475 billion alternative-investing behemoth. That’s more assets under management than any of the other blue-chip buyout firms reported at year-end. The transaction caps a flurry of deal-making across Flatt’s investing empire of four publicly traded companies focused on real estate, infrastructure, renewable energy and private equity. “I don’t think Brookfield has grown quickly,...

By Marie Huillet      Crypto asset brokerage Voyager Digital — co-founded by the ex-CTO of Uber — has gone public on Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange. The news was announced in an official tweet from Voyager on Feb. 11. Shares are traded under ticker symbol VYGR.V, as a company blog post outlines. The listing comes following the completion of a so-called reverse takeover — also known as a reverse initial public offering or backdoor listing. Last week, Voyager had announced that its merger with former shell company UC Resources Ltd. was nearing completion. The moved allows the crypto brokerage to qualify as a TSX Venture Tier 2 Company. Generally, a reverse takeover occurs when a privately held company merges with a publicly traded company — thereby bypassing at least some of the bureaucratic scrutiny involved in the process of going public, including regulatory issues and due diligence. Upon completion of the deal, the buyer gains automa...

By Moris Beracha .-  Although many investors are still skeptical about bitcoins, cryptocurrencies around the world continue to gain ground. Digital currency, as it is also known, has been traded by soccer players, concert companies, bicycles, among others. In this sense, the latest news that has caused a commotion in the digital domain is the inclusion of the terms bitcoin, cryptocurrency, blockchain, among others, to the Merriam-Webster Scrabble dictionary, an official publication used as arsenal by the players of the world’s most popular board game. Who has not had fun playing scrabble with friends and family? It should be recalled that Scrabble is a board game, in which each player tries to score more points as they place words on a board with a 15-by-15 grid. Words can be placed in a straight line horizontally or vertically and can be crossed as long as they appear in the aforementioned dictionary. Hasbro owns the property rights in t...

By Moris Beracha According to Coin ATM Radar, a company specialized for studying the Bitcoin ATM market, the number of automatic teller machines for purchasing and selling Bitcoin is growing by 10% on a monthly basis. Only in 2018, the number of bitcoin ATMs rose from 2,000 to 3,000 units distributed around the world. The company estimates that by the end of this year the number of Bitcoin ATMs will reach 6,300 units. Despite the negative price trend of Bitcoin at the beginning of the year, Bitcoin ATM industry is apparently following a different path. General Bytes and Genesis Coin are two companies that lead the market with respect to bitcoin ATM installation. So far this year, General Bytes stays on top with 76 new ATMs installed (10.4% increase), followed by Genesis Coin with 61 installations (6.7% increase). The United States still tops the countries with the highest number of Bitcoin ATMs installed, followed by Canada. In Europe Austria i...