Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

Pindar Wong There is a crisis in governance. I’m not talking about bitcoin, but Brexit. Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) is not so much a technical crisis between a ‘hard fork’ and a ‘soft fork’ but a legitimacy crisis. Yet the solution to its core dilemma — politically deciding between a ‘Hard Brexit’ and a ‘Soft Brexit’ — may actually lay in harnessing blockchain technology’s great potential as an economic governance system for the digital age. One thing’s clear: the current system is failing. The impasse in Britain requires a radical rethink. Unless even more time is requested by the UK, and unanimously granted by all 27 member states of the EU, the default option is for the UK to chaotically crash out from the European trade bloc, by leaving without a legal agreement, on Friday, April 12. As laws have borders, this lack of ‘legal certainty’ is particularly troubling as it risks disrupting cross-border supply chain networks which would be ba...

Ian Allison Online payments giant PayPal has made its first-ever investment in a blockchain technology company.  Announced today, PayPal has  joined the extension of a Series A funding round in Cambridge Blockchain, a startup that helps financial institutions and other companies manage sensitive data using shared ledgers. Neither PayPal nor Cambridge Blockchain disclosed the investment amount, but recent filings with the SEC indicate that Cambridge Blockchain has raised a total of $3.5 million in new equity from several investors over the past nine months. That follows the $7 million close of its Series A in May of 2018, and brings the total capital raised to $10.5 million. That first $7 million consisted of $4 million of new capital plus $3 million of converted notes , and came from several investors, including HCM Capital, the VC arm of Foxconn, which manufactures the iPhone for Apple, as well as Digital Currency Group. The subsequent $3....

By Frank Chaparro   Just when you thought there were plenty of markets for crypto futures in the U.S. and elsewhere, along comes another player. Eurex, a derivatives exchange operated by Germany’s Deutsche Börse, is gearing up to launch a slew of new futures contracts tied to the digital assets market. The firm follows a number of U.S.-based exchange-operators, including CME and Cboe Global Markets, both of which launched bitcoin futures markets in December 2017. Several people familiar with Eurex’s plans says the firm will announce its plans to launch futures tied to bitcoin, ether, and XRP imminently. In recent weeks, the exchange has been meeting with market-making firms about the products.  At the same time, a number of new ventures — including Bakkt, Seed CX, ErisX — that are aiming to launch markets for physically delivered crypto futures sometime this year. As for Eurex, the firm has had its eye on the crypto market since 2017. A...

By Moris Beracha .-  In spite of the financial sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and other countries of the world on the government of Venezuela, the president of the Latin American country, Nicolás Maduro, is seeking to find resources through the cryptocurrency Petro. It is important to mention that this token, which is backed by certified oil reserves and precious metals lacks international confidence, which is fundamental for obtaining economic benefits. Despite the complicated scenario, the so-called “Bolivarian and revolutionary” government announced that from October 29, 2018, Venezuelans or any citizen in the world will be able to buy the Petro with convertible currencies such as the dollar, the yuan or the euro and with bitcoin, Ethereum, Nem, among others. In this sense, the vice president for the economic area, Tarek El Aissami, said in a press conference that whoever wants to buy petros with other cryptocurrenci...

Political uncertainty has made investors pause By Joice Alves Fundraising for European buyouts has hit its worst quarter since 2010 as the divorce between the UK and European Union has fuelled a sharp decline in investors’ appetite for UK-dedicated funds. Fund managers have struggled to keep pace with the record volumes of cash raised for the asset class last year, writes FN ’s sister publication  Private Equity News.  Both capital-raising and the number of fund closings fell in the third quarter, according to LP Source, a data provider owned by FN and  PEN ’s publisher Dow Jones. Buyout fundraising dropped 68% to $7.9bn across 33 funds in the third quarter, down from $24.6bn raised by 46 funds during the same period last year. Fundraising also declined one-fifth during the first half of this year to $46.6bn, down from $67.8bn in the corresponding part of 2017. The figures represents the worst third quarter for European buyout fundraising sinc...

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...

By Billy Bambrough  One of the world's largest bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges, the San Francisco-based Coinbase, is hoping to grow its footprint in Europe with digital gift cards, as users continue to struggle to get their hands on their crypto gains. Coinbase is rolling out the new feature, in partnership with London-based startup WeGift, that will give customers in Europe an alternative way to cash out their crypto coins. Users, initially only those in the U.K., Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia, will be able to convert virtual currency into gift cards from around 120 retailers including the likes of online giant Amazon, department store John Lewis, supermarket Tesco, and ride-hailing app Uber. Coinbase plans to eventually grow the service into other countries. "From converting bitcoin into Uber credits or ether into a Nike shopping spree, customers will have greater flexibility...

  By Georgeta Gheorghe The strong momentum underway in Central Europe’s private equity markets is set to continue,  the latest Deloitte Central Europe Private Equity Confidence Survey shows. The high level of deal activity in Central Europe’s private equity markets is set to continue, with two-thirds of respondents expecting market activity to remain the same, the highest level in three years. Nearly a third (31 percent) expect activity to increase further from its currently high level, and just 2 percent expect activity to slow down – the lowest level in five years. It then comes as no surprise that two-thirds of respondents (69 percent) expect to focus mostly on deal-doing in the coming months, in line with the survey over the last two years. Expectations will be buoyed by liquid leverage markets, with three quarters of respondents (74 percent) expecting the availability of debt finance to remain the same over coming months. This is up from two thirds (67 percent) in the ...