Amsterdam-based crypto exchange Blockport will attempt a relaunch after the firm said it would shut down its platform by the end of May, tech news outlet The Next Web reports on June 4. On May 22, Blockport was declared bankrupt by a Dutch court, following the firm’s unsuccessful security token offering (STO) of Blockport Securities (BPT) tokens. Blockport first announced its STO in March, describing its BPS token as a security token that is pegged to a stake in Blockport and enables holders to profit sharing through dividends. Launched on April 16, the STO reportedly offered investors the ability to …

Global securities services provider ABN AMRO Clearing has signed a contract to provide European mobile investment platform BUX with blockchain technology for a forthcoming commission-free stock trading mobile app. The news was revealed in a BUX news release on May 29. According to the news release, ABN AMRO Clearing processed 3.79 billion trades in 2018, and reportedly consistently ranks as a top three clearer for listed derivatives and cash securities, OTC products, warrants, commodities and FX across the majority of time zones. BUX’s new app, dubbed STOCKS, is slated for launch in summer 2019 first in the Netherlands and Germany, …

United States-based stock and crypto trading app Robinhood is set to raise at least $200 million in a new funding round, Bloomberg reported on May 24. Per the report, an unspecified source familiar with the matter told the outlet about the company’s plans to raise further funding. Moreover, Bloomberg reports that the round would increase the firm’s value to between $7 billion and $8 billion, but that the details could change. Other people familiar with the matter also told Bloomberg that the new funds come from existing investors, all of whom asked not to be identified and to keep the …

SprinkleXchange, a blockchain-powered initial public offering platform, is preparing to list its first company in June, Bloomberg reported on May 17. According to Alexander Wallin, the bourse’s CEO, it is hoped that up to 1,000 companies will join over the next three to four years. The Ethereum blockchain is used for settlement and clearing, and its users will be able to trade listed companies and cryptocurrencies 24 hours a day. Switzerland’s SIX stock exchange is also planning to launch a blockchain-powered digital exchange, which will be powered by blockchain consortium R3’s Corda Enterprise platform. According to Bloomberg, SprinkleXchange claims its …

One of the most significant introductions that blockchain has made available in recent years is adding new tools through which companies can raise capital. The technology has made it possible to raise funds for a project from investors of just about any pocket size through initial coin offerings (ICOs) as well as security token offerings (STOs). Typically, these investors put in their money not just in return for a big payday, but they’re usually believers in the project as well. These investors form the community around which new projects are built. This is the concept that popularized the colloquial term …

Securities laws are “written to be dynamic,” a senior official at the United States securities regulator claimed in a recent panel at Consensus 2019 on May 13. Amy Starr, chief of the office of capital markets trends at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), expressed the regulator’s willingness to interact with local crypto and blockchain-related businesses in order to gain a better understanding of how securities laws can be applied in various cases. Speaking at a panel titled “Perspectives on SEC engagement concerning digital assets,” Starr noted a high level of integration with the crypto industry and the SEC, …

Börse Stuttgart (SWB), the second-largest stock exchange in Germany, has listed two crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs), according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on May 13. Based on two major cryptocurrencies, XRP and litecoin (LTC), and issued through XBT Provider, the ETNs can now be traded against the Swedish krona (SEK) and euro (EUR) on Börse Stuttgart, Europe’s tenth-largest exchange, the announcement says. The SWB’s crypto ETNs listing purportedly allows investors to track the future price developments of XRP and LTC through exchange-traded securities, which is the first initiative of its kind in Germany, Boerse Stuttgart executive Jürgen Dietrich …

The French stock markets regulator AMF has seen over a 14,000% surge in enquiries related to fraudulent crypto offers in 2018 as opposed to 2016, the agency wrote in a new annual report released May 7. In the report, the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) specified that the number of enquiries associated with crypto-related scams online has surged to over 2,600 in 2018 from only 18 similar enquiries back in 2016. With that, the amount of fraudulent online offers in other industries such as foreign exchange (forex) and binary options have significantly decreased, the AMF noted. As such, fraudulent offers …

Kuala Lumpur-based Bursa Malaysia, the country’s stock exchange, is working on a blockchain-enabled security borrowing and lending proof-of-concept (PoC). English-language local media Bernama reported on the developments on May 6. Per the report, the initiative aims to develop greater transparency and address other challenges of borrowing and lending securities in Malaysia. More precisely, the exchange’s CEO, Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift, reportedly said that the PoC should increase the efficiency, speed and capacity of the aforementioned services, which should consequently bring greater demand. Swift claims that the benefits of the PoC will not be limited to the customers of Bursa Malaysia: …

The CEO of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), one of the world’s oldest stock exchanges, believes that blockchain could have a use in issuing securities and settlement. CNBC reported on the CEO Nikhil Rathi’s comments on May 2. Speaking in an interview, Rathi noted that distributed ledger tech (DLT) could potentially play a role in the United Kingdom’s stock market. Specifically, Rathi expressed confidence about blockchain applications used in the issuance process, adding that he can also see the technology also being used for settlement. The stock exchange’s CEO emphasized that the adoption of blockchain in capital markets needed to …

The world's second-largest stock exchange, Nasdaq, is allegedly testing trading of a bitcoin (BTC)-based product, according to a tweet by an analyst at quantitative trading analytics service StrongMarket on April 22. Twitter personality Cryptopolis, a quantitative analyst at StrongMarket, tweeted that he bought one bitcoin through an account on retail brokerage firm TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ: AMTD) on Monday. Cryptopolis suggested that bitcoin was trading on the platform against United States dollar under the unknown symbol “CXERX,” which is purportedly listed on the Nasdaq. The analyst added that BTC/USD trading pair was launched on April 10, 2019, based on the platform's …

This article has been corrected to reflect that the money raised was in collaboration with the Turquoise platform in a test environment, and not on the LSE’s Turquoise platform itself. United Kingdom-based blockchain startup 2030.io has raised $3.9 million in collaboration with a platform owned by the London Stock Exchange (LSE), according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on April 15. Known as Twenty Thirty or 20|30, the startup has reportedly secured 3 million British pounds (GBP) by selling tokenized shares and settling them in a test environment on LSE-owned equity trading platform Turquoise. In July 2018, 20|30 became …