Sticking with the digital theme, today its time to revisit Crypto. First up if you want to find out more about what Crypto mans for mainstream investors, do think about coming along to an event I am hosting with AltFi and media agency Maitland. It’s at Maitlands shiny new offices on the morning of Wednesday 27th February, up next to Google in Kings Cross.

Tickets are FREE.

Here’s the link to the tickets page and more blurb about the event. Great speakers by the way !!

http://www.altfi.com/events/crypto-investor-forum

Crypto for the Mainstream –Understanding the opportunities and risks for investors and companies raising capital

AltFi and Maitland are delighted to announce our first joint Crypto investors forum. This is a half day event in Kings Cross designed to decode the world of crypto for mainstream investors and explore how it will transform capital markets

Our market leading speakers will attempt to answer all the key questions most investors ask, ranging from how to access this nascent ‘asset class’, to exploring how tokenisation will transform capital markets, through to real-life applications of blockchain..  Our emphasis throughout the event will be on the proper debate – underscoring both the risks and opportunities – and explaining how investors can access this confusing space through structures that are familiar and offer real protections.

Sticking with the Crypto theme, I thought it might be worth looking at what one of the actively managed funds in this space, EKT Active, is saying about 2019. First up some interesting news – EKT reports that “Fidelity Investments is set to launch its Bitcoin custody service in March. The mutual fund has a long history of involvement within the digital assets space first mining bitcoin in 2015 and announced they would be offering a range of crypto products to large investors in October of 2018.”

As for 2019, this US/Australian outfit thinks we should watch for the following big themes:

  • Regulation: Lack of regulation has been a key theme to date, but we anticipate much clearer guidance through 2019, as authorities in the G20 countries begin to establish much-needed legislation.
  • Tokenisation: We have seen a dramatic fall in the performance of ICOs in 2018 but regulated “security token offerings” (STOs) are emerging as a new opportunity in crypto markets.
  • Technology enhancements: Much-anticipated upgrades to many of the existing blockchains, which will dramatically improve functionality and efficiency, are nearing release. Well-publicized examples, such as Ethereum’s Constantinople upgrade, will improve scalability.
  • Institutional adoption: This is another well-covered topic, but key deliveries are expected to support significant inflows, e.g. SEC finally ruling on the regulatory status of ETFs; and the establishment of more robust custody solutions.

Lastly, interesting news about those much-hyped crypto futures.

AltFi reports that “the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) has decided to withdraw its application to launch the world’s first Bitcoin ETF by VanEck and Solid X. The application was made to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) back in July, but the verdict has faced several extensions so the board could have sufficient time to make its decision.”