How Fidelity is experimenting with bitcoin

Fidelity Investments may be one of the few incumbents that are bullish on bitcoin.

It sees “a future where bitcoin and blockchain thrive,” according to CEO Abigail Johnson, speaking Tuesday at the Consensus conference in New York. “We still think this scenario has a reasonable chance of coming to pass — despite what the skeptics say.”

This week, the price of bitcoin shot past $2,000 for the first time and is currently trading at about $2,200. Ethereum increased 1400 percent in the last three months and is now trading at about $180 — which community observers and conference attendees say has much to do with new interest in ICOs. But despite the growing interest digital currencies and public blockchain networks, few if any financial institutions haven’t come out and said they’re interested in working with them, instead focusing on the technology that powers them: blockchains, distributed ledgers, smart contracts — for their industry or organizations’ own needs.

In the original bitcoin blockchain, transactions are recorded on a public ledger anyone can see, although users are pseudonymous, identifiable only by alphanumeric addresses. That doesn’t mesh well with the need for privacy in high-stakes transactions between massive companies, which is why banks have sought “permissioned” blockchain-like solutions that allow for more privacy in terms of how data is stored and who can access it.

Judging the future by the present is not a productive approach, Johnson said.

“If you only look at this technology through the lens of the problems that exist today you won’t find a lot of compelling use cases, at least not that can be implemented at scale,” she said. “If you’re looking for bitcoin to beat Visa at the point of sale today you’ll be disappointed. If you’re looking at this technology as just a faster settlement system for financial transactions you’ll also be disappointed. But I’m still a believer.”

Johnson’s remarks aptly represented the mood at this year’s conference, the third for Consensus, and industry-wide. While the energy of the inaugural event came largely from crypto-enthusiasts, last year’s was filled with bankers in suits, on and off the main stage. Attendees tripled from the first year to 1,500 in the next; about 2,500 came out this week, with balance interest in private blockchain networks for highly regulated industries and a rebound in interest in public blockchain networks.

Fidelity has built proofs of concept for bitcoin micro transactions, set up a small bitcoin and ethereum mining operation “in the spirit of learning, but miraculously we’re actually making a lot of money,” she said. It enabled bitcoin payments in the Fidelity cafeteria — and had fewer than 100 employees purchase bitcoin. It has also partnered with bitcoin wallet Coinbase to allow clients to contribute bitcoin to there donor advised funds accounts with Fidelity Charitable; it has facilitated more than $8 million in bitcoin contributions through that platform.

Fidelity also gave its employees the ability to view their Coinbase holdings on Fidelity.com and will be rolling out the same functionality to its customers “soon,” Johnson announced.

It was through the hands-on experimentation — testing the Coinbase user experience, making purchases with bitcoin and even trying to make returns — that the future-present dilemma became clear. A lot of the work with blockchain technology, in financial services or otherwise, is about the future. But in the learning process, people naturally try to compare their experiences with the present.

“When people are exposed to new concepts they need to make sense of something they don’t already have a mental model for,” Johnson said. “Our research teams noticed what was happening when people encountered their recovery phrase,” a random string of words to be written somewhere and stored somewhere that acts as a backup of a user’s funds, “for the first time. They tend to struggle because they don’t have a mental model for this kind of thing.”

Fidelity found three types of reactions: one in which people reacted by trying to compare the situation with something they’re previously familiar with — for example, treating the recovery phrase like a password and expecting there would be a Forgot My Password button they could press — one in which a fair few were able to develop a new mental model and one in which the users quit and never adopted the technology.

Usability is a challenge, Johnson concluded.

“In the same way users we studied defaulted to known mental models, all the regulators will go through the same kind of process and it will cause some growing pains,” she said. “Too often we see bitcoin and blockchain technologies as solutions in search of a problem. We need them to be more user friendly — not just technically better.”

WTF is The DAO?

wtf

Understanding the Dao isn’t easy, especially without a PhD in computer science. Even the New York Times called the DAO “difficult to describe”. Most articles written about it can give you a headache. But the organization behind the most successful crowdfunding campaign to date ($150 million raised) is worth explaining and understanding, using terminology that doesn’t make your brain explode.

Cool, so what’s the DAO?

Hold up…before you can understand the DAO, you need to understand the building blocks behind it.

Lets start with the basics; first, you need to know what digital assets are. Simply, a digital asset is an asset that has no physical form, but has a physical value. The best examples of digital assets are cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Etherium), which can be purchased but don’t have a physical form — they exist only in the digital world.

The next concept is a blockchain. Super technical essays and articles explain blockchain in depth, but keeping it simple for our discussion: A blockchain is a public ledger of a digital asset’s transaction history. Each blockchain is made up of “blocks,” and each block contains a transaction record of the asset, tied together in sequential order. Since the ledger is public, there isn’t a single controller or bookkeeper tracking transactions. Instead, blockchains have miners, people who monitor transactions to look out for fraud, and are paid with the blockchain’s digital currency (i.e. Bitcoin miners get paid with bitcoins).

Last is a DAO, or a decentralized autonomous organization, one of the more confusing concepts to understand. Lets go word by word and simplify it:

  • Decentralized: DAOs don’t have officers or board members that control the organization’s decisions. Like a democracy, users that “buy into” a DAO have control over some decision-making processes of the company. Users only have “some” control because of the next word in the acronym, autonomous.
  • Autonomous: At its core, a DAO is a computer program that makes decisions based on its own rules, known as smart contracts. A simple example of a smart contract is a computer program used by universities that filters through applications, allowing only students with minimum GPA or SAT scores to reach an admissions committee. Although the committee makes final acceptance decisions, they don’t have full control of the process since they don’t see every application. Similarly, a DAO’s programing automates parts of the decision-making process — ranging from tasks as simple as filtering to complex contract negotiations.
  • Organization: A DAO needs to have a purpose, and to have a purpose, you need money. DAOs need some sort of capital, usually a cryptocurrency, to do anything of substance. DAO members exchange cryptocurrencies for shares, or tokens, in the organization. Just like shareholders in public corporations, more shares equal more influence on decisions.

Great, now can you tell me what the DAO is?

Yes…here we go:

The DAO in question is an investment entity, structured as a distributed organization on the Etherium blockchain. Using Etherium’s cryptocurrency, Ether, the DAO identifies companies for its members to invest in, and shareholders vote to either invest or pass on deals. The DAO crowdfunded $150 million from approximately 11,000 people, making it the largest crowdfunded project in history.

Why was the DAO created?

The DAO was created in response to a desire for more transparency in investment houses. The DAO is a fully transparent organization. There can be no mismanagement by officers because there are no officers — either the shareholders or the DAO itself makes all decisions. Furthermore, since the DAO is on the Etherium blockchain, flows of funds are on public records. Creative accounting can’t be used to disguise mismanagement of company funds.

Are there any problems with the DAO?

Yes…and lots of them. Because the DAO is so “open”, the organization is more susceptible to attacks. For the sake of our conversation, we’re going to focus strictly on the business issues, instead of getting bogged down with the legal, tax, and technological issues of the DAO.

The DAO has no leadership. Decisions need to be made by a quorum, slowing operations down to a speed that makes an oil tanker look like a speed boat. The second issue is the DAO’s code itself. It’s difficult for an investor to fully understand any investment — and trying to understand the computer code that comes with an autonomous program is a near impossible feat for a majority of investors.

Both of these issues came to fruition on June 17th, 2016, when an unknown “attacker” exploited the DAO’s computer code, siphoning off over $50 million worth of Ether in 40 seconds. Many commentators don’t view the attack as a hack, but as an individual taking advantage of a weakness in the logic of the DAO’s smart contracts.

 

Accounts_-_etherchain_org_-_The_ethereum_blockchain_explorer
Blockchain record of The DAO attack

Here is where the DAO’s issues of clarity and speed are brought to light. Investors didn’t understand that the DAO could have been taken advantage of so easily, since no intelligent investor would put money into a fund that isn’t secure from theft. Regarding speed, although the hack took under a minute, a “kill switch” could have been executed by a miner who saw something shady happening. However, since all decisions need to be made by the collective, the miner could only sit and watch as money bled out of the DAO. The lack of leadership is even more apparent with the DAO’s response to the attack: it’s nearly a week after the attack, and no decision from shareholders on what to do next has been made.

What does the DAO mean for the future?

We’re at the infant stage, dipping our toes into the pool of DAOs. The issues the company ran into are similar to a business set up without full knowledge of its market size and risks. There are going to be growing pains with DAOs, and the decision what to do with this DAO won’t stop another DAO starting soon. It will be interesting to see what the next iteration of the DAO looks like, and how coders respond to the issues of the DAO.

Regardless, the establishment of the first DAO fund gives the market a measuring stick for future investments, and shows investors how careful they need to be with the fine print.

5 trends we’re watching this week

5 trends in finance this week

[alert type=yellow ]Every week at Tradestreaming, we’re tracking and analyzing the top trends impacting the finance industry. The following is a list of important things going on we think are worth paying attention to. For more in depth trendfollowing, subscribe to Tradestreaming’s newsletters .[/alert]

1. 60 Minutes: Fintech shaking up the financial industry: Looks like fintech has reached the mainstream with this 60 Minutes segment on Stripe and the entire financial technology movement. Until now, much of the excitement about the changes going on in finance were relegated to tech publications, the startup press, or within tighter financial circles. With this profile on 60 Minutes, it’s a big step forward for some of the younger firms in the industry that will continue to exert pressure on incumbent financial organizations to innovate (or parter/buy the innovators).

Counterpoint: While the startup ecosystem patted itself on the back after the airing of the episode on CBS, a few outspoken voices complained that the coverage didn’t go a good enough job explaining the whole story. Sure, startups are innovating and all that, but the banks do, and will continue to, play an important role in the financial system.

2. Is the online finance apocalypse upon us? : In spite of the good press the industry got in the 60 Minutes piece, this was a very trying week for online lenders. Bloomberg is now reporting that Prosper, the pioneering marketplace lending platform in the U.S., is indeed eliminating 171 jobs, closing their Utah office and letting go of their chief risk officer. That amounts to 28% of its staff. Oh, and CEO Aaron Vermut’s salary has also been cut to zero.

OnDeck, an online business lender and one of the first from the current class to make it to public markets, saw its share price shellacked as an FBR analyst cut his estimates on the firm. “FBR analyst Bob Ramsey blamed the weaker outlook on reduced volume of loans sold and slower origination stemming from diminishing marketplace demand and tougher underwriting standards.”

There’s definitely some alarming things going on in online lending right now — the most important is the rapidly diminishing demand for these loans from both retail and institutional investors. Time will tell whether this is just the rebalancing of supply and demand in the space or whether something organic is afoot.

Oh yeah, also, growth in roboadvisor land is rapidly decelerating.

3. New technology turns smart cars into payment devices: Payment technologies in cars have gained a lot of momentum in the past few months. We wrote recently how new payment technology is helping Gett, one of the top competitors in the on demand transportation market, compete with Uber.

However, there have been a series of strategic partnerships in the last year that have given insight into a new, and bigger, concept than just being able to pay for things from the comfort of your vehicle: Turning the automobile into a credit card.

Imagine the following scenarios:

  • Purchasing food from a restaurant while driving there, and the kitchen being informed of when to cook the food in accordance with traffic and arrival time
  • Purchasing groceries while driving to the supermarket, while the supermarket knows when you will be arriving to allow curbside delivery
  • Emergency mechanical situations, where the car guides the driver to the nearest mechanic, with the part needed to be fixed already waiting and paid for before the car arrives

It’s happening.

4. Thomson Reuters seeks openness, builds hooks into core products: It’s an age-old debate: when building technology, is it better to build open or closed systems? In finance, closed systems have generally ruled the roost. But history has shown over time, that open systems have the potential of becoming true platforms, with vibrant ecosystems of apps, services, and support helping to keep the platforms ahead of any closed competitors.

We interviewed Abel Clark, head of Thomson Reuters’ financial products group which provides data, research, and trading systems to many of the top financial firms around the world, to get his view on the discussion. Thomson Reuters has made openness a core value at the organizational level.

“Openness wins longer term because it provides for more customer choice,” Clark said. “When there’s sharing and collaboration happening between partners, the financial industry will be better equipped to thrive in this challenging era of innovation.”

5. Cashless society? Not so fast as countries invest in cash technology: We’re always so quick to talk about digital payments and how moving to a more pure digital system could benefit our economy and our personal payment experiences. But, what’s interesting, is that while some countries, like Sweden, are headed to an economy that has untethered from cash, many other parts of the world are seeing an increase in demand for cash.

Even here in the US, we’re seeing an upgrade cycle by the major banks to improve technology at the ATM machine in a wake of a mega merger of the largest ATM players internationally.

So, cash is certainly not dead and in fact, we’re seeing a variety of new designs and aesthetics injected into the money we carry. We’re also seeing new technologies applied to cash and coin currency. They range from new types of inks and materials to holographics and other nifty security features.

 

Wall Street’s top 6 bitcoin projects

bitcoin projects on wall street

Less than 1% of internet users are currently using bitcoin as an active currency, but incumbent financial institutions around the world are busy testing the blockchain technology that supports the digital currency. Many of today’s top blockchain projects are being run via financial industry consortia, comprised of top financial firms, technology providers, and consultants.

Here are a handful of the most meaningful bitcoin projects to date:

Credit Default Swaps
Participants: JP Morgan, Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse
Technology/service provider: Axoni

A handful of major banks, including JP Morgan and Citigroup, are testing blockchain technology to help with record-keeping for credit default swaps (CDSs). As an over-the-counter product, it can be a challenge to keep track of CDS transactions. This new test, administered by Wall Street’s unofficial librarian, the Depository Trust Clearing Corporation, successfully showed that payments, amendments, novations and compressions for CDS can be run on blockchain.

Hyperledger Project
Participants: JP Morgan, Deutsche Borse Group, more
Technology/service providers: IBM, Intel, Digital Asset, more

The Linux Foundation helped promote the development and uptake of opensource software. Now, it’s doing the same for bitcoin and blockchain technology. Originally launched as the Open Ledger Project and recently rebranded as the Hyperledger Project, the foundation intends to evangelize the future of finance and to create industry-wide standards. The project is a collaborative, cross-industry open standard for distributed ledgers supported by major financial institutions including JP Morgan, Deutsche Borse Group, BNY Mellon, and ANZ. The organization wants to spur discussion and imagination around the future of supply chains, payments, contracts, and ownership of digital assets.

Commercial paper trading
Participants: R3CEV
Technology/service provider: Chain, IBM, Intel, and Eris

R3CEV is a blockchain startup that’s structured as a consortium of numerous financial institutions, including dozens of banks. In addition to a test using the Ethereum network, R3 recently ran a pilot focused on commercial paper trading. 40 banks participated in the test case. Participants needed to model a financial asset (in this case, commercial paper) and structure a variety of smart contracts for trading that asset — all using blockchain. According to The Wall Street Journal, the goal of the test was to give the banks an opportunity to compare and contrast 5 different blockchain offerings on the market today, including Eris Industries, Ethereum, IBM, Intel and Chain.

Private company capitalization tables
Participants: Nasdaq

In a market with few IPOs, Nasdaq has found other ways to court entrepreneurs and venture capital investors. By building tools and offering in-house and via acquisition of other providers, the stock market seems intent on finding other ways to do business with private companies via Nasdaq Private Market. The same division is experimenting with blockchain technologies. Its blockchain product, Linq, is the first public trial of blockchain technology by a major global stock exchange. One of the first applications of the technology set will help entrepreneurs and private companies manage their cap tables. Eventually, firms using Linq could use it to create, buy, and sell new shares in their companies.

Repurchase agreements
Participants: DTCC
Technology/service provider: Digital Asset

Repurchase agreements, better known as repos, are contracts that enable financial institutions to borrow from one another on a short-term basis by selling securities and buying them back at a set date. DTCC takes in around $2 trillion worth of these agreements daily in the form of thousands of transactions. Participants don’t see a marked difference in their businesses by switching over to blockchain technology, as trades generally settle daily anyway. What it should do, though, is allow financial institutions that are involved in multiple repos to net them out against each other on a given day.

Darrell Duffie, a professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business told Fast Company, “I think it’s a smart move,” he says. “It will allow intraday settlement and better netting efficiencies, so it’s a win-win for liquidity in the repo market.”

Japanese Stock Exchange
Participants: Tokyo Stock Exchange, Nomura Research Institute

The operator of the Tokyo Stock Exchange intends to “assess the usability as well as the challenges of blockchain technology when applied to securities markets”. The Japan Exchange group is conducting this project with IBM Japan. JPX plans to conduct proof-of-concept tests to evaluate blockchain technology in markets that have low transaction data volume.

WTF is bitcoin?

wtf

This post is part a series of articles that explain, in plain English, new technology tools and platforms that are changing the face of finance.Check out other articles in this series here.

What is Bitcoin?

Imagine the following happy scenario: You have just finished designing a cooking website for Dan. You live in Nevada, Dan lives in London. When Dan goes to his bank to send you your payment, he discovers that the transaction fees for sending a direct wire to your account will be very, very high. He is also told that it will take several days for the transfer to go through. When Dan goes to Western Union, it’s the same story. “Can I pay you in bitcoin?” Dan asks. “Maybe,” you say. “What’s bitcoin?”

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer, digital currency. It’s a decentralized payment system, which means that all bitcoin transactions are almost instantaneous (up to ten minutes), have minimal or no transaction fees, and can be made anonymously.

How do you get bitcoin?

If you decide to let Dan pay you in bitcoins, you’ll have to have to open a digital wallet. A digital wallet is where you store your addresses, the files into which bitcoins can be uploaded or downloaded; to minimize the risk of theft, it’s safest to open a new address for each new bitcoin transaction.  Once you have the wallet, you can buy bitcoins on exchange sites or from another person, you can download them from special ATM machines, or you can get paid in bitcoin.

Another way to get bitcoins is to become a miner. Miners are the guardians of the bitcoin network – they confirm each new bitcoin transaction by creating bundles of bitcoin transaction records called blocks. Once a block is established, it is added to a chain of all the previous blocks (the blockchain), a ledger of all of the past transactions conducted with bitcoin. The miners have a real incentive to keep the bitcoin network secure; each time they create a new transaction block, they’re awarded 50 bitcoins.

Is it Safe?

Sure, bitcoin is safe – or at least as safe as any other type of currency. Hackers are mostly out to steal your private keys and to hack into third-party websites that store or exchange bitcoins for you. Luckily, there are steps you can take to keep your bitcoins secure, such as backing up and encrypting your wallet, or even keeping your wallet offline.

Can bitcoin change the financial services industry?

To a certain extent, bitcoin has already caused a paradigm shift in the way that the financial services industry relates to digital currency. Some large banks have already partnered with bitcoin-focused firms, and many are developing tools and technologies to test blockchain applications.. Though little has come to market, it’s clear that bitcoin will have a significant impact on the financial sector in the future.

So, has the bitcoin revolution begun?

From a user’s perspective, the answer is a firm no. Less than 0.1% of internet users use bitcoin, and there are indications that since 2013 there has actually been a decrease in the number of new users joining the bitcoin network. However, as far as the financial industry itself is concerned, the answer is less clear cut. Bitcoin, and especially its blockchain technology, certainly have the ability to radically transform the sector, not only by showing them how to become faster, safer, and lower-cost, but by introducing new marketplaces, encouraging micro transactions, and by enabling new brands to become major players in the industry.

The only question is whether incumbent financial institutions will be able to see past the immediate threat that bitcoin could pose to their profits and embrace the shared ledger technology that could eventually transform the financial services industry as we know it.

How Digital Currency Council’s Sarah Martin is professionalizing bitcoin and blockchain technologies

digital currency council and the finance industry

Sarah Martin is Vice President of the Digital Currency Council

What is the DCC? What are its objectives?

Sarah Martin, Digital Currency Council
Sarah Martin, Digital Currency Council

The Digital Currency Council (DCC) is the world’s largest bitcoin and blockchain technology trade organization. We’re roughly 2,500 members strong across 100 countries worldwide, and our membership comprises top-level executives from tech, finance, government, law, media, and business services. We’re dedicated to growing the digital currency industry and advancing blockchain technology. We welcome new members with online coursework in bitcoin basics and free educational resources. And we offer a gateway to tap into a network of senior digital currency professionals – entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, technologists, and heads of financial institutions. Our ambition is to provide an online ecosystem to connect people around the world and facilitate linkages for our members to create business or professional opportunities or meet up with one another at conferences and global events.

What are some of the biggest challenges in today’s market facing digital currency and ancillary technologies?

The digital currency industry is going gangbusters right now. It’s a tremendously exciting time to be part of the thrill ride. What can be a little unnerving as excitement, attention, and investment keep hitting the gas is whether we’ll speed up too fast and get pulled over. Regulatory uncertainty has been hanging over our industry for years. As we continue to accelerate, questions about if, how, when, and where bitcoin and blockchain technology will be regulated loom even larger. Regulation is not a new or unique issue for the digital currency industry. But it’s one of the top concerns that our members express when asked what keeps them up at night.

Where are some of the biggest opportunities for incumbent financial service firms with digital currency? What about startups in the space?

Faster payments. Overhauling financial infrastructure may not sound super sexy, but the efficiency and cost savings may be formidable. Several startups* are currently working with large financial institutions to pilot blockchain-based systems to expedite clearing and settlement. We’re also encouraged that the UK, US, and Canadian governments have all expressed interest in exploring distributed ledger-based systems to modernize their payments infrastructure. We’re focused on fostering these types of collaboration – between startups and financial institutions or startups and government systems – and we’ve been thrilled by the number of partnerships in the last year.

*I’m afraid I can’t outwardly endorse any here.

What are your plans for 2016? What should we keep our eyes out for?

The DCC just had its first birthday and we’re astounded by the growth in just one year. It really speaks to the spirit behind the digital currency industry and outlook of our members for blockchain technology. We didn’t anticipate the sudden surge in support for blockchain technology during this past year. But, we’re excited to share in that enthusiasm, and our objective is to accelerate that upward trajectory. Right now, we’re focused on expanding our international membership. Bitcoin is a global phenomenon, and we’re building new alliances with partner organizations worldwide to support our members overseas and provide them with resources and access to opportunities.

Photo credit: Dean Hochman via Visualhunt.com / CC BY

A week after selling to Nasdaq, SecondMarket founder raises money for blockchain venture

bitcoin and blockchain investor, Barry Silbert, launches DCG

Barry Silbert is a man on a mission. As the founder of SecondMarket, the ink has barely dried on Nasdaq’s acquisition of the fintech platform specializing in tender offers (private transactions in private companies) and now the entrepreneur is on to his next big thing.

[x_pullquote type=”right”]As it gets more liquid, as a [payment] rail it will become a real alternative to the existing money transfer systems in the world today. — Barry Silbert, Digital Currency Group[/x_pullquote]Silbert took the opportunity of speaking from the stage at Money 20/20 to announce the launch of his new firm, Digital Currency Group (see its Crunchbase entry). DCG, a digital currency and block chain company, is being joined by an A-list of strategic investors. Bain Capital Ventures, Transamerica Ventures, FirstMark Capital, MasterCard, and New York Life will use DCG to gain exposure to the rapidly growing cryptocurrency space.

In addition to these investments, the company will also operate wholly-owned subsidiaries Genesis Global Trading, a bitcoin OTC trading firm, and Greyscale Investments, the firm that manages the publicly traded Bitcoin Trust (Symbol: GBTC). Silbert also said that DCG will launch a third wholly-owned subsidiary in 2016 (Source).

Fortune’s Dan Primack had more color on Silbert’s strategy driving DCG:

It also will house a portfolio of 57 seed-stage investments that Silbert and his team have already made, including Chain, Circle, Coinbase, Ripple and Xapo. They also have backed several companies looking to exploit bitcoin’s blockchain technology for uses outside of finance, including Ascribe (managing digital IP) and ShoCard (digital identification).

Silbert has been very active as an investor in the bitcoin space. He said that given the extent of his portfolio, he estimates that his portfolio has attracted 70% of all venture capital that’s been poured into the digital currency and bitcoing space.

Creating a digital currency ecosystem

Silbert plans to utilize DCG as a holding company of sorts to make further investments in the space. He told CoinDesk that DCG will invest in a further 10 to 20 companies in 2016.

Indeed, Silbert sees DCG’s role as more than just a seeder of new business in the fledgling market. With such a sizeable and influential portfolio, DCG can act as somewhat of an ecosystem for companies playing in the blockchain space.

Per CoinDesk:

In turn, his company is hoping to use its “unique position” in the industry to foster collaboration between entrepreneurs, investors and – crucially – legacy institutions, who are seeking answers about blockchain technology’s disruptive potential.

That’s just one side of the market. Large financial institutions, some of them making their first moves into the digital currency space, need the safety and guidance of a firm that’s helping to lead the charge. That’s where DCG comes in. With 5 showcase institutional investors, DCG may act as a curated accelerator of firms looking to do business with the incumbent financial industry. In this way, DCG can act as matchmaker, pairing up supply and demand between startup fintech firms and larger, multinational institutions looking to partner.

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