gold against a turbulent stock market.These events not only prove Bitcoin’susefulness as a safe-haven asset in timesof instability, but they also help to con-solidate Bitcoin’s position as ‘digitalgold’ for investors looking to the assetas a store of wealth.

BITCOIN’S SECOND DECADEAs a store of value, gold has a couple ofmillennia on Bitcoin. But that may notbe enough to stop the leading digitalasset from making the next decade itsown.Early challenges associated with digi-tal assets have largely been addressed,especially those of access. It’s alreadyeasier than ever for professional in-vestors to buy and store Bitcoin, andnow, solutions such as those we havebuilt at Mode are also increasing accessfor retail investors.Mode’s vision is to deliver a bankingecosystem which recognises Bitcoin’spotential to act as a store of wealth. The2020’s will be defined by an increasedaccess to decentralised infrastructure,and an increasing number of millennialparticipants in the financial markets.The last step of the digital asset revolu-tion is the provision of attractive andseamless ways for new investors to ac-cess the market, with comparable userexperiences to popular mobile bankingsolutions. While central bank digital currencieslook set to fill the role of digital cash, Bit-coin is poised to take the mantle of dig-ital gold. Whether it can do so in a waythat is competitive with physical goldwill depend on building simple and ef-fective investment products to attractmass adoption.

£Jonathan Rowland, Chairman at ModeBanking, in conversation with JamesBowater. For more information or todownload the app visithttps://modebanking.com

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: THE VIEWS ANDOPINIONS PROVIDED BY CITY A.M.'S CRYPTOINSIDER AND IN THE CRYPTO A.M. SECTIONSHOULD NOT BE TAKEN AS INVESTMENT ORFINANCIAL ADVICE. ALWAYS CONSULT WITHYOUR FINANCIAL ADVISOR.

Jeffrey Sweeney is a lifelongentrepreneur with extensive experiencein leading firms with a forward-thinking

approach. Currently Chairman and CEO ofUS Capital Global, a full-service privatefinancial services group headquartered inSan Francisco, Jeffrey is a keen supporter oftechnological innovations that can help toimprove and grow the finance sectorespecially regulated digitization.

Now in its twentieth year, US CapitalGlobal has established itself as a FinTechinvestment bank through deploying asuccessful strategy that leveragestechnological innovation (FinTech) andregulatory developments (RegTech). Thegroup is a leading provider of sophisticatedfinancing solutions and investmentopportunities for lower middle marketbusinesses. Under Jeffrey’s leadership, thegroup consistently fulfils its commitment todoing well by doing good throughfacilitating profitable economicdevelopment that also has a positive socialand environmental impact.

US Capital Global has a keen interest inthe UK and European market, and recenttransactions include Millions of dollarsraised in a pure digital security for a CaymanTech fund, €10MM bridge loan ahead of€100MM growth equity financing for MIRIS,a Norwegian-based block chain centeredenergy-efficient and sustainable real estatedevelopment firm, for which Jeffrey hasalso joined the board. Also in 2019, USCapital Global has provided term loanfinancing up to £10MM for UK-basedManifesto Holding PLC, which ownsprestigious arts, culture, and entertainmentvenues across Paris. US Capital Global isexpanding its reach in the UK, representinginnovative projects in FinTech, MedTech,and beyond.

For 20 years and prior to being a financier,Jeffrey served as a principal and CEO of aSouthern California aerospacemanufacturing company who was a leaderin adoption of the latest technology toimprove manufacturing and financialreporting. His experience leading a business

22 TUESDAY 28 JANUARY 2020FEATURE CITYAM.COM 23TUESDAY 28 JANUARY 2020 FEATURECITYAM.COM

not impossible – for authoritarianregimes to confiscate.As an industry, we’ve seen this de-mand in practice very recently.Blockchain research firm CryptoQuantfound strong correlation between theIran crisis and exchange outflows of Bit-coin.Outflows tripled from around 12thousand BTC on January 2, the day be-fore the Iran crisis, to over 37 thousandon January 3. After Iran’s retaliatoryshow of force on the 8th, outflows roseto a colossal 49 thousand BTC in antici-pation of an all-out war.Outflows of Bitcoin generally indicatethat investors are moving their Bitcoinaway from exchanges with a view to

hold long-term – in the exact same waygold is stockpiled in times of crisis.Once the crisis de-escalated, the priceof Bitcoin abruptly fell – exactly aswould be expected from a safe havenasset.Closer to home, the fluctuating priceof the pound in the wake of Brexit ne-gotiations and the recent general elec-tion, in addition to the politicalinfluence on the UK stock market, hasled some investors to seek a safe havenfor wealth protection. Earlier thismonth, Forbes columnist ProfessorPanos Mourdoukoutas shared that re-searchers from the University of Preto-ria had confirmed that Bitcoin wasindeed used as a comparable hedge to

When Satoshi Nakamotofirst described Bitcoin in2008, there was little wayof knowing what a behe-moth the asset would be-

come over the following decade.Dominating media headlines with itsmeteoric price rises and inspiring a slewof copycat coins, Bitcoin has served asboth the blueprint for a decentralisedeconomy, and an entirely new class ofdigital assets.But while Bitcoin has made substan-tial progress in establishing itself as astore of value, its usefulness as a meansof exchange has been eroded. Heavyspeculation and high transaction feeshas resulted in most users holding Bit-coin for the long-term, especially giventhe asset’s all-time highs of almost£15,000 per coin.Diehard crypto evangelists likely viewthis as a departure from Nakamoto’soriginal ‘digital cash’ vision. But thetruth is, Bitcoin’s assumed role as aspeculative asset has irrevocably shiftedthe financial world as we know it – andfew assets have as much to fear from Bit-coin’s power play as gold. Precious metal advocates have longlooked to gold for stability from theoften-volatile financial markets, espe-cially in times of crisis or recession.However, in recent years, it’s becomeclear that many of the attributes whichhave traditionally been associated withgold can also be observed in Bitcoin.So, what parallels exist between Bit-coin and gold, and crucially, what doesBitcoin do better?

SUPPLY AND DEMANDScarcity is a key determinant of gold’sprice, as we know, the precious metal isfinite. Nevertheless, quantifying theexact amount of gold on Earth is diffi-cult. The World Gold Council estimatesthat around 190,000 tonnes of gold ex-ists above ground, but how much is leftto be extracted is largely unknown.Bitcoin, on the other hand, is limitedto 21 million coins. Once the last coin ismined – in around 120 years by currentestimates – no more will ever enter cir-culation. This hard cap on circulatingsupply makes it easier to predict the

price of Bitcoin in the future comparedto gold.In an interview with CNBC last Au-gust, Bitcoin bull and Galaxy Digitalfounder Michael Novogratz claimedthat Bitcoin’s role as digital gold wasclear to regulators, and still had a longway to go before it reached gold’s globalmarket cap of $8 trillion.

INSTABILITY: AN ARGUMENT FOR BITCOIN?Geopolitical tensions have always beena key driver for gold demand, evidencedmost recently following the crisis inIran.As City A.M. itself reported, prices ofgold surged to a seven-year high of

£1,228 per ounce for the first time since2013, following the brief but tense pe-riod of unrest at the beginning of thismonth.Historically, similar price action hasfollowed other major global events, so-lidifying gold’s status as a safe havenasset – and leading some experts toargue that an alternative to gold simplyisn’t required.The issue with this argument is that inthe 21st century – short of a global ca-tastrophe – Bitcoin is simply an easierasset to access and store in times of un-certainty. For those in politically unsta-ble nations, Bitcoin not only fills the roleof gold as a hedge against volatile fiatcurrencies, but it also proves harder – if

In association with

CITY A.M.’SCRYPTO INSIDER

Crypto AM shinesits Spotlight on USCapital Global

@CityAm_CryptoE: CryptoInsider@cityam.com

JAMES BOWATER

PARTNER CONTENT

Our series on AI, Blockchain, Cryptoassets, DLT and Tokenisation

Industries now evolve at an exponen-tial rate. It took over 100 years to gofrom steam power in the 1800s (in-dustry 1.0) to commercially availableelectricity which powered mass pro-duction from the early 1900s (Indus-try 2.0). However, only 50 years laterthe microchip drove the iconic rise ofpersonal computers and smartphones(Industry 3.0), while only 20 yearslater we’ve shifted again into Industry4.0 with the rise of IoT’s (Internet ofThings) and Digital Assets. It is under-standable that we no longer associateindustry change as a “revolution”;perhaps emerging markets or futuretech is the new name for an industrialrevolution as the gap between themnarrows. We are now all familiar with theidea of industry changing or disrup-tive technology. Uber, the world’smost successful private car company,owns no cars, Airbnb owns no prop-erty. IP now has a value very fewwould have foreseen. We are standingat the true dawn of the Digital Age.This is no more apparent than in

the financial sector, with the rise ofthe ‘challenger NeoBanks’ like N26,Revolut and Monzo, an entirely digi-tal entity with no branches to speakof, in its place, a user-centric mobileapp for execution.NeoBanks are rapidly growing with39 million users globally and skyrock-eting valuations thanks to their at-tractive value propositions, whichinclude personal finance manage-ment features, low rates, superioruser experience.Despite this, unless these new bank-ing platforms have the chance to beowned by a diverse range of commu-nities, we may repeat the same mis-takes of giving a small group of “toobig to fail” industry leaders the samepower to set the rules of the game.Facebook, Apple and Uber have allmade vertical crossovers into finance.Facebook has endeavoured to launchtheir own financial product in LIBRA.Whatsapp a social messaging plat-form now allows the exchange ofEthereum or ERC20 tokens between

users. Apple already has paymentsoftware and is releasing its ownApple Card and Uber plans to launchUber Money initially offering realtime access to earnings for drivers. Asmore non-traditional brands get intothe digital banking space, we'll seethe growth of 3rd party service inno-vations catering to user demand.For this reason, Vanta Tech waslaunched by four co-founders withprofessionally-diverse backgrounds inmarketing and finance; two of whomhelped deliver a digital banking solu-tion previously and saw the gap in themarket for aiming to solve the chal-lenges of setting up a NeoBank anddemocratise access to owning and op-erating their own NeoBanks. Provid-ing the flexibility that is going tobecome necessary in modern finance,pioneering white label BaaS (Bankingas a Service) from conception and fea-ture ideas, through to launch, licenc-ing and full back-office operations;Vanta can confidently get you intothe market in 2020.Any brand with an active audiencecan be a challenger bank. Whetheryou’re in retail, entertainment or fi-nance. The most important factor isthat you are a leader in your industrywith a community that trusts you, astrust is the true value that underliesmoney and exchange. ‘White LabelDigital Banking’ makes it very cost-ef-fective for smaller groups, organisa-tions or developing countries tocreate their own bank or financial in-stitution to bring together their com-munities in new and empoweringways.We are able to serve not only whatyou need now but what you will needin the future. Being agile, unique andable to deliver new features is the keyto your success against larger corpo-rate financial institutions, allowingyou to remain ‘future-proofed’ as weaccelerate into the next “revolution”;NeoBanking.

For more about Vanta Tech and torequest a free proposal to set up yourown NeoBank, visit www.vanta-tech.com

CRYPTOCOMPARE MARKET VIEW

Are YOU the next NeoBank?

What would it mean if you couldoperate in a global marketplacewith the same confidence as a

face-to-face transaction? Today eBayand dozens of other online marketplacesprovide just this functionality by actingas trusted intermediaries betweenbuyers and sellers of goods and servicesall over the globe.

But what would it mean if there was noeBay, Alibaba or Airbnb? How could youensure that when you made a transactionthat all parties would hold up to theircommitments? And how could youenforce contracts for any failure to deliveror deviation from what was agreed?

One aspect of the solution is throughthe careful use of transparency betweencounter-parties in the transaction. In the

event of any dispute, the records of theoffer and the acceptance can be madeavailable to third parties to supportenforcement.

Because not all transactions areinstantaneous, a transparent record ofthe progress can also add value. Counter-parties can track and trace assets as theyprogress through the real world in aseries of transfers and transformations.Assets include raw materials, finishedgoods as well as payments, remittancesand trade finance.

All of these things comprise details ona single golden record to which allparties agree is the sole source of truth.And to which all parties agree can bemade available for audit.

Businesses achieve efficiencies by

eliminating and reducing the costs andtime of reconciling data betweenmultiple parties. They both increasemargin and reduce costs throughoperating in a marketplace with nobroker or intermediary.

These marketplaces are not withouttheir challenges. Stakeholders mustagree to governance models whichreflect the (often conflicting) interests ofthe members as well as standards thatsometimes span geographic andpolitical jurisdictions. But they arepossible. They are possible today, thanksto blockchain.

Get in touch with usinfo@blockchainrookies.com / Twitter@igetblockchain

CRYPTO A.M. INDUSTRY VOICES

Troy Norcross, Co-Founder Blockchain Rookies

of Millions of Dollars in private sales ofsecondary securities and is connected toone of the largest regulated AlternativeTrading Systems (ATS) of affiliated BrokerDealers and Registered InvestmentAdvisors (RIA) network in the US. We aregranularly familiar with the compliantrequirements for secondary sales of privatesecurities.

When we collectively speak of "digitizationof securities" or assets we are reallyaddressing less the primary sale of thosesecurities but facilitating the ease ofsecondary sales of those securities.Compliantly making those sales happen isprobably the most relevant area ofdevelopment in the digital sector.

Counterparty risk, investment issuer duediligence, current financial and operationalinformation on the issuer, is of at least equalconcern as the relatively easy KYC and AMLof the protentional buyer. The above issuesare more complicated to solve and willrequire collective coordination within theindustry to set best practice.

To have the digital securities sector grow,as is the aspirational hope, there will have tobe clear differentiation between offeringswith strong counterparty verification as wellas offering diligence and those less robustofferings carrying more execution risk dueto lack of information provided by regulatedentities.

For further information visithttps://uscapglobal.com

in the highly-regulated aerospacemanufacturing industry has led to hisappreciation of the need to work closelywith regulators while adoptingtechnological solutions to improveefficiency in the sector. This successfulapproach has been brought over to USCapital Global, where leveraging innovationand regulatory developments has been akey driver in the firm’s growth as a FinTechinvestment bank.

Approaching the Fin Tech and Digital

finance sector with the experience of thetransformative time in aerospacemanufacturing US Capital Global sees theneed to respect and embrace regulatorycompliance and assessment ofcounterparty risk. The company is incontinuous contact with US regulatorsregarding primary offerings of digitalsecurities and looking ahead to the requiredprotocols of secondary sales of those samesecurities.

US Capital Global has facilitated the sale

Greetings from Gibraltar where I’m meetingwith Albert Isola the Minister for FinancialServices, Digital and Gaming, various

regulatory advisors as well as Diego Zaldivar ofRSK Labs an investee company of CoinsiliumGroup run by Eddie Travia and Malcolm Palle. Itwas on the 30th Oct 2018 that Crypto AM ran a specialso it’s going to be interesting to see how things have changed.

With global stocks falling in reaction to the appalling CoronaVirusoutbreak in China, the crypto market, at the time of writing, isremaining resilient and up on last week. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading atUS$8,735.00 / GB£6,703.38; Ethereum (ETH) is at US$169.63 /GB£129.63; Ripple (XRP) is at US$0.2308 / GB£0.1765; Binance (BNB)is at US$17.50 / GB£13.43 and Cardano (ADA) is at US$0.04516 /GB£0.03466. Overall Market Cap is at US$241.71bn / GB£185.05bn(data source: www.CryptoCompare.com)

I spent last week in Davos where climate change dominated thediscussion topics as well as diversity and inclusion - all of which wascentral to the City of London: The Global City event. The Rt Hon LordMayor of the City of London, Alderman William Russell openedproceedings for this very strong panel event entitled: The Future ofLondon, Global Financial Hubs in an age of Disruption Friend of CityAM, Charlotte Crosswell, CEO of Innovate Finance joined the strongfemale panel who included Catherine McGuiness, Dr Rhian-MariThomas OBE and Dame Elizabeth Corley.

IOHK and Cardano were represented in force at the CV Labsorganised Crypto Valley Week, Davos 2020 with Charles Hoskinsonand Nathan Kaiser making major announcements throughout. Onein particular caught my ear confirmed by meeting Philippe A. Naegeliand Lucas A. Ereth of GENTWO AG (based in Zug, Switzerland). Theyexplained to me that they are able to offer customers the chance tosecuritise bankable and non-bankable assets including digital assetssuch as cryptocurrencies and tokens. The launch of theseinvestment products with a Swiss ISIN will potentially unlock a hugeamount of institutional investors. If GENTWO and Cardano can reacha partnership agreement for the launch of a financial product thenCardano's blockchain becomes investable and a bankable asset forqualified investors.

As you are aware I announced that the inaugural Crypto AMAwards 2020 will be taking place on Wednesday, 11th March. Thenominations are open and free to register, but will close on 31stJanuary. Please use the following linkhttps://www.cityam.com/crypto/crypto-am-awards/

Finally, for your diaries, I am attending Security Tokens Realised(https://securitytokensrealised.com) which is taking place at theGrand Connaught Rooms next Tuesday & Wednesday. Last year soldout but there are still tickets available. However, since I am hostingthe awards organiser Michael Barrell has kindly agreed to give thefirst City AM readers to apply a 30% discount by using CRYPTOAM30

BITCOIN:GOLDREIMAGINED FOR THE21STCENTURYDesigned byPhill Snelling, Bowater Media

JeffreySweeney,Chairman &CEO of USCapitalGlobal

Vodafone Leaves Facebook’s Libra Project

Markets last week remained relativelybuoyant as Bitcoin managed to stayabove the $8,500 mark - sticking

close to its weekly high around the $9,000level. Ethereum, the second-largestcryptocurrency by market capitalization, isalso close to its high of $170, currentlytrading at $166.

Telecom giant Vodafone last week saidgoodbye to the Facebook-led Libracryptocurrency project. One of thefounding members of the LibraAssociation, an independent not-for-profitmembership organization set to governthe Libra cryptocurrency, Vodafone nowjoins PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, eBay,Mercado Pago, and Stripe in leaving thebeleaguered venture.

Data published by crypto trackingwebsites has shown that in 2019 a total of$2.5 trillion were transacted via the Bitcoinnetwork, with the average transactionamount standing at 2.75 BTC, or $23,000.The largest amount transacted in a single

day on the Bitcoin network was close to$20 billion. For comparison, Visa’s networkreported a total transaction volume of $11trillion in 2018.

Bitcoin Cash, a cryptocurrency createdthrough a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain,has seen some miners propose a 12.5%“tax” on mining rewards to funddevelopers, threatening to “abandon” theblocks of those who do not comply.Following the proposal, the creator ofLitecoin, the cryptocurrency seen as thesilver to Bitcoin’s gold, proposed avoluntary 1% donation from miningrewards for the same purpose.

In regulatory news, Israel’s InternationalInstitute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) hasalleged that Hamas has been using bitcointo raise funds, with activity from a financialwebsite by the name of “cash4ps” linked tothe organization. Last week also saw HMRCoffer a £100,000 contract for software thatcan identify when cryptocurrency is beingused to avoid paying taxes.

Australia is in the grips of an ongoing bushire emergency- Over 2,000 Homes destroyed - Over 1 billion animals and wildlife have perished- Over 25 million acres are scorchedDonate with crypto at https://www.cryptofirealliance.com.au

INVISIBLE EBAY