Blockchangers Blog

Weekly Wrap Up #63

Quote of the week: “The current lack of regulatory clarity for digital assets presents entrepreneurs and businesses with a choice: navigate the significant regulatory ambiguity in the U.S., or move overseas to markets with clear digital asset regulations.” – Bill Hagerty, United States Senator, a member of the Senate Banking Committee. Source:  https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-senator-bill-seeks-to-cushion-crypto-exchanges-from-sec-enforcement-actions

Kim Kardashian Pays SEC $1.26 million:  The United States Securities and Exchange Commission charged American celebrity and influencer Kim Kardashian for promoting a cryptocurrency asset security to her followers without disclosing the payment received. Kim Kardashian unlawfully touted cryptocurrency security EMAX tokens with a link to the project’s website on her social media account. Although Kim Kardashian neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s findings, she agreed to settle the charges for violating the anti-touting provision of federal securities laws. Source:

https://www.fxempire.com/news/article/sec-charges-kim-kardashian-for-unlawfully-touting-crypto-security-statement-1148246

Mastercard Launches its New Cryptocurrency Fraud Protection Instrument:

Mastercard launched its new risk management product, which allows banks to identify and prevent fraud on cryptocurrency merchant platforms that are within its network. The new service, Crypto Secure, uses artificial intelligence, blockchain data, and public records of crypto transactions, among other sources, to find and determine the crime-related risks of cryptocurrency exchanges. Source:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/mastercard-launches-new-crypto-fraud-protection-tool

Daniel Leon, Celsius Network’s Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer Steps Down:  Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky resigned last week; this week, Daniel Leon, Celsius’ Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, resigned. Mr. Leon is stepping down amid the company’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. Source: https://www.fxempire.com/news/article/celsius-co-founder-and-strategy-head-leon-resigns-from-bankrupt-crypto-lender-1150497

Latin Grammy Awards is Launching its First NFT Collection:  The Latin Grammy Awards signed a 3-year contract for award show-related NFTs. This year’s 64th Latin Grammy Awards will be launching its first-ever NFT collection in collaboration with the OneOf Web3 music platform. According to Manuel Abud, CEO of the Latin Recording Academy, these NFTs will allow fans to “own a piece of the Latin GRAMMYs.” Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/latin-grammy-awards-signs-three-year-contract-for-award-show-nfts

Citi Ventures Makes its First Cryptocurrency Seed Investment:  Despite a bear market, institutional investors are continuing to move into the digital asset space. This week, Citi Ventures co-led a $6 million initial capital financing round for an institutional-grade digital asset management startup, Xalts. The startup was founded by a former trader at HSBC Holdings and a former Meta Platforms Inc. executive. The other firm that co-led the funding round was Accel. Accel, a venture capital firm, has funded technology companies in the past, including Facebook and Spotify. Source:  https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/10/06/citi-ventures-backs-its-first-digital-asset-manager-co-leading-a-6m-round-in-xalts/

And, that’s a wrap!

Jordana Cohen,

Associate

Alpha Sigma Capital

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Alpha Sigma Capital
Daniel Siciliano

F. Daniel Siciliano is an Independent Director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco and Chair of the American Immigration Council. He is the former faculty director of the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University and former Professor of the Practice and Associate Dean at Stanford Law School. His work has included expert testimony in front of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and for 2009, 2010, and 2011, alongside leading academics and business leaders such as Ben Bernanke, Paul Krugman, and Carl Icahn, Professor Siciliano was named to the “Directorship 100” – a list of the most influential people in corporate governance.

Siciliano was also co-founder, CEO and ultimately Executive Chairman of LawLogix Group, Inc. – a global software technology company named 9 consecutive times to the Inc. 500/5000, several times ranked as one of the Top 100 fastest-growing private software companies in the US and named to the US Hispanic Business 500 (largest) and Hispanic Business 100 (fastest growing) lists for 2010 and 2011. In 2012 he sold a majority stake of the company to PNC Riverarch Capital, continued as Executive Chairman, and led the sale of the company to Hyland Software/Thoma Bravo in 2015.

Siciliano is a co-founder and board member of the Silicon Valley Directors’ Exchange (SVDX), Chairman of the national non-partisan American Immigration Council, past-President of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council #1057, and an active member of the Latino Corporate Directors’ Association.


Siciliano’s related areas of expertise include executive compensation, corporate compliance, the legal and social impact of autonomous (AI/robotic) systems, and corporate technology strategy and security. He has served as a governance consultant and trainer to the Board of Directors of dozens of Fortune 1000 companies (including Google, Microsoft, Fedex, Disney, Entergy and Applied Materials), is an angel investor and consultant to several firms and companies in Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, India, and Latin America, and currently serves as an independent director on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. He lives in Los Altos, California.