Tag: Pre IPOs

Last week, SpaceX’s valuation topped $ 100 billion in a secondary stock sale. Current investors sold 755 million shares at $ 560 each. Thus, during the deal, SpaceX did not raise new capital funds. The new estimate is 33% higher than the previous $ 74 billion, which Elon Musk’s company received during the last investment round in February this year. Then the company managed to sell 850 million shares and raise almost $ 1.2 billion. Since SpaceX is not a public company, it is not obliged to disclose for what purpose the new capital is being raised. However, information appeared in the media that the space company intends to invest in the development of its Starship and Starlink projects. It is noteworthy that in September of this year, SpaceX successfully launched a crew into space, consisting entirely of space tourists. For the first time in history, civilians went into orbit without professional astronauts.

Starlink is developing high-speed internet that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. To date, SpaceX has launched 1,740 satellites into orbit as part of this project. As part of the public beta testing, the Starlink network is used by more than 100 thousand people in 14 countries around the world. The subscription fee is $ 99 per month. The preferred configuration for covering the entire planet with the Internet has almost 30,000 satellites deployed at nine altitudes, ranging from 340 km to 614 km. SpaceX noted that it has significantly improved the engines of its satellites, as well as the control system, so the risk of collision with large objects in orbit is practically zero. The Starlink project is expected to cover the earth’s axis closer to 2027.

Starship is the next generation reusable launch vehicle for space travel to transport passengers and cargo into orbit and to the surface of the Moon and Mars. SpaceX has successfully completed several short Starship test launches in South Texas. The company is currently awaiting regulatory approval for a test flight into Earth orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket can carry 60 Starlink satellites into orbit simultaneously, while the Starship can transport 400 satellites at once.

SpaceX got serious about in March 2017, when the company managed to vertically land its rocket and then reuse it. Rocket reuse is fundamental to the availability of space exploration as it drastically reduces the cost of a flight. In May 2019, SpaceX received an estimate of $ 33 billion during the next investment round, following which the company was able to raise $ 536 million. Thanks to the successful development of the Starlink and Starship projects, the company’s value tripled in 2.5 years.

Space exploration is a capital-intensive business that will not be profitable anytime soon. Nevertheless, there is high competition in the market, since the winner will not only manage to skim the cream off the market, but also run a highly profitable business with high barriers. SpaceX competes with Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, United Launch Alliance, created by aerospace giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin, sensational Virgin Galactic, created by Richard Branson, founder of the famous Virgin brand, as well as other lesser-known companies and government organizations from different countries.

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Founded in 2010, Leafly operates an online trading platform for the North American legal cannabis market. The company’s service helps customers learn about all the cannabis products featured on the platform. On the other hand, licensed manufacturers can post information about their products with the option of selling. Leafly’s mission is to provide maximum customer information about products in terms of safety, recreational value and quality in the burgeoning cannabis market. On the other hand, the platform allows you to single out individual manufacturers based on a rating system, which helps to increase audience loyalty. Leafly says the platform is used by 125 million people a year and 7,800 independent vendors.

The company’s revenue comes primarily from the monthly subscription fees paid by cannabis sellers to list their products on the Leafly platform. More than 55% of all North American licensed cannabis growers currently use Leafly’s SaaS services, according to the company. The company also makes money from advertising. It is expected that Leafly’s revenue by the end of 2021 will amount to $ 43 million, and by the next year the figure may grow to $ 65 million. It is expected that the company will enter net profit closer to 2024. In February 2021, Leafly announced a new strategic partnership with Jane, an online cannabis promotion platform. The union of the two companies, according to the management, will cause an explosive growth of online orders across North America.

Over a decade of operations, Leafly has raised $ 47 million in two investment rounds in May 2020 ($ 15.5 million) and June 2021 ($ 31.5 million). In early August, it was revealed that Leafly had made the decision to go public through SPAC in its deal with Merida Merger Corp, which raised $ 120 million through a 2019 listing. The indicative terms of the deal indicate that Leafly could be valued at $ 532 million, while the company could raise $ 161.5 million, which is planned to be used for platform scaling and marketing goals. Following the merger with Merida Merger Corp, the main shareholder of Privateer Holdings will continue to own a 72% stake. Leafly is expected to be listed on the Nasdaq by the end of 2021 under the ticker LFLY.

We believe the Leafly placement will be accompanied by strong demand as the cannabis market grows and the expected easing of legislation in individual states. Leafly has an important role to play in connecting consumers and manufacturers as they cannot advertise on social media under US law. Among the main risks, it is worth highlighting the growing competition in the cannabis market, including among online trading platforms. Among the positive drivers for publicly traded companies in the industry could be the launch of the new Roundhill Cannabis ETF in November.

Better.com is a digital platform that facilitates real estate transactions. The company, founded in 2016, provides access to a digital platform that provides insurance services for mortgages, real estate, legal status and homeowners themselves. Long-term rentals are still in vogue, but many Americans dream of owning their own residential property. The housing boom fueled by the pandemic has begun to subside, but prices are up more than 23% over the year and are likely to continue to rise next year amid the Fed’s ultra-soft monetary policy and new Covid threats. People still need to buy homes, and this is where Better.com comes to the rescue, with a mission to make the journey to home ownership more comfortable through insurance solutions.

Better.com offers fairly standard products like mortgage insurance, but the platform uses computer algorithms and artificial intelligence to lower costs for potential home buyers. By keeping the entire process online, Better.com is able to offer clients mortgage approvals faster and with much lower fees compared to other mortgage brokers. Better.com claims that through its innovative platform, the company can cut the standard time it takes to close a home purchase in half from 42 days to 21 days.

Better.com launched Better Real Estate in 2018, and Better Settlement Services and Better Cover in 2019. Better Real Estate differs from traditional real estate business models in that it is a “partner, not a seller” whose mission is to find the right property for the client. Better Mortgage offers a variety of mortgages in both fixed and floating rate. Better Cover is a division of the company that helps buyers get a complete list of insurance solutions.

Better.com made it onto CNBC’s annual Disruptor 50 list, ranking 15th in 2020. The company’s services are currently available in 47 states and the company says it is working to expand its geographic presence in all US states. Better.com has received several outstanding awards since its inception, such as Nerdwallet’s Best Mortgage Refinancing Company in 2021, LinkedIn’s Best Startup in 2020, and One of Forbes’s Top Mortgage Lenders in 2021.

In seven years, Better.com has raised $ 905 million in ten investment rounds. During the Series D investment round, which took place in November 2020, the company raised $ 200 million. In April 2021, SoftBank acquired the company’s shares in the volume of $ 500 million. The purchase price of the shares was not disclosed, so it is not possible to evaluate the company. Later it became known that Better.com plans to go public through a SPAC deal. The subject of the merger will be Aurora Acquisitions Corp., which was listed in March this year with a valuation of $ 220 million under the ticker AURCU.

During Better.com’s IPO, SoftBank’s subsidiary SB Management Limited intends to invest $ 1.5 billion in the combined company, which will be channeled into equity (PIPE) Better.com. Following the completion of the merger, Better.com’s senior management is expected to remain in office. After the merger, the management of the company expects a valuation of Better.com at $ 7.7 billion. The management of Better.com predicts that by 2023 the company will have annual profit of $ 1 billion on revenues of $ 5.1 billion. The exact date of the IPO of Better.com has not yet been set. however, it is very likely that the deal could be closed as early as Q4 2021. According to HousingWire, if Better.com is valued at $ 7.7 billion after the merger, it will become the third largest non-bank mortgage company in the United States after Rocket Mortgage and United Wholesale Mortgage.

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Fabletics was founded in 2013. Through a partnership with actress Kate Hudson, who became the face of the company, Fabletics has become a popular brand. The company sells clothing, footwear and accessories for an active lifestyle. The company’s operating perimeter includes 64 retail stores in North America. Fabletics products can also be purchased online through the website or app. The company positions its product line as a cross between luxury yoga apparel brands like lululemon and mainstream apparel brands. Fabletics provides its customers with a unique membership service that allows them to participate in their daily outdoor apparel purchases, but customers are free to skip a month in which the assortment is unsuitable.

In 2017, parent company TechStyle contemplated selling Fabletics. At the time, the asset was valued at $ 1.5 billion. In addition to Fabletics, TechStyle owns brands such as JustFab and ShoeDazzle, so any parent company funding rounds are not entirely linked to Fabletics. TechStyle has raised at least $ 336 million in venture capital, according to Crunchbase. Given that Fabletics is largely considered the main brand of the company under Hudson’s patronage, it’s safe to assume that TechStyle has made a significant contribution to this brand.

In mid-July, rumors circulated in the market that Fabletics was attracting investment banks for a potential IPO. Currently, there is no information through what mechanism the company can go public, but we believe that Fabletics will choose the path through a traditional IPO rather than through SPAC. According to media reports, Fabletics would like to raise about $ 500 million through a public listing, which the company is likely to spend on investments in growth and business scaling.

The market is eagerly awaiting news of the upcoming deal, including the filing S-1 form, which will contain many financial and specific details about the upcoming IPO. As of the end of August, there was no information about the IPO in public sources, however, we learned that Fabletics plans to cooperate with major underwriters such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Bank of America. We are also aware of the wishes of the management, who hope that the company will be able to achieve the $ 5 billion valuation.

At the end of August it became known that the world famous financial publication Forbes, founded in 1917, is preparing to go public. It is noteworthy that the company, which has existed for the second century, is owned by the founding family by only 5%. Hong Kong-based Integrated Whale Media Investments (IWMI) acquired a majority stake in Forbes in 2014. As a result of the transaction, Forbes was valued at $ 414 million. Currently, IWMI has increased its stake to 95% of the shares. Forbes is well known for its rankings of the richest people in the world. For example, the company annually prepares lists of business leaders in various categories, such as Forbes Billionaires, Forbes Global 500, Forbes 30 Under 30, and Forbes Celebrity 100.

Forbes’ main business is focused on selling more than 40 periodicals, among the most famous are ForbesWomen, Forbes Travel Guide, Forbes Asia and about fifteen regional publications. The company also makes money by providing investment and financial advisory services such as Fox and various radio stations. At the moment, according to Forbes, the company reaches an audience of 150 million people around the world through various media channels. In order to keep up with modern trends, Forbes is actively developing digital channels. The company says more than 80 million customers visit online platforms every month. Forbes is diversifying its business by expanding its coverage in other areas such as real estate or education. Forbes also hosts over 100 ForbesLive conferences a year.

The first news of Forbes going public appeared last year, but it turned out to be just rumors. In May of this year, it became known that the company was in talks with GSV Asset Management on a $ 650 million deal, but later it turned out that Forbes still intends to go public through the IPO mechanism. At the end of August, it became known that Forbes was preparing to go public through SPAC, a merger with Magnum Opus Acquisition Limited, which was listed in March this year at an estimate of $ 200 million under the ticker OPA.U. During the deal, Forbes is to receive a private investment in public equity (PIPE) in the amount of $ 400 million, and the indicative valuation of the new company after the merger will be $ 630 million.

The deal is likely to close at the end of Q4 or early Q1 2022. Following the completion of the merger, Forbes’ new ticker will be FRBS. We are positive about the impact of the deal on the company’s business profile, since after the merger, Forbes will raise capital to further develop its business under the iconic brand. The implementation of a differentiated content generation strategy and the development of a digital media space will help the company scale its business on the global stage.

FiscalNote is an American company developing an information and analytical platform for communication between business and government. The company provides solutions for tracking and forecasting political trends, informing about recent changes in legislation, assessing the likelihood of getting a lawsuit and monitoring active litigation processes. Moreover, on the platform, clients can prepare analytics for all the company’s invoices, schedule payments and assess the risks of violation of one or another obligation. For analytical functions, the platform uses artificial intelligence technologies.

FiscalNote was founded in 2013 in Washington DC. The company now also operates subsidiaries in Korea, India and Belgium. The company provides customers with software on a subscription basis (SaaS), which generates the main revenue. FiscalNote’s client portfolio consists of approximately 5,000 companies. Among the most famous are AstraZeneca, Lyft, Coinbase, NewBalance, Salesforce. During the period of legislative and political uncertainty during the pandemic, the demand for FiscalNote services grew by an impressive 1,894%, the average cost of a client contract increased by 18%, and the share of customers who chose FiscalNote for the long term increased from 48% to 65%.

Over 13 investment rounds, FiscalNote raised $ 258 million. A total of 57 investors invested in the company, among the most famous are Arrowroot Capital Managemen, New Enterprise Ventures (invested in Uber, Cloudfalre, Snap), Plug and Play (PayPal, Google, DropBox) and CBC Group. Now, the company’s valuation is $ 1.4 billion. According to management plans, at the time of the IPO, the company can be valued at $ 3-4 billion.

As of the end of 2019, the global LegalTech and RegTech market was valued at $ 23 billion. According to analytical estimates, by 2025 the market volume could almost double, reaching $ 41 billion, which corresponds to an average annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10%. The main competitive advantage of FiscalNote is a unique platform that integrates modern technologies for solving legal and tax problems. Moreover, we welcome the company’s desire to enter new markets, including developing ones, where amendments to legislation are made much more often compared to developed countries.

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Reddit is an online social platform created in 2005 that allows users to create content and discuss topics of interest. Today Reddit is made up of a huge number of forums. Users called Redditors can share opinions, news and discussions with each other. Posts are open to the entire Reddit community to vote either by pressing the up button or against. There are over 130 thousand different sub-forums and communities called subreddits. Posts on the site are categorized by topics such as random, gadgets, sports, games, pictures, videos, music, funny, movies, books, history, food, philosophy, television, jokes, art, and more.

Recently, Reddit has become famous for the WallStreetBets subreddit, in which retail investors collectively discuss highly speculative investments in stocks for the purpose of short-term appreciation or pumping. The most famous stories are the soaring capitalization of GameStop, AMC, Kodak, Bed Bath & Beyond, Nokia and Virgin Galactic. Reddit is currently the 19th most visited website on the internet, with the number of registered users growing steadily over the past few years. In October 2020, Reddit had 52 million daily users, up 44% from a year ago. According to Statista, the total number of active users as of July this year was 430 million.

Reddit makes most of its money from advertising. In the second quarter of this year, advertising revenue was $ 100 million, which is almost three times more than in the same period last year. Earlier this year, Reddit said it plans to double its headcount by the end of 2021 to approximately 1,400 employees. More recently, Reddit recruited Drew Vollero as CFO, who previously held a leadership position at parent company Snapchat, overseeing their move to the public market. SNAP raised $ 3.4 billion during its 2017 IPO. The company then hired former Instagram executive Timo Peltz, Laura Nestler from Duolingo, and Allison Miller from Bank of America.

In mid-August, Reddit announced that the company had raised $ 410 million in an F round of investment led by Fidelity Investments. During this round, Reddit plans to raise an additional $ 290 million from existing investors and possibly new investors. In round F, the company was valued at $ 10 billion, compared with $ 6 billion in the previous investment round held in February last year for $ 410 million. Reddit plans to use the proceeds to fund geographic expansion and site development. In just 7 investment rounds, Reddit raised $ 1.3 billion. Among the company’s largest investors are Sequoia Capital, Tencent Holdings and Andreessen Horowitz.

It’s worth noting that some of Reddit’s competitors are currently trading at their highs. Over the past 12 months, Facebook has grown by more than 39%, Twitter shares have gained 63%, and Snap has more than tripled its capitalization (+ 226%). By comparison, the Nasdaq 100 rose 41% over the same period. Amid an ultra-soft monetary policy, a favorable environment is emerging for companies from the technology sector. From September to the end of the calendar year, many companies are looking to go public to raise capital as they move into the new year. It is expected that the market valuation of Reddit at the time of listing on the exchange could be more than $ 15 billion.

Zipline is a California-based company that manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles or drones that deliver small medical equipment and life-saving medicines to hard-to-reach locations. The company was founded in 2011. Zipline is a vertically integrated company, which means that the company produces not only drones, but navigation software, including take-off and landing functions. The company’s drones can perform logistic flights up to 160 km, reaching speeds of up to 100 km / h, and delivering parcels weighing up to 1.5 kg. Unlike its competitors, Zipline has been focused on humanitarian causes since its inception.

The company’s unmanned aerial vehicle service is best known for its urgent medical delivery services to remote parts of Africa, especially Rwanda, although the company also operates in Ghana and Nigeria. In 2016, Zipline raised $ 25 million in Round B to expand its humanitarian drone delivery business in Rwanda. In Rwanda, many roads are impassable during the rainy season, but drones can deliver essential medical supplies by air to almost any hospital. Zipline has also partnered with Ghana’s Ministry of Health to expand its geographic coverage domestically. Thus, the logistics network will now be able to cover the needs of 90% of the country’s population.

The company’s activities are not limited to Africa. In March, Zipline partnered with Toyota Tshuou to supply medical supplies to isolated parts of Japan. In September last year, Zipline entered into an agreement with Walmart to supply drugs within the United States. Zipline has also signed an agreement with Pfizer to supply vaccines to hard-to-reach areas in the United States. To date, Zipline has flown over 150,000 commercial flights and delivered over 2 million doses of vaccine, covering more than 16 million kilometers worldwide. The company said it plans to deliver 2.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this year.

Since 2011, the company has been able to raise $ 488 million. In the last investment round of Series E, which took place at the end of June, the company raised $ 250 million. Zipline was valued at $ 2.75 billion. New investors were Fidelity, Intercorp, Emerging Capital Partners, Reinvent Capital, Baillie Gifford, Temasek and Katalyst Ventures. Zipline plans to use the proceeds to scale its activities, geographic expansion and improve the logistics system.

Zipline is currently in talks with the Federal Aviation Administration to move from a pandemic emergency service to full commercial certification. An important competitive advantage of the company is that during its activity, Zipline has made a thousand safe flights, which confirms the reliability of unmanned aerial vehicles. Zipline is likely to become one of the first drone delivery companies in the United States to achieve full regulatory certification. It is possible that in the long term the company can expand the range of provided logistics services, but in the near future the company’s activities will be focused on the delivery of medicines.

The potential for an increase in the drone delivery market is very large. Growth will be supported by increased demand for fast delivery, improved legislation to encourage drone delivery, and growing interest in carbon reduction issues amid the relevance of the ESG agenda. According to research by ResearchAndMarkets.com, the drone delivery market will grow from $ 528 million in 2020 to $ 39 billion by 2030. This brings the CAGR over the ten-year period 2020–2030 to nearly 54%.

Zocdoc is an American company that provides patients with the ability to find doctors and arrange meetings with them online or offline. The patient, using the Zocdoc website or a mobile application, finds the necessary medical specialist in a comfortable location and makes an appointment. A visit to a doctor can be one-off, for example, if you need to choose lenses for your eyes, cure a tooth, or make a bandage. Making an appointment can also be the first step to establishing a long-term relationship with the practitioner. After the procedure, patients, as a rule, leave a review in the profile of the attending physician, so each medical specialist has his own rating of visitors. Many specialists may be covered by health insurance.

The business model of the Zocdoc platform is structured as follows. Medical professionals pay for the platform services themselves for each attracted client. Thus, the more a healthcare professional attracts patients through Zocdoc, the more he pays to the platform for marketing services. The Zocdoc scheduling system can be made available to physicians both as an online service, through specialized software, or it can even be integrated with a website. Zocdoc services are free for patients. Customers can find the healthcare professional they need by specifying the desired parameters on the website or in the application, for example, the symptom or reason for the visit, the doctor’s name, as well as their location and health insurance information. At the end of 2012, Zocdoc added a registration function that allows patients to fill out medical forms online in advance. For each specific doctor, users can see free slots in the schedule and sign up for a specific time, including for a virtual visit.

During the pandemic, Zocdoc began developing its own telemedicine division, using medical workers who were forced to work remotely. As part of the new direction, the company has developed a HIPAA-compliant platform Zocdoc Video Service (ZVS), which doctors in their network can use for online consultations with patients. In the first week after the launch of the telemedicine service, Zocdoc reported that more than 20% of the total number of bookings were made specifically for online consultations. Currently, the share of online consultations has exceeded 40%.

Last year, Zocdoc also launched a pilot COVID vaccination planning program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The Zocdoc Vaccine Scheduler platform has been integrated with the company’s website to screen and schedule patients completely free of charge. In the early days of peak traffic, the planner booked over 100 visits per minute. The Zocdoc Vaccine Scheduler has been adopted by the City of Chicago and health systems across the country to help expedite vaccination of the population domestically. Zocdoc continues to scale the platform, which is an effective marketing ploy.

The last public investment round of Zocdoc took place in 2015, in which the main investors were Founders Fund, Atomico and Baillie Gifford. Zocdoc raised $ 130 million and was valued at $ 1.9 billion. According to Crunchbase, a private investment round took place in February 2021, during which $ 150 million was raised in favor of the American private investment company Francisco Partners, which specializes exclusively in investments in technology services. The company’s valuation during this round was not disclosed. Zocdoc plans to invest the raised funds in personnel and marketing, as well as expanding its product line. In total, since 2008, Zocdoc has raised $ 377 million, and among the main investors are venture capital firms such as Khosla Ventures and Bezos Expeditions, as well as investment banks, including Goldman Sachs.

In our opinion, Zocdoc is taking the right steps to grow its telemedicine business. Thanks to the pandemic, the telemedicine market began to develop rapidly. Thus, Deloitte expects that the percentage of online consultations worldwide will grow from 1% of all visits in 2019 to 5% by the end of this year. Grand View Research, has calculated that the volume of the global telemedicine services market last year amounted to almost $ 56 billion, while the dominant position is occupied by the US market. In the period from 2014 to 2020, the American telemedicine market grew to $ 26 billion, and by the end of 2025 its volume will increase to $ 64 billion. According to the Global Market Insights, by 2027, the global telemedicine market will increase to $ 186.7 billion, where the US market will be accounts for almost half of the world’s volume.

Kraken is an American cryptocurrency exchange on both the spot and derivatives markets. The platform is in 5th place in terms of trading volume. The company serves over 7 million clients. At the moment, the capitalization of the crypto currency market is more than $ 1.3 trillion. Most of the trading volume takes place on 5 major crypto exchanges – Binance, Coinbase, Huobi, FTX and Kraken.

In the last year, there has been a boom in activity in the crypto market. On the Kraken platform, in Q1 2021, transactions worth $ 160 billion were made, which is 1.5 times higher than a year earlier. The company’s closest competitor, Coinbase, reported $ 335 billion in deal volume over the same period. The main trend of the crypto market is a departure from the domination of bitcoin. In the second quarter of 2020, bitcoin occupied 62% of the total crypto market capitalization, but now this figure is approaching 46%. Analysts predict increased investor demand for alternative crypto currencies providing more modern and lightweight blockchain technologies.

Kraken offers an innovative way of calculating commission for transactions on the exchange – the commission depends on the activity of investors, the trading volume and the liquidity provided. Thus, the platform encourages traders to make more trades, which is beneficial for the company’s financial profile. Deposits, withdrawals and trading on the platform are extremely transparent, so anyone can use Kraken’s services. In 2021, Kraken’s main competitor, Coinbase, successfully sold its shares through a direct listing.

For more than 10 years of its existence, Kraken was able to raise $ 126 million. In the last investment round, which took place in May 2020, the company was valued at $ 4 billion. The CEO of the company, Jesse Powell, claims that at the time of the IPO, the company is not satisfied with the valuation of $ 10 billion. According to the management, Kraken should be valued at least twice as expensive. The price of a share at this estimate is $ 90-100. Kraken’s main investors are Digital Currency Group, Blockchain Capital and others.

The main risks for Kraken are growing competition from both centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges. An important factor is the regulation of the crypto market, regarding which there is still no certainty on the part of both the American and regulators of other developed countries. Stricter regulation, as well as partial or complete bans on transactions with crypto assets, are direct risks to Kraken’s business. Finally, long-term corrective market sentiments or the so-called “crypto winter” reduce interest in crypto currencies, which negatively affects the overall trading volume.

Nevertheless, there is currently an increased interest in the cryptocurrency market. For example, according to analysts’ estimates, the number of crypto investors in the US could double by the end of 2021. Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini conducted a study by polling 3 thousand American in the age group from 18 to 65 years old, whose family income exceeds $ 40 thousand a year. The survey results showed that already 14% of the surveyed Americans own crypto assets, and another 13% of the survey participants plan to acquire crypto assets by the end of the year. Also in the report on the results of the study, it is noted that in 2021 the interest of Americans in digital assets increased significantly. For example, 63% of survey participants who are not cryptocurrency holders said they want to learn more about digital assets and purchase them in the future.

A positive moment for the development of the crypto market in the United States may be the appointment of financier Gary Gensler to the post of head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who spoke positively about blockchain, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Speaking at a hearing on his candidacy before the Senate Banking Committee, Gensler called digital gold “a catalyst for change.” We doubt that crypto currencies will be recognized as a means of payment in developed countries, but we fully admit that they can be assigned the status of an alternative investment instrument, which will be a historical and positive moment in the development of the crypto market. More and more news is coming in on this account. For example, in June of this year, Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, signed a law that includes crypto currencies in the Unified Trade Code of Texas. The governor, who took office in 2015, has a long history of supporting crypto assets. Learn more