Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 12:18 PM on Friday, March 1st, 2019
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Nike Signs Its First Esports Sponsorship Deal
Nike is entering the esports game, following competitors Adidas and Puma into the field.
The global sports brand has signed a four-year deal with China’s League of Legends Pro League, agreeing to supply all squads with clothing and footwear starting this year.
“Since its inception, Nike has always believed that in all sports, a
strong body and will will make athletes better,†the company said in a statement.
“As China becomes a new e-sports cultural center, Nike is pleased to
support the next generation of athletes and establish a long-term
cooperative relationship with e-sports to contribute to the future
development of sports ecology.â€
The league consists of 16 teams and has one of the largest followings
in the world. Fans will also be able to buy Nike-produced products at
live tournaments.
The announcement is Nike’s first formal sponsorship of an esports
team or competition, although the company did feature an esports athlete
in a marketing campaign last year. Financial terms of its esports
contract with the league were not disclosed.
The company is actually a bit late to the competitive video game
world, as Adidas and Puma both already have presences in the field.
Beyond simply supplying clothes and shoes, Nike says it also plans to
work with esports athletes to custom-design training programs to help
them improve.
While they might have been scoffed at initially, esports have become
recognized as a bona fide athletic event in recent years. They were
under consideration at one point for inclusion in the 2024 Olympics
and they will be a medal event in the 2022 Asian Games—a multi-sport
event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia.
Tournaments are regularly aired on ESPN, Turner Broadcasting, Disney and other networks.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:20 AM on Friday, March 1st, 2019
Investment Highlights
Kenbridge property has a measured and indicated resource of 7.14 million tonnes at 0.62% nickel, 0.33% copper
17.5 (21.8 fully diluted) percent equity stake in Eloro Resources and 2 percent NSR in their La Victoria property
Kenbridge Ni Project (ON, Canada)
Advanced stage deposit remains open in three directions, is
equipped with a 623m deep shaft and has never been mined.
Preliminary Economic Assessment completed and updated returned robust project economics and operating costs including a NPV of C$253M and cash costs of US$3.47/lb of nickel net of copper credits.
Plans for Kenbridge include updating PEA,
advancing the project through to feasibility and exploring the open
mineralization at depth
FULL DISCLOSURE: Tartisan Nickel Corp. is an advertising client of AGORA Internet Relations Corp.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:58 AM on Friday, March 1st, 2019
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10 Major Blockchain Trends in 2019
While cryptocurrencies took a hammering, 2018 was huge for Blockchain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin and a myriad of other coins.
Blockchain has plenty of use cases outside of the cryptocurrency space with IBM, Oracle, and Amazon and other multi-billion dollar companies trying to capitalize on the disruptive technology.
Now, it’s time to find out what major Blockchain trends will define the current year.  Â
By: Alex Morris Â
From the Internet-of-Things (IoT) convergence to startups for the unbanked — find out what to expect from Blockchain in 2019
While cryptocurrencies took a hammering, 2018 was huge for Blockchain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin and a myriad of other coins. Blockchain has plenty of use cases outside of the cryptocurrency space with IBM, Oracle, and Amazon and other multi-billion dollar companies trying to capitalize on the disruptive technology. Now, it’s time to find out what major Blockchain trends will define the current year.  Â
STOs replacing ICOs
Security tokens (STOs)
have been a hot topic in the crypto space, and it looks like they will
continue to be hot now that Overstock’s tZERO announced the launch of
the new STO platform on Jan. 21. The Blockchain-powered platform will
provide any company with the opportunity to raise funds by launching its
own STOs. Prior to that, the startup made an announcement about the
completion of its utility token distribution.
STOs, which combine the best features of the stock market and
cryptocurrencies, arose as a fully regulated alternative to ICOs, which
turned out to be the passing fad of 2017.
Tokenization creating more investment opportunities
The launch of the Estonia-based DEX,
which buys the shares of the biggest companies in the world in the form
of ERC20 tokens, proved that 2019 is all about tokenization. The
Ethereum-powered startup will allow non-US investors to engage in the US
stock market without any limitations pertaining to their location or
investment amount.
Crypto startup Zilliqa also recently introduced Hg Exchange, a fully regulated exchange that allows accredited investors to buy US stocks.
Tokenization already became a pervasive trend in 2018, going far
beyond the stock market, but this is the year when pretty much
everything will be tokenized – art, wine, real estate, etc.
Blockchain and IoT forming an alliance
Back in January, leading digital security company Gemalto released a report
that states that 23 percent of responders think that Blockchain
technology could be a boon for securing IoT-powered devices. Meanwhile,
almost 91 percent of businesses who do not utilize Blockchain consider
making use of the technology in the future.
The number of IoT-powered devices is expected
to reach 26.66 bln in 2019, but less than half of all businesses can
detect whether their device experienced a security breach.
IBM also illustrated the benefits for this convergence with the help of
their game-changing platform Watson IoT. Apart from bringing more
security to the table, Blockchain significantly simplifies the task of
managing different devices and increases the efficiency of the
transaction.
Wall Street transitioning from dabbling to actions
The fact that cryptocurrency prices took a nosedive in 2018 doesn’t
mean that the global financial industry is going to suddenly give up on
Blockchain. As U.Today reported earlier, Bakkt,
the ICE-backed exchange, was supposed to go live in January, but its
launch was eventually delayed due to the longest government shutdown in
history. Speaking of other ‘big-fish’ players, NASDAQ and the NYSE
plan to launch Bitcoin futures while also being keen on Blockchain.
Since the crypto hub died down, there is a good reason to believe that
2019 will be the year of exciting developments in the Blockchain space.
More decentralized exchanges appearing on the horizon
Decentralized exchanges, while actually living up to Satoshi’s
vision, have numerous usability issues that take a toll on their
popularity. There is no centralized authority that manages the users’
funds, but it’s also a double-edged sword problem – there is no way to
revert a certain transaction if private keys are stolen or lost. Keep in
mind that there are certain degrees of centralization. Case in point:
the Bancor DEX, which suffered from a $13.5 mln hack, though Charlie Lee later claimed that no decentralized exchange can lose its funds.
With that being said, major crypto startups – from Binance to Tron – have launched their own DEXs in order to spearhead the shift towards decentralization in the crypto world.
Governments will continue looking into Blockchain
The wide variety of Blockchain applications are being explored by
governments across the globe (even those ones who are openly hawkish
towards cryptocurrencies). China cracked down on Bitcoin, but this
country is hell-bent on becoming the leader in the Blockchain race.
Shanghai, Guangzhou and other major cities are all supporting Blockchain
developments. As reported by U.Today, the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology (MIIT) launched
an initiative to incentivize business who are working with the DLT
technology. Moreover, there are specific Blockchain guides in China for
educating government officials.
Estonia is yet another country
that is focused on the e-Estonia program that will digitize the
government. Meanwhile, Dubai could become the very first government that
is powered by Blockchain. The implementation of Blockchain could help Dubai save up to $1.5 bln per year by cutting the red herring and creating a fully paperless government.
Blockchain-powered startups banking the unbanked
Africa, where a substantial part of the population remains unbaked,
represents a breeding ground for different startups that utilize
Blockchain technology in order to increase economic inclusiveness. The Rohingya Project
went even further by using Blockchain to restore the identity of
stateless Rohingyas and give them access to banking services.
Real-word use cases beyond fintech
It is worth noting that Blockchain is the most disruptive technology
of the last decade, but it remains unknown to the general public. Yes,
along with Bitcoin, Blockchain was one of the buzzwords in the tech
space, but it’s all about real-world adoption. According to PwC research,
84 percent of companies have dipped their toes into Blockchain, but
they are not ready to embrace it due to numerous ‘trust issues.’ Those
who will be able to integrate Blockchain into their businesses will turn
out to be the true winners of 2019.
Scalability becoming one of the main issues
Without a doubt, scalability is one of the major bottlenecks of
Blockchain, which poses a major hindrance to mainstream adoption. That
became very evident when CryptoKitties, one of the best-known dApps,
created congestion on the Ethereum network. Bitcoin and Ethereum are
only able to handle seven and 25 TPS (this level of scalability doesn’t
hold a candle to mainstream payment processors in the likes of VISA).
Hence, many promising solutions, such as sharding and sidechains, are expected to be implemented in 2019. Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (LN),
for example, is witnessing growing popularity with major industry
players, with an eye-popping 830 percent surge in half a year. LN will
significantly boost Bitcoin adoption while solving scalability pain
points.
Blockchain jobs will become more common
Despite Bitcoin, the major use case of Blockchain, taking a hammering
in 2018, the number of Blockchain-related jobs continued to grow
throughout the year. Moreover, as reported by CNBC,
the salaries of Blockchain engineers skyrocketed to $175,000 per year,
which means that they receive the highest salaries in the software
development niche on par with AI specialists. According to Hired CEO
Mehul Patel, ‘there’s a ton of demand for Blockchain.’ On top of that,
Upwork, the leading freelance platform, had a 35,000 percent uptick in
the number of Blockchain freelancers (it’s the fastest-growing freelance
sector).
However, earning a six-figure salary is not an easy feat. Blockchain developers
have to code in numerous languages, including Go and Solidity. As
mentioned above, major companies do not want to miss the boat on
Blockchain, so they are striving to hire talented programmers.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:54 PM on Thursday, February 28th, 2019
NOTICE: Iconic Minerals – Fox Business Network – Thursday, February 28, 2019
The Company would like to give notice to its shareholders that the Company’s CEO (Richard Kern) will be featured on national Fox Business Network on Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 9:46 PM Eastern, 8:46 PM Central, 7:46 PM Mountain and 6:46 PM Pacific Time.
In this five minute segment, Richard Kern will be providing comments on
the lithium industry while onsite in Nevada, at the Bonnie Claire
property.
Please keep in mind that the allotted time slot may not be exact, and
the segment could air within an hour of the above scheduled times.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:16 PM on Thursday, February 28th, 2019
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Starbucks could be the first big chain to start selling CBD beverages
Coffee behemoth Starbucks could be the first major chain to introduce a range of cannabis-infused beverages, according to analysts.
A report released Monday by Cowan revealed its analysis of the CBD market.
The group believes that by 2025, CBD retail sales could reach up to $16 billion and that CBD is likely to start showing up in a variety of products on the market.
“The dynamics are fluid, likely delaying adoption from major
coffee players like Starbucks in the near term,†wrote analyst Andrew
Charles in the report.
“Should the regulation of CBD oil as an additive to food/beverage
change or craft/independent coffee shops find a way to comply with the
existing regulation, we could envision Starbucks ultimately piloting the
ingredient.â€
Despite the analysts’ projections, however, Starbucks-branded CBD
drinks may not be in the cards–at least for some time. Starbucks CEO
Kevin Johnson told CNBC
in January that while the coffee giant is keeping an eye on the trend,
cannabis drinks aren’t something the company is planning on rolling out
in the near future.
If the caffeine purveyors opt to incorporate cannabis beverages into
product lines, they face heavy regulations that may not be worth it–at
least in Canada.
All cannabinoids, including CBD, must be sourced from a
licenced producer, and regulators still aren’t sure how to deal with
potential age restrictions.
Nonetheless, there’s money to be made, so in a few years, there might
just be a CBD Frappuccino available to enthusiasts. See you in 2025!
Tags: CBD, Hemp, stocks, tsx, tsx-v Posted in North Bud Farms Inc | Comments Off on North Bud Farms Inc. $NBUD.ca – Starbucks could be the first big chain to start selling CBD beverages $SBUX $WEED.ca $CGC $ACB $APH $CRON.ca $HEXO.ca $TRST.ca $OGI.ca
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 8:50 AM on Thursday, February 28th, 2019
Initial drilling expands the high-grade gold potential of the McKenzie Break deposit and intersects new structures at depth
Highlights of initial results on the 13,945-metre 2018 diamond drilling program: – Hole MK-18-196: 61.20 g/t Au over 2.6 metres, incl. 265.00 g/t Au over 0.6 metres – Hole MK-18-183: 24.70 g/t Au over 0.6 metres – Hole MK-18-180: 19.80 g/t Au over 0.4 metres – Hole MK-18-195: 9.44 g/t Au over 2.0 metres, incl. 18.50 g/t Au over 1.0 metre
MONTREAL, Feb. 28, 2019 - MONARCH GOLD CORPORATION(“Monarch” or the “Corporation”) (TSX: MQR) (OTCMKTS: MRQRF) (FRANKFURT: MR7) is pleased to report the first assay results from the 2018 diamond drilling program at its wholly owned McKenzie Break gold project 25 kilometres north of Val-d’Or, near Monarchs’ Camflo and Beacon mills. The program started in September 2018 and ended in December 2018, with a total of 13,945 metres drilled in 61 holes. The purpose of the program was to explore below the known lenses and on the periphery of the multi-vein Green and Orange zones. Assays have been received for the first 21 holes totalling 4,424 metres of core (see table below for assay results).
“This first set of results attests to McKenzie Break’s solid
exploration and high-grade potential, and already extends the deposit
laterally and at depth,” said Jean-Marc Lacoste, President
and Chief Executive Officer of Monarch. “Previous work on the property
was mainly limited to the Green and Orange zones, which nonetheless
enabled us to outline an indicated and inferred resource of over 165,000
ounces of gold (see press release dated June 14, 2018). Our aim going forward is to increase that resource.”
Hole MK-18-196 returned 61.20 g/t Au over 2.6 metres, including
265.00 g/t Au over 0.6 metres, at 260 metres below surface. This hole
lies 110 metres west of a historic hole that returned 3.56 g/t Au over
1.1 metres, and 75 metres southeast of hole MK-18-195, which yielded
1.84 g/t Au over 1.0 metre. The intersections from holes MK-18-196 and
MK-18-195 are on the same horizon, thereby potentially representing a
new lens at depth.
Hole MK-18-183, drilled northwest of the proposed open pit, returned
24.70 g/t Au over 0.6 metres from a depth of 60 metres. Along with other
holes drilled during the 2018 program, this positive result indicates
the potential to extend the open pit towards the northwest.
Hole MK-18-180 returned a grade of 19.80 g/t Au over 0.4 metres from
90 metres below surface to the northeast of the Green Zone. This result
extends the main Green Zone lens approximately 50 metres towards the
northeast and will increase the underground mining resource in this
area.
Hole MK-18-195 returned 9.44 g/t Au over 2.0 metres, including 18.50
g/t Au over 1.0 metre. This intersection is 195 metres below surface and
represents a new lens below the main Orange Zone lens. The intersection
lies approximately 80 metres northeast of the Orange Zone sector, with
the nearest hole returning anomalous values 75 metres farther east. If
connected, these results could enlarge the lens and extend it to the
northeast.
Initial drill results for the McKenzie Break property:
Hole
Length
From
To
Width*
Grade Au
number
(m)
(m)
(m)
(m)
(g/t)
MK-18-179
176
5.9
6.6
0.7
7.30
149.2
150.0
0.8
8.13
MK-18-180
174
89.4
89.8
0.4
19.80
170.0
171.0
1.0
7.60
MK-18-181
201
175.7
176.7
1.0
1.99
MK-18-182
180
22.8
24.6
1.8
5.27
MK-18-183
180
34.2
38.5
4.3
3.73
Including
37.5
38.5
1.0
7.43
52.1
52.7
0.6
24.70
105.8
106.4
0.6
12.95
MK-18-184
174
58.3
59.4
1.1
2.90
148.6
149.6
1.0
6.83
MK-18-185
186
90.6
91.6
1.0
7.46
100.7
101.45
0.75
10.75
MK-18-186
177
64.0
66.0
2.0
2.68
MK-18-187
174
84.0
88.8
4.8
3.91
MK-18-188
177
6.9
9.3
2.4
3.08
9.2
20.2
1.0
3.46
131.7
132.5
0.8
2.18
MK-18-189
177
11.0
12.0
1.0
2.00
MK-18-190
201
17.6
18.8
1.2
4.87
25.8
27.8
2.0
2.70
39.8
41.0
1.2
3.46
MK-18-191
252
45.5
46.5
1.0
2.26
166.0
179.0
13.0
0.39
MK-18-192
276
89.7
91.9
2.2
6.78
190.0
194.0
4.0
0.68
223.0
226.5
3.5
1.18
MK-18-193
234
130.0
131.1
1.1
8.90
209.0
212.2
3.2
1.76
MK-18-194
234
15.0
16.0
1.0
6.67
111.7
112.7
1.0
2.13
MK-18-195
276
193.0
195.0
2.0
9.44
Including
194.0
195.0
1.0
18.50
MK-18-196
300
254.8
257.4
2.6
61.20
Including
255.7
256.3
0.6
265.00
293.8
296.0
2.2
1.88
MK-18-197
201
177.6
178.8
1.2
1.68
MK-18-198
198
62.5
63.7
1.2
0.18
MK-18-199
276
260.9
262.0
1.1
4.24
*The width shown is the core length. True width is estimated to be 90-100% of the core length.
McKenzie Break is a high-grade, multiple-narrow-vein gold deposit
hosted in the dioritic Pascalis batholith and underlain by porphyritic
diorite and mafic and felsic volcanic rocks. On June 14, 2018,
the Corporation reported an NI 43-101 pit-constrained resource of
48,133 ounces in the Indicated category and 14,897 ounces in the
Inferred category on the property, as well as an underground resource of
53,448 ounces in the Indicated category and 49,130 ounces in the
Inferred category, for a total of 165,608 ounces of gold (Source: NI
43-101 Technical Report on the McKenzie Break Project, April 17, 2018, Alain-Jean Beauregard, P.Geo., and Daniel Gaudreault, Eng., of Geologica Groupe-Conseil Inc., and Christian D’Amours, P.Geo., of GeoPointCom Inc.).
Sampling normally consists of sawing the core into equal halves along
its main axis and shipping one of the halves to the ALS Minerals
laboratory in Val-d’Or, Quebec for assaying. The samples
are crushed, pulverized and assayed by fire assay, with atomic
absorption finish. Results exceeding 3.0 g/t Au are re-assayed using the
gravity method, and samples containing visible gold grains are assayed
using the metallic sieve method. Monarch uses a comprehensive QA/QC
protocol, including the insertion of standards, blanks and duplicates.
The technical and scientific content of this press release has been reviewed and approved by Ronald G. Leber, P.Geo., the Corporation’s qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.
ABOUT MONARCH GOLD CORPORATION
Monarch Gold Corporation (TSX: MQR) is an emerging gold mining
company focused on pursuing growth through its large portfolio of
high-quality projects in the Abitibi mining camp in Quebec, Canada. The Corporation currently owns close to 300 km² of gold properties (see map),
including the Wasamac deposit (measured and indicated resource of 2.6
million ounces of gold), the Beaufor Mine, the Croinor Gold (see video), McKenzie Break and Swanson
advanced projects and the Camflo and Beacon mills, as well as other
promising exploration projects. It also offers custom milling services
out of its 1,600 tonne-per-day Camflo mill.
Forward-Looking Statements The forward-looking
statements in this press release involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that may cause Monarch’s actual results,
performance and achievements to be materially different from the
results, performance or achievements expressed or implied therein.
Neither TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is
defined in the policies of the TSX accepts responsibility for the
adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
Tags: #mining, gold, stocks, tsx-v Posted in Monarques Gold | Comments Off on Monarch Gold Intersects 61.20 g/t Au Over 2.6 Metres, Including 265.00 g/t Au Over 0.6 Metres, at its McKenzie Break Gold Project $GDX.ca $ECR.ca $MZZ.ca $QMX.ca $IMG.ca $IAG $MUX
Budget 2019 likely to boost India’s education sector
Published: February 23, 2019
India’s Annual Budget decides the way ahead for different sectors in the country.
Government has emphasised on education along with other sectors.
How the Budget 2019-20 will pave way for improvement in education sector
Akhil Shahani, Managing Director, The Shahani Group
The acting Finance Minister, Piyush
Goyal said that India is among the youngest nations in the world and the
Government is proud of its youth. The problems of India’s education
sector are well known, so how effectively has he addressed this major
issue for India’s youth in the 2019 interim budget.
Overall funding for school and higher
education has gone up by 10 percent to Rs 93,847.64 crore. However, this
could be considered insufficient considering India’s inflation rate of
6-7 percent. The newly constituted Higher Education Funding Agency
(HEFA) will receive 24 percent less funding for the coming year.
Considering that IIT’s, IIM’s and other central universities have been
asked to get loans from HEFA instead of depending on Government grants,
this reduced funding could limit their efforts to expand or improve
quality.
Goyal said in his Budget speech, “The
poor have the first right on the resources of the nation. The Government
while maintaining the existing reservation for SC/ST/Other Backward
Classes, have now ensured 10 percent reservation in educational
institutions and Government services for poor. In these institutions,
around 25 per cent extra seats (approximately 2 lakh) will be provided
so that, there is no shortfall of presently available/reserved seats for
any class.†So, he has asked institutions to increase their student
capacity by 25 percent but has not allocated extra funds for them to do
so. A couple of minor announcements included the establishment of an
institute for Artificial Intelligence and a new AIIMs in Haryana.
Overall, it could be argued that 2019’s
budget could have done a lot more for the education sector. For example,
the Government has provided free healthcare for 50 crore people via its
Ayushman Bharat scheme. It could have launched another scheme that
provides scholarships for students to study in any quality institution
of their choosing, instead of being limited to Government schools.
Additionally, the Government could have allowed private investment into
for-profit companies to setup schools and colleges. Funds for teacher
training, primary research in universities and student career guidance
could also have been allocated. The GST rate of 18% on digital education
could have been slashed or removed.
Based on the above, are there any aspects of the 2019 budget that could facilitate growth in the education sector?
Albert Einstein once said, “Within every
difficulty, lies opportunityâ€. The fact that the education sector’s
problems remain mostly unaddressed, offers interesting prospects for
education entrepreneurs. Having a look at the other parts of the budget
speech indicates what some of those opportunities could be for education
entrepreneurs.
The first aspect is that Rs. 60,000
Crore has been allocated for the MNREGA scheme which provides 100 days
of paid employment for rural households. Additionally, the Government
has launched the PM Kisan program which allocates Rs. 75,000 crore in
cash grants to around 12 crore farmers. The key aspects about both these
programmes are that rural families will be able to raise themselves out
of extreme poverty and aspire for a better life.
One of the most common actions done by
aspiring families is to find ways to educate their children so that they
will be able to live better lives than their parents. Interestingly,
many of these parents prefer to send their children to private schools
as they believe that the education offered is better than what is
available in free Government schools, which have high teacher
absenteeism and unsatisfactory education outcomes. This means that there
are opportunities for entrepreneurs to open private budget schools
charging fees of Rs 100-200 per month per child, which is within the
reach of many of these families.
The past years have seen an 11 percent
drop in student enrollment in Government schools and a 36 percent
increase in enrollment in these private budget schools, totaling around
16 million students. This shows that there is a great demand from lower
income families for low cost quality education for their children.
Private budget schools do not get funding from the Government, but are
able to turn a profit, even with the low level of fees charged.
Additionally, a few NBFCs have recognized the potential of this sector
and have started advancing loans to budget schools to enable them to
grow.
Another interesting point in the budget
speech was that mobile data consumption has increased by 50 percent in
the past five years. This is because India has among the lowest rates
for mobile data in the world. The Government aims to create 1 lakh
digital villages in the next five years, which will greatly increase
mobile data penetration in these locations. This means that a huge
number of people in small towns and villages will be able to easily
access education content via their mobile phones and facilitate their
own learning. Edtech entrepreneurs can then beam their online lessons
into the budget schools around India, to enhance the teaching provided
there. Vocational training providers can offer video lessons showing
subscribers how to develop useful job skills.
Much of existing online education
content is in English. However, as demand for online education increases
across the country from lower income groups, there is a huge
opportunity to provide this content in local languages to make it easier
to understand. Additionally, English language training via apps or
videos are also in high demand.
Even though the 2019 budget has not
given any real sops to the education sector, the increase in access to
mobile data among poorer Indians whose income is being supplemented by
the Government can offer great growth opportunities for Indian education
entrepreneurs.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 3:45 PM on Tuesday, February 26th, 2019
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—————
A Wall Street bank just started covering 7 marijuana stocks. Here’s what it’s saying
Last year was a historic one for legal-marijuana proponents due to legalization in Canada and some US states.
Marijuana stocks are popular on Robinhood, a free-trading app popular among millennials.
On Monday, Jefferies became the second major Wall Street investment bank to write sell-side notes on popular weed companies.
A Wall Street bank has officially initiated coverage of cannabis
stocks, as high-flying cannabis companies have caught the attention of
both the Main Street and Wall Street following a wave of marijuana
legalization.
Last year was a historic one for legal-marijuana proponents. Canada and the state of Michigan legalized the recreational use of marijuana, and the US Congress passed the Farm Bill, which legalized hemp, a key source of the ingredient cannabidiol.
Additionally, major marijuana producers such as Cronos Group, Canopy Growth, Tilray, and Aurora Cannabis
were listed in the US last year, prompting investors, especially
younger ones, to pour money into the industry. On Robinhood, a
free-trading app popular among millennials, Aurora has outranked all other stocks including Apple in terms of the number of users who own shares.
As the demand for market insights into marijuana stocks grows,
Jefferies analysts Owen Bennett and Ryan Tomkins have started to write
sell-side notes on popular weed companies. Jefferies is the second major
Wall Street investment bank to cover the industry, after Cowen.
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$66 Million Building to Be Tokenized on Ethereum Blockchain in Record Deal
ICP is about to put this idea to the test. The company plans to tokenize some $260 million in four private real estate and debt transactions, starting with a WeWork-occupied building in downtown Miami, Florida.
For Patrick O’Meara, there is a world of difference between security tokens and tokenized securities.
A security token merely means an issuer is selling a crypto token in
compliance with securities laws. But with a tokenized security, “it’s a
whole different world,†where blockchain technology gives investors an
unprecedented level of transparency, said O’Meara, chairman and chief
executive officer of Inveniam Capital Partners (ICP).
ICP is about to put this idea to the test. The company plans to
tokenize some $260 million in four private real estate and debt
transactions, starting with a WeWork-occupied building in downtown
Miami, Florida. Announced Tuesday, the firm intends to sell tokenized
shares of the building, valued at $65.5 million, likely the largest
piece of real estate to be financed this way to date.
The company placed a deposit on the building last month using an
unspecified amount of bitcoin. Once the other three deals are finalized,
ICP will be auctioning off shares in the assets, represented by ERC-20 tokens on the ethereum blockchain, in the coming weeks.
Shares in the four assets will be sold through what is known as a Dutch auction,
meaning potential investors will place their own bids outlining how
many shares they want, what price they would like to pay per share and
which cryptocurrency they would like to pay with.
Inveniam will accept bids denominated in the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market cap at launch.
When the sale concludes, tokens will be distributed in order from the highest bids to the lowest, O’Meara told CoinDesk.
“The price that every bidder pays will be based on the lowest price
of the last successful bid dependent upon the bidder’s fiat-to-crypto
conversion rate limit,†a press release noted.
In order to participate, potential buyers must hold at least $10
million in crypto, with a minimum purchase of $500,000. The sale will be
conducted in accordance with private placement rules issued by the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission, according to Inveniam.
Tokenized transparency
Perhaps more ambitious than the auction, however, is what ICP intends to do with the tokens representing each share.
A Wall Street veteran,
O’Meara explained that typically, shares come with large amounts of
data, from how they are created, as well as data collected through its
life and performance – which could be 20 or 30 years in the case of some
debt offerings. ICP will put all of this data onto its platform and
associate it with a token, he said.
“We built our entire software, our stack, everything we do, the way
we tokenize the instrument is so the enormous amount of data that’s
associated with the financial instrument … can be aggregated and is
attached to the token,†he explained.
One of the benefits to collecting all of this data into one system is that it is suddenly “uniquely searchable,†he said.
At present, legal documents are converted into PDFs or similar file types, which make them difficult to search through.
If, instead, a company stores the hash and a cipher that is
associated with a legal document on a blockchain, it allows for these
documents to be stored in their native form.
“We can store those documents in their native form, Word, Excel,
because an Excel table in a PDF document is uniquely useless,†he said,
adding:
“If we can store all this data in its native form, and the way that
we have surety is because of the hash and the cypher … you can literally
trace, as a regulator, every document associated with this
transaction.â€
This allows a large amount of data to be stored, which in turn can
allow the investing world to make decisions based on quantitative data
in a way that was not as accessible before, O’Meara said.
Other offerings
In addition to the WeWork building, Inveniam plans to tokenize shares
for a student housing facility in North Dakota, which is being valued
at approximately $90 million; a North Dakota water pipeline worth $50
million; and a multi-family housing facility in southwest Florida worth
$75 million.
Like the WeWork auction, shares from each building will be sold as tokens and can only be purchased using cryptocurrency.
The proceeds will be converted into their fiat equivalents before being passed to the buildings’ sellers, O’Meara noted.
The company may launch other projects as part of this transaction as well prior to the auction’s starting date.
All told, the total value of the four properties will add up to $260 million.
Future of real estate?
Tokenized real estate has become an increasingly popular use case for
blockchain in recent months. Templum Markets, a token trading platform
and advisor, sold a security token representing shares in a Colorado ski resort last year, accepting U.S. dollars, bitcoin and ethereum.
Similarly, security token startup Harbor is selling 955 shares in a high-rise building in South Carolina, though each share is only worth $21,000.
Harbor CEO Josh Stein told CoinDesk last November that using
tokenized shares allowed the company to more easily track shareholders
and verify that they are compliant with relevant securities laws.
