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Despite the uncertainty of the global economy in 2020, the New York Stock Exchange has had a strong year, helping companies raise more than $66 billion. 

In many respects, it has been the year of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), according to vice chairman John Tuttle. This year, firms have raised billions through the acquisition-style mechanism.

During this episode of The Scoop, Tuttle — who previously led NYSE’s global listings business — explained why the fundraising method has taken the markets by storm  and how they’ve evolved from a lackluster funding mechanism to a red-hot fad on Wall Street. 

“Let’s look back ten years or so, SPACs were a four letter word, they didn’t have the best reputation, the sponsors didn’t necessarily have the best interest in mind of investors in the market place,” Tuttle said.

He went on to explain:

“And they largely fell out of favor. Several years ago you started seeing some rule changes around SPACs to address some of those challenges that SPACs had a decade or so ago and you started seeing higher qualities sponsors come into market.What do I mean by that? Folks that—whether it be the Goldman Sachs or the Gores Groups of the world. Folks that had very well-respected reputations in the marketplace both as financial partners but business partners as well too. You started seeing deals be larger in size. You started see well respected names launch SPACs and partner with SPACs and partner with SPACs, and that’s what gave credibility to the product.”

Indeed, some crypto firms have been considering SPAC-centric strategies, including BlockFi and Ripple. There’s also firms like Coinbase, which is said to be in the process of going public in the near-term, as previously reported by Reuters. 

Tuttle says that the exchange group is talking with crypto firms about tapping into public markets. 

“It has been a space that’s been of interest for quite some time,” he said. “We’ve had discussion with companies that have been thinking about accessing the public market, from that space, crypto blockchain digital assets.”

“Those conversations continue, they’re accelerating,” he added. “And I also think that digital assets, crypto are going to play somehow somewhere some way an important role in the market of the future.”

© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Venezuela’s opposition government-in-exile is working with crypto firms Circle and AirTM to distribute funds to health care workers in the South American nation, Circle said in an blog post on Friday.

Circle said the arrangement constituted “a collaboration with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, led by President-elect Juan Guaidó, U.S.-based fintech innovator Airtm, and coordination and licensing with the US government.” 

Guaidó, the president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, was declared the acting president of Venezuela in January 2019 following a widely-disputed election held the year before. Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro was accused of rigging the election to hold on to power.

In the time since, Guaidó has won recognition from dozens of countries since, including the United States. The Trump administration has provided degrees of support to the Guaidó-led government-in-exile. Yet the US governments efforts have thus far failed to push president Nicolás Maduro out of office despite worsening socio-economic and health conditions in the country. 

According to Circle’s blog, the new aid pipeline distributes funds seized in the U.S. from the Maduro regime and awarded to the Guaidó-led government and, via AirTM’s service, distributes them to those on the front lines of Venezuela’s fight against the coronavirus. Notably, it involves a pair of stablecoins as part of that process.

As Circle explains:

“In this new aid delivery flow, the US Treasury and Federal Reserve releases seized funds to the Guaidó government’s account at a US bank. The Guaidó government then uses those funds to mint USDC. The USDC is then sent to Airtm, a bank-and-blockchain connected dollar-denominated payment platform that powers digital dollar payments throughout North, Central, and South America. Airtm’s network of dollar-to-anything forex agents enables withdrawals to local currency in Latam bank accounts at free market (vs. government-rigged) rates.  Once the USDC is received on Airtm wallets, it is then dispersed to accounts of Venezuelan healthcare workers as AirUSD (Airtm’s stablecoin-backed dollar token). The healthcare workers are then able to withdraw to their local bank accounts as bolivars at free market rates, send to other users, or even spend the funds online anywhere using Airtm’s virtual debit card – bypassing the need for a bank at all. With over half a million users in Venezuela, Airtm’s network is big enough to support enough peer-to-peer transactions to make this a viable solution for  day to day transactions such as paying rent.”

The U.S. government moved to seize the Maduro regime assets and funds in August 2019, months after Guaidó was declared acting president, as Reuters reported at the time.

An August 2020 report from the Washington Post said that the U.S. government had seized some $300 million and that it was using some of those funds to fuel its anti-Maduro efforts — including disbursements to health workers.

Image Credit: Regulo Gomez / Shutterstock.com

© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis is reportedly on the cusp of raising $100 million at a $1 billion valuation, affording to the startup unicorn status.

The details of the Series C funding round and valuation were reported by Forbes on Friday afternoon. Venture firm Addition is said to be leading the round, with participation from existing investors such as Accel, Ribbit Capital and Benchmark Capital. 

Forbes reports that the deal “has been signed by all the counterparties and is awaiting final paperwork.”

The Block reached out to Chainalysis for comment and will update this story should we hear back.

© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.