Fintech
GlobalBlock to Sell Digital Asset Broker Business
London, United Kingdom and Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – March 23, 2023) – GlobalBlock Digital Asset Trading Limited (TSXV: BLOK) (OTC Pink: BLVDF) (FSE: BD4) (the “Company“) announces that it has entered into a Business Disposition Agreement dated March 22, 2023 (the “Agreement“) with GlobalBlock Ltd. (“GB UK“) and the original shareholders and founders of GB UK (the “GB UK Founders“) to transfer GB UK and its digital asset broker business back to the GB UK Founders (the “Disposition Transaction“). In return, the GB UK Founders will return to the Company the 48,450,000 common shares of the Company collectively held by them (which shares were originally issued to the GB UK Founders when the Company acquired GB UK in 2021). The Disposition Transaction is considered a non-arm’s length transaction because it involves “Non-Arm’s Length Parties” (as defined by the TSX Venture Exchange (the “Exchange“)).
The Company has determined that given the current environment surrounding digital assets and the expense and restrictions surrounding the operation of a digital asset broker business inside of a publicly listed entity, the digital asset broker business being operated by GB UK and its subsidiaries would best be served outside of a publicly listed entity. As a result, the GB UK Founders have agreed under the Disposition Transaction to privatize that business, and the Company will be seeking alternative transactions and businesses to acquire or combine with.
Key Terms of the Disposition Transaction
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At the closing of the Disposition Transaction (the “Closing“), the Company will sell all of the shares of GB UK to the GB UK Founders in exchange for return of 48,450,000 common shares of the Company collectively held by the GB UK Founders.
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The Agreement sets forth how the assets, liabilities and obligations of the Company and GB UK and its business are to be dispersed or transferred amongst the Company and GB UK effective as of December 31, 2022, including the split of cash and liabilities, and the obligations of each of the Company and GB UK going forward. The Company and GB UK have agreed to split on a 50/50 basis: (i) the cost of the Company’s current CFO until the term of his consulting agreement expires, (ii) the cost of preparation of the Company’s audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022, and (iii) the costs of the Disposition Transaction.
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At Closing, David Thomas will resign as CEO and a director of the Company and Patrick Bullman will resign as a director of the Company.
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At Closing, the Company will provide a £150,000 loan facility (the “Loan Facility“) to GB UK to assist with the transitionary phase and support GB UK’s business opportunities. The Loan Facility will be a non-revolving loan with a 12-month maturity date and will bear interest at a rate equal to the prime rate plus 2.0% per annum. If the Loan Facility is not repaid on its specified repayment date, then the Loan Facility shall remain outstanding, and GB UK shall be required to issue to the Company that number of its ordinary shares that would result in the Company holding 5% of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares of GB UK (on a fully diluted basis). If the Loan Facility is not repaid within six (6) months of the repayment date, then the Loan Facility shall remain outstanding, and GB UK will be required to issue to the Company that number of additional ordinary shares such that the Company holds 10% of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares of GB UK (on a fully diluted basis).
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The Disposition Transaction is subject to usual conditions to Closing, but also includes the following conditions to Closing:
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holders of options to acquire up to 1.5 million common shares of the Company (those holders being David Thomas, Patrick Bullman and certain employees of GB UK) will have entered into agreements to terminate those options held by them; and
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dissent rights in connection with the Disposition Transaction shall not have been validly exercised (and not withdrawn) with respect to more than 1% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company.
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Following completion of the Disposition Transaction, the Company’s remaining assets will be cash and the blockchain patents it acquired in February 2021. Accordingly, the Company will need to identify and, if successful, acquire or combine with a new business. The Company has discussed the Disposition Transaction with the Exchange and the Exchange has advised that after the completion of the Disposition Transaction, the Company’s listing may be transferred to the NEX Board of the Exchange until the Company is able to so acquire or combine with a new business.
Upon completion of the Disposition Transaction, the Company will need to identify and appoint a new Chief Executive Officer and at least one (1) additional director.
Additional Details of the Disposition Transaction
Disposition of All or Substantially All the Property of the Company
The Disposition Transaction involves the disposition of GB UK and its digital asset broker business, which is substantially all of the Company’s property. As such, the Company is required to obtain the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the votes cast by the shareholders of the Company present at a special meeting of the shareholders (the “Meeting“) in person or represented by proxy and entitled to vote at the Meeting, pursuant to section 301 of the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) (“BCBCA“).
Pursuant to the BCBCA, any registered holders of the Company’ shares have a right to dissent (“Dissenting Right“). Each dissenting shareholder is entitled to be paid the fair value of all, but not less than all, of the holder’s shares, provided that the holder duly dissents to the Disposition Transaction and the Disposition Transaction is approved by the required shareholders’ approval.
Related Party Transaction
The GB UK Founders, as parties to the Disposition Transaction, each hold more than 10% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company. As such, the Company is also required to obtain the affirmative vote of a majority of the shareholders of the Company present at the Meeting in person or represented by proxy, excluding any votes attached to shares of the Company beneficially owned by the GB UK Founders or over which the GB UK Founders exercise control or direction and any other person who has a material interest in the Disposition Transaction, pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions.
Special Committee
To ensure that the interests of the Company were fairly considered in the negotiation and review of the Disposition Transaction and to manage the conflicts of interest that may arise in the context of the Disposition Transaction, the independent directors of the Company, who do not have a financial interest in the Disposition Transaction, oversaw the evaluation and negotiation of the Disposition Transaction on behalf of the Company.
TSX Venture Exchange Approval
The Disposition Transaction is also subject to approval from the Exchange due to the fact that it involves the disposition of all or substantially all of the property of the Company and a transaction with a party related to the Company.
Additional Information
The Company will issue additional news releases related to the Disposition Transaction and other material information as it becomes available.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
GlobalBlock Digital Asset Trading Limited is a publicly traded holding company (TSXV: BLOK) whose wholly-owned operating subsidiary, GlobalBlock Europe, UAB (https://www.globalblock.eu), is a European Union based digital asset broker that provides a personalised telephone brokerage service, trading platform and mobile app. Following completion of the Disposition Transaction, the Company will not have any operating business due to the sale of GB UK. Accordingly, the Company will need to identify and, if successful, acquire or combine with a new business.
For further information please contact the Company at:
David Thomas, CEO
c/o 65 Curzon Street, London, W1J 8PE, United Kingdom
Tel. +44 20 3307 3795
[email protected]
https://globalblock.eu/ and http://www.globalblockdigital.com/
https://twitter.com/Globalblocknews
https://www.linkedin.com/company/globalblock/
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain information set out in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as “seek”, “anticipate”, “plan”, “continue”, “estimate”, “expect”, “may”, “will”, “intend”, “could”, “might”, “should”, “believe” and similar expressions. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements in respect of among other things: the structure, terms, conditions and proposed timing for completion of the Disposition Transaction; the ability of the Company to complete the Disposition Transaction; the receipt of all necessary shareholder, TSX Venture Exchange and other third party consents and approvals; and the ability of the Company to successfully identify and complete the acquisition of or combination with a new business. Forward-looking statements are based upon the opinions and expectations of management of the Company as at the effective date of such statements and, in certain cases, information provided or disseminated by third parties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, and that information obtained from third party sources is reliable, they can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements included in this document, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur, which may cause actual results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, risk factors set forth in the Company’s most recent management’s discussion and analysis, a copy of which is filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and readers are cautioned that the risk factors disclosed therein should not be construed as exhaustive. These statements are made as at the date hereof and unless otherwise required by law, the Company does not intend, or assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/159646
Modern brands stake on influencer marketing, with 76% of users making a purchase after seeing a product on social media.The cryptocurrency industry is no exception to this trend. However, promoting crypto products through influencer marketing can be particularly challenging. Crypto influencers pose a significant risk to a brand’s reputation and ROI due to rampant scams. Approximately 80% of channels provide fake statistics, including followers counts and engagement metrics. Additionally, this niche is characterized by high CPMs, which can increase the risk of financial loss for brands.
In this article Nadia Bubennnikova, Head of agency Famesters, will explore the most important things to look for in crypto channels to find the perfect match for influencer marketing collaborations.
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Comments
There are several levels related to this point.
LEVEL 1
Analyze approximately 10 of the channel’s latest videos, looking through the comments to ensure they are not purchased from dubious sources. For example, such comments as “Yes sir, great video!”; “Thanks!”; “Love you man!”; “Quality content”, and others most certainly are bot-generated and should be avoided.
Just to compare:
LEVEL 2
Don’t rush to conclude that you’ve discovered the perfect crypto channel just because you’ve come across some logical comments that align with the video’s topic. This may seem controversial, but it’s important to dive deeper. When you encounter a channel with logical comments, ensure that they are unique and not duplicated under the description box. Some creators are smarter than just buying comments from the first link that Google shows you when you search “buy YouTube comments”. They generate topics, provide multiple examples, or upload lists of examples, all produced by AI. You can either manually review the comments or use a script to parse all the YouTube comments into an Excel file. Then, add a formula to highlight any duplicates.
LEVEL 3
It is also a must to check the names of the profiles that leave the comments: most of the bot-generated comments are easy to track: they will all have the usernames made of random symbols and numbers, random first and last name combinations, “Habibi”, etc. No profile pictures on all comments is also a red flag.
LEVEL 4
Another important factor to consider when assessing comment authenticity is the posting date. If all the comments were posted on the same day, it’s likely that the traffic was purchased.
2. Average views number per video
This is indeed one of the key metrics to consider when selecting an influencer for collaboration, regardless of the product type. What specific factors should we focus on?
First & foremost: the views dynamics on the channel. The most desirable type of YouTube channel in terms of views is one that maintains stable viewership across all of its videos. This stability serves as proof of an active and loyal audience genuinely interested in the creator’s content, unlike channels where views vary significantly from one video to another.
Many unauthentic crypto channels not only buy YouTube comments but also invest in increasing video views to create the impression of stability. So, what exactly should we look at in terms of views? Firstly, calculate the average number of views based on the ten latest videos. Then, compare this figure to the views of the most recent videos posted within the past week. If you notice that these new videos have nearly the same number of views as those posted a month or two ago, it’s a clear red flag. Typically, a YouTube channel experiences lower views on new videos, with the number increasing organically each day as the audience engages with the content. If you see a video posted just three days ago already garnering 30k views, matching the total views of older videos, it’s a sign of fraudulent traffic purchased to create the illusion of view stability.
3. Influencer’s channel statistics
The primary statistics of interest are region and demographic split, and sometimes the device types of the viewers.
LEVEL 1
When reviewing the shared statistics, the first step is to request a video screencast instead of a simple screenshot. This is because it takes more time to organically edit a video than a screenshot, making it harder to manipulate the statistics. If the creator refuses, step two (if only screenshots are provided) is to download them and check the file’s properties on your computer. Look for details such as whether it was created with Adobe Photoshop or the color profile, typically Adobe RGB, to determine if the screenshot has been edited.
LEVEL 2
After confirming the authenticity of the stats screenshot, it’s crucial to analyze the data. For instance, if you’re examining a channel conducted in Spanish with all videos filmed in the same language, it would raise concerns to find a significant audience from countries like India or Turkey. This discrepancy, where the audience doesn’t align with regions known for speaking the language, is a red flag.
If we’re considering an English-language crypto channel, it typically suggests an international audience, as English’s global use for quality educational content on niche topics like crypto. However, certain considerations apply. For instance, if an English-speaking channel shows a significant percentage of Polish viewers (15% to 30%) without any mention of the Polish language, it could indicate fake followers and views. However, if the channel’s creator is Polish, occasionally posts videos in Polish alongside English, and receives Polish comments, it’s important not to rush to conclusions.
Example of statistics
Wrapping up
These are the main factors to consider when selecting an influencer to promote your crypto product. Once you’ve launched the campaign, there are also some markers to show which creators did bring the authentic traffic and which used some tools to create the illusion of an active and engaged audience. While this may seem obvious, it’s still worth mentioning. After the video is posted, allow 5-7 days for it to accumulate a basic number of views, then check performance metrics such as views, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), signups, and conversion rate (CR) from clicks to signups.
If you overlooked some red flags when selecting crypto channels for your launch, you might find the following outcomes: channels with high views numbers and high CTRs, demonstrating the real interest of the audience, yet with remarkably low conversion rates. In the worst-case scenario, you might witness thousands of clicks resulting in zero to just a few signups. While this might suggest technical issues in other industries, in crypto campaigns it indicates that the creator engaged in the campaign not only bought fake views and comments but also link clicks. And this happens more often than you may realize.
Summing up, choosing the right crypto creator to promote your product is indeed a tricky job that requires a lot of resources to be put into the search process.
Author
Nadia Bubennikova, Head of agency at Famesters
The BIS, along with seven leading central banks and a cohort of private financial firms, has embarked on an ambitious venture known as Project Agorá.
Named after the Greek word for “marketplace,” this initiative stands at the forefront of exploring the potential of tokenisation to significantly enhance the operational efficiency of the monetary system worldwide.
Central to this pioneering project are the Bank of France (on behalf of the Eurosystem), the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. These institutions have joined forces under the banner of Project Agorá, in partnership with an extensive assembly of private financial entities convened by the Institute of International Finance (IIF).
At the heart of Project Agorá is the pursuit of integrating tokenised commercial bank deposits with tokenised wholesale central bank money within a unified, public-private programmable financial platform. By harnessing the advanced capabilities of smart contracts and programmability, the project aspires to unlock new transactional possibilities that were previously infeasible or impractical, thereby fostering novel opportunities that could benefit businesses and consumers alike.
The collaborative effort seeks to address and surmount a variety of structural inefficiencies that currently plague cross-border payments. These challenges include disparate legal, regulatory, and technical standards; varying operating hours and time zones; and the heightened complexity associated with conducting financial integrity checks (such as anti-money laundering and customer verification procedures), which are often redundantly executed across multiple stages of a single transaction due to the involvement of several intermediaries.
As a beacon of experimental and exploratory projects, the BIS Innovation Hub is committed to delivering public goods to the global central banking community through initiatives like Project Agorá. In line with this mission, the BIS will soon issue a call for expressions of interest from private financial institutions eager to contribute to this ground-breaking project. The IIF will facilitate the involvement of private sector participants, extending an invitation to regulated financial institutions representing each of the seven aforementioned currencies to partake in this transformative endeavour.
Source: fintech.globa
The post Central banks and the FinTech sector unite to change global payments space appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.
TD Bank has inked a multi-year deal with Google Cloud as it looks to streamline the development and deployment of new products and services.
The deal will see the Canadian banking group integrate the vendor’s cloud services into a wider portion of its technology solutions portfolio, a move which TD expects will enable it “to respond quickly to changing customer expectations by rolling out new features, updates, or entirely new financial products at an accelerated pace”.
This marks an expansion of the already established relationship between TD Bank and Google Cloud after the group previously adopted the vendor’s Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for TD Securities Automated Trading (TDSAT), the Chicago-based subsidiary of its investment banking unit, TD Securities.
TDSAT uses GKE for process automation and quantitative modelling across fixed income markets, resulting in the development of a “data-driven research platform” capable of processing large research workloads in trading.
Dan Bosman, SVP and CIO of TD Securities, claims the infrastructure has so far supported TDSAT with “compute-intensive quantitative analysis” while expanding the subsidiary’s “trading volumes and portfolio size”.
TD’s new partnership with Google Cloud will see the group attempt to replicate the same level of success across its entire portfolio.
Source: fintechfutures.com
The post TD Bank inks multi-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.
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