Overstock Sells $5 Million Cryptobond to New York Trading Firm
US retail giant Overstock has sold a $5m "cryptobond" to FNY Managed Accounts, a New York-based trading firm. The sale is part of a proof of concept from the Utah-based e-tailer showcasing how financial instruments can be digitized and traded on cryptographic distributed ledgers such as the bitcoin blockchain. Overstock first began accepting bitcoin in January 2014 and has since been one of the ecosystem's most active public advocates. The project was first announced in April and later detailed further in June. At the time, the company announced that CEO Patrick Byrne had purchased a....
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Online retailer Overstock.com spent $8m last year on its blockchain-backed securities trading initiative. In a statement to investors, CEO Patrick Byrne wrote that the firm spent $6m more than originally anticipated on its blockchain research. The firm said in November that it spent $3.2m during the third quarter on the initiative. The disclosure came with the firm's Q4 2015 results, which were published yesterday after markets closed. Byrne wrote: “OLabs (our growth and innovation group) contributed what we planned with one exception: though I began 2015 intending to spend $2 million....
Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has bought the company's first cryptobond for $500,000. I intend to demonstrate my belief not just in Overstock, but in the TØ.com platform that we built and, indeed, in the cryptorevolution itself, he said in a statement. E-retail giant Overstock has announced it will utilize colored coins to issue what it calls a digital corporate bond, or a cryptocurrency-based security, based on the bitcoin blockchain. The company said in a 5th June press release the issuance forms part of its development of cryptographic security technology aimed at reducing trade....
Overstock's crypto subsidiary tØ has acquired Wall Street brokerage firm SpeedRoute, a move the latter's CEO termed a 'quantum leap' for securities trading. TØ (pronounced t-zero), unveiled last month at Nasdaq's New York headquarters, is a blockchain-based equities trading platform Overstock claims could revolutionise clearing and settlement. The SpeedRoute deal, it says, marks a momentous step toward connecting the crypto and capital markets. SpeedRoute CEO Joseph Cammarata said in a release: 'This collaboration allows Overstock to enter this new financial technology arena with a speed....
Overstock recently completed the acquisition of SpeedRoute through its settlement platform subsidiary T0, effectively bringing blockchain technology to Wall Street. According to the SEC filing, SpeedRoute was purchased for approximately $30.3 million, consisting of approximately $11 million in cash and 900,000 shares of Overstock's common stock valued at $19.3 million. SpeedRoute was founded in 2000 and is a a brokerage firm or broker-dealer that buys and sells stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other investment products on behalf of its customers. It has offices at 14 Wall Street and moves....
After the launch of Overstock's cryptobond, which is a security based on blockchain technology, CEO Patrick Byrne shed light on Wall Street's security loans. He pointed to research from DataLend indicating that about $954 billion in securities is typically on loan to some fund or another. In other words, hedge funds and large investment firms don't just buy and sell securities. They also borrow these from each other, possibly in order to short sell or to hedge other positions. Byrne said that this activity incurs a lot of profits for middlemen and costs for smaller traders. Cyrptobond as....