From the rise of cryptocurrency DogeCoin and non-fungible tokens to Reddit members beating hedge fund managers at their own game, 2021 has been an eventful year in the world of retail investing. And while institutional investors might not be betting big on Gamestop Corp. or Elon Musk’s latest cryptocurrency tweet, some have inched closer to […]
As far back as the beginning of civilization, centralized ledgers have been the answer to solving trust issues, said Michael Casey, chief content officer at CoinDesk, in a keynote presentation during the Canadian Investment Review’s Investment Innovation Conference in November. The first form of writing ever recorded was a ledger on a Sumerian tablet dating […]
Fintech includes four areas, all of which are changing the financial industry in different ways. These include peer-to-peer financing, robo-advising or systematic asset management, decentralized finance and machine learning and artificial intelligence, said Campbell Harvey, professor of finance at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, during a panel at the Northern Finance Association’s conference in […]
Almost half (47 per cent) of institutional investors are interested in including digital assets in their investment portfolios, according to a survey by Fidelity Investments Inc. The study, which surveyed more than 400 U.S. institutional investors, including pension plans, family offices, crypto and traditional hedge funds, found 22 per cent of respondents said they already have some exposure to […]
Artificial intelligence and blockchain are buzzwords in virtually every industry, but there are specific ways these technologies can make improvements in the pension world, according to Serge Boccassini, manager for defined contribution product solutions at Northern Trust. “How can it be used to help people save more for retirement [and] save better for retirement? And […]
BMO Capital Markets, alongside the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, has launched a pilot fixed income issuance transaction, mirrored on a blockchain platform. In the transaction, the Bank of Montreal acted as the issuer, while Ontario Teachers’ purchased a $250 million one-year floating rate deposit note. It marks the first Canadian dollar fixed income issuance showing the viability […]
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board is among investors taking part in a $250-million round of financing for Tradeshift, a global supply chain digital payments company. With the new round of financing, co-led by Goldman Sachs and totalling $400 million, the company is aiming to help buyers and suppliers digitize their trade transactions. “Given the rapid increase in […]
Coverage of the Investment Innovation Conference
But what exactly is blockchain? And how does it relate to bitcoin?
Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of bitcoin, a global electronic currency invented by a mysterious anonymous figure called Satoshi Nakamoto. The same individual also invented blockchain technology, which has become as ubiquitous a term as bitcoin. But what exactly is blockchain? How does it relate to bitcoin? And why is blockchain so important? […]