Meet Berlin-based Fintech Bitbond, the Company Behind Germany's First Regulated Security Token Offering 

In spring 2019 we issued our tokenized bond and with that, we established tokenized securities in Germany.

Radoslav Albrecht, Founder and CEO of Bitbond

Media PartnershipThis podcast is in media partnership with the Crypto Assets Conference, an event taking place each year in spring and autumn in Frankfurt, organized by the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and their Blockchain Center.

You can learn more about the conference here: https://www.crypto-assets-conference.de/

You can learn more about Philipp Sandner, head of the Blockchain Center in our interview with him here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/the-german-bill-to-permit-crypto-securities/

What we are most interested in is to speak to companies, who are interested in tokenization. … to partner up with Bitbond to enhance their tokenization capabilities

Radoslav Albrecht, Founder and CEO of Bitbond

The InterviewFind all the links, show notes, and the automated transcript here on our blog post: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/podcast-meet-berlin-based-fintech-bitbond-the-company-behind-germanys-first-regulated-security-token-offering/

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This Month in German Startups - December 2020 

Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City.

Welcome to the Chris-mas edition :-) 

Today we are wrapping up December 2020 for you. Please keep in mind that due to the holidays and the current lockdown in Germany we are recording this news on December 15th. All news not included here will be part of our January warp-up and there will be a 2020 review 2021outlook as well.

Today we bring you news about the 10 bn investment package of the German government, the new DAX, Peter Thiel’s investments in Germany, Taxes, AI, and much more. 

EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/

Find all options to subscribe here: 

💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflSpotify https://spoti.fi/3kCcgoB  Housekeeping - Time to brag We have only one thing to say: Stay safe everybody! Be grateful for what you have!

Affiliate LinksThe current situation with the Coronavirus-related lockdown is frequently compared to severe economic recessions including, but not limited to the 2008 Financial Crisis and the Stock Market Crash of 1929. If you want to know more, consider these books below.

“Galbraith was asked by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. if he would write the definitive work on the Great Depression that he would then use as a reference source for his own intended work on Roosevelt.” (from Wikipedia) - The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith https://amzn.to/3cl41sAEssays on the Great Depression https://amzn.to/2VvEsht by former Fed Chairmen Ben S. Bernanke “an American economist at the Brookings Institution[3] who served two terms as Chair of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, from 2006 to 2014” (from Wikipedia)From John Kenneth Galbraith as well: A Short History of Financial Euphoria https://amzn.to/2VxngbgA great book on crashes, bubbles, and economic uncertainty, in general, is “Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation” by Edward Chancellor https://amzn.to/2VaUDSlAll

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-december-2020/

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The BISON App Allows Uncomplicated and Reliable Trading of Cryptocurrencies on the Smartphone

We were the first to provide crypto buying and selling from an in Germany licensed institution.

Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart

Media Partnership

This podcast is in media partnership with the Crypto Assets Conference, an event taking place each year in spring and autumn in Frankfurt, organized by the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and their Blockchain Center.

You can learn more about the conference here: https://www.crypto-assets-conference.de/

You can learn more about Philipp Sandner, head of the Blockchain Center in our interview with him here:

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/the-german-bill-to-permit-crypto-securities/

The Chief Digital Officer

This time we talk to Ulli Spankowski (https://de.linkedin.com/in/ulli-spankowski-08652916, https://twitter.com/uspankowski?lang=en, https://www.crunchbase.com/person/ulli-spankowski ) a fintech and blockchain entrepreneur, who sold his company to the Stuttgart Stock Exchange, which than promoted him to be the CDO (Chief Digital Officer). He is an economist by training, who did his PhD in market microstructure. He co-founded his fintech startup with co-founders from Slovenia.

We met with the CIO of Börse Stuttgart - back then - and discussed what can be done with financial markets in the future, if you completely rethink it, based on blockchain technology.

Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart

Affiliate Links

Is your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d

Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye

Bitcoin was much bigger in Slovenia. When my co-founder told me to do something in bitcoin, I said … Bit-What?

Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart

The Startup

Back in 2013, Ulli founded his startup Sowa Labs together with co-founders from Slovenia, which he met during an EU funded project during his Ph.D. Thesis. The idea of aggregating data from across the web and social media on cryptocurrencies evolved into cryptocurrency trading. They then sold the startup to the Stuttgart Stock Exchange in 2017 and developed what has become their BISON app: https://bisonapp.com/en/ (App Store, Google Play Store). This was not a bad move, since Börse Stuttgart is the market leader in Europe as a trading venue for retail structured products and one of the 10 largest stock exchanges in Europe.

We started out with cryptocurrencies, but we are planning to move gradually into security tokens.

Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart

When I was attending conferences [at the beginning of cryptocurrencies] I always said “The biggest problem of cryptocurrencies is that no one cares about them”

Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart

Further Readings / Additional Resources

Market Microstructure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_microstructure 

Börse Stuttgart: https://www.boerse-stuttgart.de/en/

Multilateral trading facility: 

Amazing Blocks can tokenize Any Asset LegallyMedia PartnershipThis podcast is in media partnership with crypto assets conference, an event taking place each year in spring and autumn in Frankfurt, organized by the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and their Blockchain Center.

You can learn more about the conference here: https://www.crypto-assets-conference.de/

You can learn more about Philipp Sandner, head of the Blockchain Center in our interview with him here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/the-german-bill-to-permit-crypto-securities/

The asset can be located anywhere, as long as it is legally owned by the SPV.

Nicolas Weber, Amazing Blocks

The Interview PartnerWe talk to Nicolas Weber (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas97weber/), in charge of business development Germany for Amazing Blocks (https://my.amazingblocks.io/).

Blockchain has the ability to disrupt every aspect of business.

Nicolas Weber, Amazing Blocks

Affiliate LinksWhy not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to share their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found.

Recommended by: Bill Gates

“Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlBRecommended by: Jeff Bezos

“Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKeRecommended by: Elon Musk

“Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhwRecommended by: Tony Hsieh

“Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQRecommended by: Warren Buffet

“Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06Recommended by: Tim Cook

“Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn Liechtenstein implemented the Token Act as a complete new law, other than for examples Switzerland, which is currently looking at adding to existing laws.

Nicolas Weber, Amazing Blocks

Find all the links and show notes on our blog here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/amazing-blocks-can-tokenize-any-asset-legally/

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This Month in German Startups - November

 Welcome to This Month in

 Today we are wrapping up

Enabler

This recording was made

Find all options to

Housekeeping - Time to brag 

We have only one thing

Affiliated Links

Why not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who

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Show Notes, Links and more reading

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2020/

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This Month in German Startups - October 2020Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City.

Today we are wrapping up October 2020 for you with a monster round in the making at N26, new information on the Wirecard insolvency and questions about published information of Heidelberg based insurance startup Getsafe. 

You can now join us on the entrepreneur network DueDash: https://buff.ly/2R90PYp with 5 Euros a month you support our work! Or become a Patron at Patreon: https://buff.ly/32bZ4zW 

Thank you!

EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/

Find all options to subscribe here: 

💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflSpotify https://spoti.fi/3kCcgoB Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-october-2020/

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This Month in German Startups - Summer 2020 Wrap-UpWelcome to this month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City.

Today we are wrapping up summer 2020 for you. This is going to take a bit longer than normal, so grab a coffee and relax on the couch. 

You can now join us on the entrepreneur network DueDash: https://buff.ly/2R90PYp with 5 Euros a month you support our work! Thank you!

EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/

Find all options to subscribe here: 

💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflDeezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rlTuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznStitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANO💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - VideoiTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJ 

Housekeeping - Time to brag We made it now in 39 Countries in the podcast charts, adding Switzerland, Zimbabwe, Israel, and Indonesia! Thank you!

[caption id="attachment_3669" align="alignleft" width="800"]Podcast Charts Appearances of Startuprad.io - Now in 39 countries[/caption] 

As a premier source for startup information from Germany, Startupradio was already a part of the US launch of podcasts on Amazon Music and is now in Germany as well.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcAK3wj3Gn/

 Video News - This video will go live on Thursday, September 24th 19.00 CET (Frankfurt, Zürich, Berlin, Milan)https://youtu.be/AQBKnWmxaTY

Audio News - The audio podcast will go live at the same timeWe just need some time after the release until we can embed the Spotify player here.

Top NewsCoronavirus / Curevac Curevac was one of the biggest startup stories during the summer. They are a Tübingen, Germany-based biotech company, working on a coronavirus vaccine. 

They IPOed for more than 200 mn US$ (https://buff.ly/3iUsus6) 

They got visited by Elon Musk (https://buff.ly/3cjMdzf) 

And we already blogged about their government investment in June (https://buff.ly/3iY0y6Q)

And they received a large investment pre-IPO by two international heavy weights: 

Pre-IPO: Qatar Investment Authority takes stake in vaccine-maker CureVac https://buff.ly/3jnYZzD Glaxosmithkline (GSK) pays 142 mn Euro for 10% stake in one of #Germany's most promising candidates for a #coronavirus #vaccine Curevac from Tuebingen https://buff.ly/3homvLk Coronavirus / Potential super spreader event in the Berlin startup scene?deutsche-startups reports in their podcast, that a super-spreader event took place in the Berlin Venture Capital and startup scene on Friday, September 11th https://buff.ly/2ElAxzc 

Wirecard We keep you updated, just a small selection of news here

Wirecard's liquidator sends employees into garden leave without pay via email after 20.00 o'clock. Rumors talk about 50% of the more than 1.000 employees https://buff.ly/34wB7F6

Related: Wirecard scandal fallout sees 50% of German staff laid off 

Follow-Up with the Bloomberg of Crypto – CoinAnalystAfter the interview in 2018, we entered the crypto winter.

Pascal Lauria, CEO and Co-Founder CoinAnalyst

 The FounderThis interview is a follow-up to our interview in July 2018. At this time we talked with Pascal about the upcoming ICO of CoinAnalyst. Pascal Lauria (https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascallauria/) is the CEO and Co-Founder of CoinAnalyst (https://coinanalyst.tech/en/insights/), the Frankfurt-based startup still wants to be the “Bloomberg for Crypto.”

The last few years for Crypto has been extremely hard.

Pascal Lauria, CEO and Co-Founder CoinAnalyst

PatreonLearn about our interviews hours before they are released, help in the selection of the startups we interview or even suggest startups to be interviewed, by becoming a Patron: https://buff.ly/32bZ4zW

DueDashIf you don’t like Patreon, there is DueDash. DueDash is a Social Network, for startups and investors. We have a group of supporters there as well. You can join the group there:  https://buff.ly/2R90PYp

Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d

Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye

During the Crypto Winter, no one wanted to talk or hear about Crypto. … I was advised to reflect that in my pitch deck.

Pascal Lauria, CEO and Co-Founder CoinAnalyst

The Startup CoinAnalyst (https://coinanalyst.tech/en/insights/), the Frankfurt-based startup still wants to be the “Bloomberg for Crypto.” They are themselves a spin-off of Frankfurt-based startup Cogia (https://www.cogia.de/de/), which was also founded by Pascal, where he is still the CEO. CoinAnalyst claims to have created a unique tool that helps crypto investors make more accurate predictions while trading. On their platform, they show Trends, Sentiment, Influencer talk about Crypto Currencies, Word Signals, Forecasts, and AI filtered high impact news.

This all together is applicable to crypto coins, stocks and forex. They also have the COY token (https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/coinanalyst), which they issued during the ICO in 2018.

Disclaimer on Coins and TokensPlease seek professional advice, before jumping into the risky crypto space. You may want to talk to your investment advisor, as well as your tax advisor. The investments in crypto-assets are always very risky and could lead to a loss of all of your investments in a very short time. Please make your research and due diligence! This podcast provides no investment advice.

Initial Exchange OfferingAt the time of publication, the COY token will have made its debut on a new crypto exchange, called an IEO (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_exchange_offering) at LaToken Exchange (https://latoken.com/).

Additionally, they are going to “burn” one billion COYs from the hard cap (https://academy.binance.com/glossary/hard-cap). In Equities, this would be called a “reverse split” (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/reversesplit.asp) two for one.

Pascals and Joe's advice -...

The German Bill to Permit Crypto SecuritiesIn terms of large countries, Germany is a fast mover in blockchain legislation

Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

Labor Day SpecialSince the USA are one of our biggest markets we publish some specials on federal holidays. This is one of those occasions. Despite this we stick to our publication of Video on Thursday and podcast the following night, so you all have the content on your devices the next morning.

Our GuestCurrently, there is a piece of legislation in the law-making process, to permit securities issued on the blockchain in Germany. Due to this step, we talk to Philipp Sandner (https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippsandner/), a blockchain expert, Professor of Frankfurt School of Management and Finance, Head of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center, Member Fintech Council (FinTechRat) of the German Federal Ministry of Finance, and member of several expert groups on the blockchain.

The Bill to become Germany's Crypto Securities LawWe are talking about a bill to revolutionize the German capital market since you could move existing securities on the blockchain, as well as emit securities completely without "paper" on the blockchain. The new system is designed so that also startups also could run blockchains for crypto securities.

You can find the proposed bill in German here: https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Gesetzestexte/Gesetze_Gesetzesvorhaben/Abteilungen/Abteilung_VII/19_Legislaturperiode/2020-08-11-einfuehrung-elektronische-wertpapiere/0-Gesetz.html

The US is lagging behind in terms of legislation, but they have some great startups in terms of crypto trading and crypto securities.

Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

The Video interview will go live on Labor Day 2020 (September 7th) at 19.00 CEThttps://youtu.be/uPaea39mDig

The Audio Interview is set to go live on the same daySubscribe to our podcast(s) here

 Current SituationDuring our interview, Philipp refers to an already existing law in Germany, for which you can find an article here on the website of the German finance oversight body BaFin.

The small country of LiechtensteinLiechtenstein, a country of fewer than 50.000 people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein), nestled in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. The whole country of Liechtenstein is just 2.7 times larger than the Island of Manhattan (http://www.comparea.org/LIE+r2552485#:~:text=Liechtenstein%20is%202.7%20times%20larger%20than%20Manhattan%20(NYC%20borough).&text=Liechtenstein%20is%202.7%20times%20larger%20than%20Manhattan%20(NYC%20borough)). The capital Vaduz has a population of fewer than 6.000 people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaduz), but you should not underestimate them.

Liechtenstein is leading in Europe in Crypto-LegislationPhilipp takes a few minutes in our interview to bring the point home, but Liechtenstein and Switzerland are leading in Europe in Crypto Legislation, followed by countries from Baltic states. Not far behind in Germany with the bill we discuss. For further reference, here is the Liechtenstein Token Act: https://impuls-liechtenstein.li/en/blockchain-act-liechtenstein/

Future SituationThe law will likely

NGRAVE offers the most secure end-to-end solution in the world for managing digital assetsYou cannot brute force our private keys.

You cannot predict our private keys.

The private key is generated on the spot, even we as the manufacturer do not know your private key.

There are no back-doors in our device.

Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE

The FounderThis time we talk to Ruben Merre, the CEO and Co-Founder (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruben-merre/, https://medium.com/ngrave) of NGRAVE (https://www.ngrave.io/), which offers a highly secure solution to manage one’s digital assets. Ruben originally stared out with a business engineering degree. He not only worked as a strategy consultant, contributor to Hackernoon (https://hackernoon.com/u/ruben.merre) but also is a bestseller online investment instructor at UDEMY (https://www.udemy.com/user/rubenmerre/).

This interview is part of our ongoing media partnership with Accelerator Frankfurt (https://www.acceleratorfrankfurt.com/).

In 2019 a record 4.5 bn US$ in cryptocurrencies was stolen… we still see the same trend. Hacks are increasing in size and in frequency …

Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE

PatreonYou can now support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=35246148 if you like what you see and hear consider to support us, so we can keep bringing you great content.

 Affiliate Links Is your startup in need of a bank

Looking to open a bank account to

There are no solutions to own your crypto, how it should be.

Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE

The StartupOfficially the startup NGRAVE (https://www.ngrave.io/, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ngrave´), based out of Brussels, Belgium. The story started as the former project of one of the three co-founders was hacked and approximately 10 million US$ worth in Ethereum was stolen. The old project was shut down and NGRAVE was founded to provide a secure way of storing digital or crypto assets.

Venture Capital FundingNGRAVE is looking for funding in the second half of 2020.

There are no backdoors in our product.

Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE

Indiegogo CampaignAt the time of the interview, the campaign was not yet launched. At the time of the publication the campaign already ended, but they raised more than 380.000 € (more than 450.000 US$), achieving more than 1.500% of their goal of 25.000 € (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zero-the-most-secure-easy-to-use-crypto-wallet#/).

Our device looks like a small smartphone. The device is completely disconnected from the world, so no hacker can access it. …. Nobody can ever steal the private keys, because they are never exposed.

Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE

Pre-order the Device (NGRAVE Zero)For everybody who missed the Campaign, you can buy the device here: https://www.ngrave.io/products/zero.

This is not an affiliate link.

The Video...