For the first time since the financial crisis in 2008, CEOs from America’s largest banks testified before the House Financial Services Committee of the United States Congress. In particular, Representative Warren Davidson (R-OH) inquired as to the banks’ current thoughts on the integration of blockchain and finance.

Since the first initial coin offering (ICO) was held in July 2013, ICOs have raised an astounding $10 billion. But the days of the ICO are over... Too many people think of them as scams. Yet companies still need to raise money. Enter the STO—a way to raise money that has the potential to be far more secure, and, for the first time, legally open to the big players: institutional investors.

There’s been much discussion over the idea of tokenized stocks. DX.Exchange, for example, has been actively trying to tokenize many of the top stocks and bring them to the Ethereum blockchain. Although many of these ideas are still in the works, there’s now a tangible project that will bring the idea to fruition: Ambisafe will be releasing a new fund that will purchase SpaceX stocks and offer them to potential cryptocurrency investors.

BlockPark Technologies unveiled one of the more lucrative high tech real estate projects in the Las Vegas area, called the DT57 Towers. The development is located in downtown Las Vegas, and presents a unique investment opportunity utilizing the company’s proprietary decentralized property management software and unique real estate investment platform. The project is looking for accredited investors to purchase BLOK tokens through a security token offering (STO) sale.

Digital securities are one of the fastest-growing asset classes—empowering investors to explore previously illiquid and unattainable assets… including fine art and luxury real estate. Private credit is also poised for successful digitization… allowing a wider investor base to take part in its benefits.

TradeCloud serves the metals industry, with plans to extend its services to the energy and agricultural sectors. The combined trade value in the three markets is in excess of $8 trillion per year—one of the largest untapped ecommerce opportunities today. Major problems in the industry affect communication, price discovery, and allocation of services. TC is currently involved in building communities and connecting the industry through its secure blockchain platform.

According to recent data analysis by InWara, STOs experienced a notable surge in Q1 2019. With an increase of 130%—and a simultaneous drop in initial coin offerings (ICOs)—STOs are realizing their potential through real-world implementation… And the top four industries performing STOs were: 1) trading and investing (with seven); 2) the energy sector (with six); 3) financial services (with six); and 4) healthcare (with five).

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and renowned crypto skeptic Nouriel Roubini went head to head at the Deconomy Conference in South Korea in front of over 1,000 people to discuss the true value of digital assets. For those who weren’t fortunate enough to be present, here are the key points of debate at the much-awaited event, including whether crypto can really bypass governments… or be truly decentralized.

According to a recent report released by the identity management firm Okta, 61% of high-profile digital companies around the world invest in blockchain technology. The survey included 1,050 IT security and engineering decision makers from global companies around the world… with more than $1 billion in revenue. These decision makers are those in charge of making technology purchasing decisions in these firms.

SPiCE VC was fully tokenized in 2017, making it the world’s first tokenized VC fund… And its security token was the first to undergo a peer-to-peer transaction on a public blockchain. Co-founder Ami Ben-David discusses what the industry will need to be successful moving forward.

According to a job posting on USAJobs, an official government jobs portal, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets plans to hire the new legal expert in order to help develop a “comprehensive plan” to address crypto and digital asset securities. One of the key responsibilities of the new hire would be to apply their “knowledge of federal securities laws to digital asset securities and crypto matters.”

According to blockchain expert and professional tech researcher Gregory S. Mathew, the United Arab Emirates are the next superpower not only in the global economy, but in blockchain and crypto spheres as well. In fact, during Q1 2019, UAE based blockchain-crypto companies raised over $200 million in funds, according to a report by InWara.