Welcome to the ICONOMI Monthly Update for April. In April, we completed a proof of solvency, allowing us to prove that our assets are greater than our liabilities; hosted more events in our Meet the Managers series, this time in Madrid and Amsterdam; released the Hive Index DAA; and more.
Proof of Solvency
In an ICONOMI landmark, April saw the completion of our first proof of solvency by a Big Four professional services firm. An independent overview verified that all the digital assets on our platform have been reported accurately and that ICONOMI is solvent. On April 5, 2018, ICONOMI had $133.6M of liabilities and $210.2M of reserves distributed across 80 digital assets, fully covering all liabilities.
The data is available directly on our website, and a technical overview of the process is available here. A statement by ICONOMI CEO Tim Zagar is available on Medium.
We also implemented a verification tool to allow users and DAA managers to verify their inclusion in the proof of solvency for themselves.
DAA Performance Overview
On April 5, we published a DAA performance overview for Q1. The three top-performing DAAs were Aljoscha Frick’s Future Chain Index (FCI), Coinbest Group’s COINBEST 1 (CBST), and Reinhard Berger’s Pecun.io Cryptocurrency(PCC).
Events & Media
Meet the Managers Events
- On April 5, we held the third event in our Meet the Managers series, Meet the Managers: Madrid. We were joined by four speakers: Javier Molina, the managing director of Coinbest Group; Gregor Zupanc, CEO of Solidum Capital; Jesús Pérez, an internet entrepreneur, professor, and ex-president of the Spanish Fintech Association; and Steve Nabil Lauritsen, a co-founder of Blockchain Nordic. Read our summary of the event for more details.
- Our next event was Meet the Managers: Amsterdam, where we were joined by Gorazd Ocvirk, the director of Deloitte’s Innovation Lab; Menno Pietersen of CARUS-AR; Nathan Hartman of Phoenix Decentralized Solutions; and Cain Ransbottyn of TRADE. Read our summary of the event for more details.
Conferences
- ICONOMI attended Prestel and Partner’s Family Office Forum in Wiesbaden, Germany from April 17–18.
- From May 2–3, Jure Sutar, our Head of Digital Asset Arrays, attended East Chain Open Hub in Kuwait, where he presented ICONOMI to a broader audience and discussed the future of digital asset management.
- ICONOMI co-founder Jani Valjavec attended the World Digital Asset Summit in Singapore by invitation from digital asset management firm FBG Capital.
- ICONOMI COO Matej Tomazin spoke on the role of blockchain and ICOs in the financial industry at the 35. Finance Conference event in Portoroz, Slovenia.
ICONOMI in the Media
- ICONOMI was mentioned in Invest in Blockchain’s article “What Are Crypto Index Funds And Should You Invest In Them?”
“ICONOMI is a blockchain platform that allows anyone from beginners to experts to invest in and manage digital assets.”
- Jani Valjavec, ICONOMI co-founder, gave an interview for Howtotokentitled “How I Made Investing in Digital Assets Accessible for Anyone.”
“We realized that there were many people who wanted to invest in digital assets but didn’t know how.”
- Nenad Gregec of the ICONOMI legal team was quoted in Cryptonews.
“‘The industry is still in its infancy, so if regulation is too strict it could inhibit growth and innovation. However, somewhere with no regulation could put us in the territory of the Wild West,’” he said. ‘We always strive towards regulation because it creates a level playing field and ensures safety for investors.’”
- Wisdom of the Crowd Crypto Portfolio Launches on ICONOMI Investment Platform, Simon Cocking, Irish Tech News
“Hive Digital Assets — a pair of digital asset managers based in Berlin and Mumbai — are launching the first ever swarm-intelligence-led DAA onto the Iconomi.net investment platform, just as the market seems to be turning for the better.”
“…in Slovenia, even your taxi driver can tell you the price of bitcoin. All this is being recognized by the government, which is trying to put Slovenia on the map as a blockchain-friendly country.”
- Tjasa Tolj of ICONOMI shared marketing insights in an interview with Bitbond.
“Regardless of the communication channels we were using, our communication was always clear, thoughtful and sincere, and we were constantly observing the market. We never over-promised — we just did it.”
DAA Insights
Steve Nabil Lauritsen of Blockchain Nordic described the Scandinavian crypto scene, explained his approach to explaining difficult subjects in an easily understandable way, and more in his DAA Insights interview.
New DAA Metrics
Our development team added metrics for volatility, max drawdown, and return (including all-time) for every DAA available on the ICONOMI platform. Scroll down to the “DAA Details” section on the BLX DAA page to see them in action, or check out the screenshot below.
New DAA: Hive Index
The new Hive Index DAA uses a unique method to establish its structure, basing its design on an analysis of the other DAA structures on the ICONOMI platform to allow buyers to “tap right into the wisdom of the crowd.”
Columbus Capital Reddit AMA
For our April Reddit Q&A session, we had our first guest Reddit AMA with Columbus Capital, which manages the Blockchain Index (BLX) and Pinta(CCP) DAAs on the ICONOMI platform. Read the summary here.
Q1 Financial Report
Our Q1 Financial Report was released in late April and features not only financial statistics such as revenues and expenditures, but also updates from each department on their current progress and future goals.
Rocket.Chat Q&A
In the last Weekly Update of April, we answered five questions about ICONOMI from the Rocket.Chat community. In future, we will be addressing questions on Rocket.Chat on a more frequent basis, so be sure to sign up if you haven’t already.
What’s Next?
Upcoming Events
- Our first Meet the Managers event in Asia will take place on May 29 in Hong Kong, followed by a Meet the Managers event in Singapore on May 31. If you want to learn more about ICONOMI and about digital asset management in general, sign up here.
- On May 24, ICONOMI COO Matej Tomazin will attend FinTech Unconference in Madrid.
- Ziga Perovic, ICONOMI Legal Counsel & AML Officer, will be attending the ACAMS 14th Annual AML & Financial Crime CONFERENCE Europe from May 31–June 1 in Amsterdam.
- ICONOMI Head of Legal Janez Kravcar will be attending the BLOCKCHAINEUM 2.0 International Blockchain Summit in Budapest on May 23.
Changing Email Providers
We have decided on a new crypto-friendly email provider and are currently in the testing phase. As always, this extended version of the Monthly Update has been made available here on Medium. When we have thoroughly tested our new provider, we will send out the email version to our subscriber base.
