Token Trader BnkToTheFuture Is No McFly-By-Night Operation

Blockchain, ICO News, Investing, News, Regulation | December 6, 2017 By:

Global FinTech investment company BnktotheFuture has created a tokenized secondary market and due diligence platform for private securities of all types.

Already popular as an online investment platform with 45,000 qualifying investors and over $200m invested in FinTech, bitcoin and blockchain deals, BnkToTheFuture will incorporate blockchain technology to allow for the trading of security tokens and will issue its own token (BFT) to support deal flow analysis, due diligence and investor relations on the platform. BnkToTheFuture will launch a public token sale in February, 2018.

BnkToTheFuture intends to offer real-time access, pricing, liquidity, and a transparent marketplace for trading private securities inclusive of equities. Among other features, BnkToTheFuture’s BFT token will grant existing users access to the platform’s multi-tiered membership for qualifying investors to access priority deals, and also will act as a reward to other BFT token holders who conduct, on behalf of the platform and community, due diligence on prospective deals, such as sourcing prospects or managing investor relations by giving status updates on a listed company’s progress.

“Investors want a trustworthy trading platform that gives first-mover access to new investments while complying with regulatory requirements,” said Simon Dixon, CEO of BnkToTheFuture. “We have engineered the BnkToTheFuture platform to provide this, along with the added benefits of employing the latest technology and incentives for participants to make updates about investments, so investors can track both the performance of their portfolios as well as other tokens they consider to be prospective investments.”

Dixon talked with Block Tribune about the platform’s plans.

BLOCK TRIBUNE:  How do you evaluate which tokens you allow on your platform?

SIMON DIXON: Primarily we are focused on equity for companies in the Bitcoin, Blockchain and FinTech sector as well as tokens. Next year we plan to launch equity backed tokens for added liquidity to our portfolio of companies. We look for companies that have already secured and been through the due diligence process of either an industry veteran or a professional investor in the industry. They have to pass the due diligence of a veteran or professional investor first. Once they have overcome that hurdle we ensure we get the same terms as the other investors and put them through our due diligence portal where they have to upload all documentation. In its simplest terms we look for great teams with products that are already being used. Our goal for 2018 is to see if we can use our BF Token to incentivise a community conducting due diligence, research and analysis on our deals so we can achieve a less centralised process for deal flow selection.

BLOCK TRIBUNE:  What makes a token worth investing in?  What fundamentals are important?

SIMON DIXON: It’s all about the people, product and economics. Firstly we need a team that has a track record of execution and advisors that are careful with their reputations that have been around the Blockchain Block so to speak. There are a lot of newbies to crypto so we want to see them persuading industry veterans from Bitcoin and Blockchain to join their team. We then like to see a product that would have got funded traditionally that has real users and customers. So much great technology is just too early for adoption in this space. We want to see the token being used immediately after launch. Finally the token economies have to make sense. A lot of token sales are doomed by deep discounts, large bonuses and back-hand deals. We want to see tokens that are fair and transparent where the founders and company have lock-in periods to align customers, investors, token holders and the company interests. We designed our BF Token with all this in mind to try and set a standard other tokens can follow if they want us to purchase them.

BLOCK TRIBUNE: Is there a logic to how tokens are traded yet?  It seems that markets move at times for little to no reason.

SIMON DIXON: Nothing has changed here. Markets move based upon supply and demand, if more people want them they go up, if more people want to sell them they go down. Participants in these markets range from short term speculators, to market pumpumpers to users that need the token for its utility. Short term? anything can happen as they are driven by the emotions of fear and greed. Long term? they have to reach a fundamental value based on the utility of the token and its adoption. We are more interested in long term value than short term trading and price action. We saw our best returns from Bitcoin and Ethereum because they delivered value after speculation.

BLOCK TRIBUNE:  Let’s say someone wants to join in the fun. Is there a minimum?  What should be their first decisions?

SIMON DIXON: At BnkToTheFuture.com we deal with professional investors as our focus is on providing global investment opportunities for those that can handle high risk, high return investing. I think those completely new to the sector should start with Bitcoin and later decide if they want to speculate a percentage of their Bitcoin on higher risk tokens. If they qualify we also offer good old traditional equity in many of the most valuable companies in the sector that will be tradable through equity backed tokens in 2018 should we reach our goals. A good portfolio in this sector has a mix of Bitcoin, Altcoins, Equity and Tokens.

BLOCK TRIBUNE: How do you make your money?

SIMON DIXON: BnkToTheFuture.com is an investor in the industry. We have invested in many of the most valuable companies in the sector early and have stakes in BitFinex, BitStamp, Kraken, Shapeshift, BitPay and over 100 others. We make money if these investments do well as we get a cut of all dividends, exits and secondary trades when we launch our market in 2018. We make sure our interests are aligned and make money out of owning the tokens we purchase or returns being paid as well as a percentage of funds raised to the company.

BLOCK TRIBUNE:  Why Hong Kong?

SIMON DIXON: We are headquartered in Cayman Islands and have team members in Philippines, London, Vietnam, Poland, United States and Hong Kong. We have a multi-jurisdictional company with licenses and partners in different countries. Geography is less important to us, we think the future of finance has no borders. Having said that many of our investors are in Asia and Hong Kong is a great gateway to Asia.

BLOCK TRIBUNE:  If you have a business and want to list it on your service, what are the steps?

SIMON DIXON: It’s really simple, just make a quick application online and upload all your documents to BnkToTheFuture.com and we will review and get back to you if we think our investors will like it. We setup a call and if we can work together get started on the due diligence. We have a team that creates the pitch and project manages the whole process, but we have a 95% rejection rate as we only work with 5% of applicants that meet our criteria.

BLOCK TRIBUNE:  Is there anyone named McFly working for your company?

SIMON DIXON: Not yet. We have been trying to recruit him for years.