Publity AG wants to be the world’s first listed company to tokenize its own shares on Ethereum – what are the consequences?

The real estate giant PREOS Global Office Real Estate & Technology AG (PREOS) is the first publicly listed company to digitally securitize its shares using an Ethereum token

PREOS is a real estate company focused on office properties. The company is currently mainly active in Frankfurt and in the future it wants to expand into other European financial centers.

For the implementation of the ambitious project, the company uses the Ethereum blockchain and from today the tokenized securities are tradable on the XETRA trading platform. Each PREOS token represents one PREOS share.

In addition, every PREOS token holder has the option of exchanging their tokens for conventional PREOS shares. The tokenized shares have the same dividend rights and the same voting rights at the PREOS general meeting as all other shares in the company.

Thomas Olek, CEO, the CEO of Publity AG commented optimistically:

A milestone in the international real estate industry. We make real estate digital and investable for everyone, regardless of location or infrastructure.

Olek also said that this tokenization of the shares, approved by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) on November 23, 2020, had opened a new chapter on the capital market.

Although Bitcoin has mobilized to reach a new historical high of market capitalization, the milestone seems not to have captured the attention of the main media and the general public.

The latest stage of Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent rebound saw its market capitalization exceed USD 330 billion for the first time, while the price rose above USD 17,750 by the end of November.

Grayscale Survey Connects COVID-19 Pandemic to New Bitcoin Purchases

According to CoinGecko, the previous high for Bitcoin capitalization of $329.3 billion was recorded on December 16, 2017, in the midst of the historic upward cycle where the price of Bitcoin reached $20,000.
BTC market capitalization since 2017.

However, the new peak in market capitalization came despite the fact that the price of BTC has not reached new highs.

The price of a bitcoin in Argentina reaches three million pesos

There’s a very simple explanation for that: the increasing supply of Bitcoin. While there were approximately 16,746 million Bitcoins as of December 16, 2017, more than 1.8 million coins have been mined since then, which is a 10.75% increase in supply. This means that Bitcoin is able to have a higher market capitalization even though its price is currently lower.

The combined capitalization of all the crypto currencies also exceeded $500 billion for the first time since February 2018.
Combined capitalization of all crypto-currencies since 2017

According to the World Bank, Bitcoin’s market capitalization exceeds that of combined publicly traded companies based in countries such as Belgium, Iran, Norway, Sweden and the Philippines, respectively, more than double that of companies in Denmark, Qatar, Vietnam, Colombia and Poland.

Another conventional company is seeking approval to invest in crypto-currencies

Compared to companies in the S&P 500, Bitcoin’s market capitalization is approximately $13 billion behind Procter and Gamble’s eleventh position, and above Nvidia and JP Morgan. However, some would argue that comparing Bitcoin to companies isn’t very enlightening and that it should be compared to commodities, or some other asset class.

Despite the market capitalization milestone, some analysts point to the lack of media coverage of Bitcoin’s recent gains.

Media attention going down. Price to the moon!

Chart shown just now on Joe @TheStalwart’s show. pic.twitter.com/kXHjCtDPZ2
– Mati Greenspan (tweets ≠ financial advice) (@MatiGreenspan) November 17, 2020

However, according to data shared by LunarCRUSH, a company that tracks social network sentiment in relation to cryptomonies, the volume of Bitcoin-related news experienced a significant peak since early November.

The company tweeted a graph showing that the volume of daily media coverage related to Bitcoin has increased fivefold in the last two weeks.

Microsoft Latin America Education Forum concludes that students should learn skills like Blockchain

According to Google Trends, the volume of searches for the keyword „Bitcoin“ during November is approximately 15% of the 2017 search peak, further evidencing the relative lack of retail interest in BTC compared to the last time the market was reaching parabolic peaks.
Relative volume of searches for the word ‚Bitcoin‘ in the last five years.

Bitcoin is officially bigger than PayPal by market cap

In fact, the volume of searches is only at its fourth highest level in 2020, lagging behind the spikes in interest that coincided with the „Black Thursday“ crash in March, the Bitcoin halving in May, and the BTC break over USD 10,000 in May.

A New York airport uses a blockchain app to provide travelers with information about the cleanliness of surfaces.

In the course of the Corona crisis, the airport in Albany, New York, USA, is using the “Wellness Trace App” to check the cleanliness of surfaces and objects at Albany Airport

The app, which emerged from a collaboration between General Electric (GE), TE-FOOD and Eurofins, is intended to make travel safe even in times of the corona pandemic. The blockchain system from Microsoft Azure serves as the basic framework.

The blockchain app provides travelers with information about the cleanliness of objects and surfaces in advance, even before they come into contact with them. All the travelers have to do is scan in QR codes with their smartphones, which are located all over the airport.

In addition, users can enter their personal impression of the cleanliness of a respective surface in the app and save it for others

As Albany Airport states, the experiment with the app will initially run for three months, with airport employees being tasked with using the app to ensure proper cleanliness in and around the airport in accordance with Corona regulations. To make the relevant information accessible, more than 45 stickers with the corresponding QR codes were distributed.

Philip Calderone, CEO of Albany Airport Regulators, said that „using the innovative GE Wellness Trace app is a big step in enabling safe travel in times of pandemic through digital solutions“.

Other countries are now also using blockchain technology to fight the coronavirus.

For example, a city in Singapore uses blockchain technology to issue a digital health passport. Thanks to the joint project by SGInnovate and Accredify, the pandemic could be contained even better.

The Singapore-based company Perlin has another project, the block chain-based smartphone app „ICC AOKpass“ developed , which in turn facilitates the communication of the infection status.

La Comisión Federal de Comercio de EE. UU. Está reembolsando a unas 8.000 víctimas que perdieron dinero al invertir en dos estafas de bitcoins. Los esquemas fraudulentos prometieron que los inversores podrían convertir sus pagos en criptomonedas de aproximadamente $ 100 en $ 80,000 en ingresos mensuales.

Las víctimas de los esquemas piramidales de Bitcoin obtienen reembolsos

La Comisión Federal de Comercio (FTC) ha comenzado a enviar reembolsos a las víctimas de dos estafas de inversión en criptomonedas: Bitcoin Funding Team y My7network.

Según un anuncio de la Bitcoin Circuit el miércoles, los dos esquemas „prometieron falsamente que los participantes podrían ganar grandes cantidades de dinero pagando criptomonedas como bitcoin o litecoin para inscribirse en los esquemas“. Sin embargo, la FTC detalló:

Bitcoin Funding Team y My7network eran esquemas de referencia en cadena que dependían del reclutamiento de nuevas personas para ganar dinero. De hecho, la mayoría de los participantes no recuperaron sus inversiones iniciales.

La FTC enviará 7,964 reembolsos a través de Paypal por un total de más de $ 470,000 a las víctimas de los dos esquemas a partir del 5 de noviembre

“El reembolso promedio es de aproximadamente $ 59. Los destinatarios que reciban un reembolso a través de Paypal tendrán 30 días para aceptar el pago ”, aclaró la FTC.

Los promotores de los dos esquemas, Thomas Dluca, Louis Gatto y Eric Pinkston, fueron cerrados en marzo de 2018. Afirmaron que Bitcoin Funding Team „podría convertir un pago equivalente a poco más de $ 100 en $ 80,000 en ingresos mensuales“, el La FTC explicó y agregó que los dos esquemas eran „esquemas de referencia en cadena, un tipo de esquema piramidal“.

La FTC alega que un cuarto acusado, Scott Chandler, promovió Bitcoin Funding Team y otro esquema engañoso de reclutamiento de criptomonedas llamado Jetcoin. Esta estafa afirmaba que los inversores podían duplicar su inversión en 50 días, pero la FTC dice que „el esquema no cumplió con estos reclamos y dejó de operar dentro de los dos meses posteriores al lanzamiento“.

Los acusados ​​violaron la „prohibición de la ley contra los actos engañosos“ de la FTC al tergiversar los esquemas de referencia en cadena como oportunidades genuinas de hacer dinero y al afirmar falsamente que los participantes podrían obtener ingresos sustanciales al participar en los tres esquemas, explicó la agencia federal.