NEW YORK, September 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
According to a market report from Critical Future, the global blockchain market size is expected to grow at a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 62.61% to reach USD 10.1 Billion by 2024, up from USD
548.2 Million in 2018. About 44 different industries are set to adopt the blockchain technology, including banking,
logistics, charity, education, healthcare, human resources, public sector, music, law enforcement, sports, social media, and
gaming. As the number of firms using blockchain technology increase, the report expects that the blockchain will have an economic
impact of USD 120 Billion by 2024. Victory Square Technologies Inc. (OTC: VSQTF), Banco Bilbao
Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (NYSE: BBVA), Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG), HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (OTC: HVBTF), NXT-ID,
Inc. (NASDAQ: NXTD).
The financial sector is expected to have significant investment in blockchain. According to a report published by New
Greenwich Associate, the financial services industry is spending about USD 1.7 Billion per year on
blockchain as more banks and other financial firms start to apply blockchain in their products. The study shows that blockchain
budgets increased 67% in 2017. Richard Johnson, Vice President of Greenwich Associates Market
Structure and Technology practice, said, "More than half the executives we interviewed told us that implementing DLT was harder
than they expected. Nevertheless, more than three-quarters of projects currently under development are expected to be live within
two years."
Victory Square Technologies Inc. (OTCQX: VSQTF) is also listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker
(CSE: VST). Just this morning, the Company announced breaking news that it, "is providing seed capital to establish Grow Tech
Labs as a dynamic business accelerator in the cannabis sector. It will be focused on Canadian and international companies
innovating in the medical and recreational cannabis industry.
This marks the latest in a series of cannabis-related investments which Victory Square has made over the past three years. In
2015-16, the Company worked with cannabis pioneers and thought leaders Tantalus Labs, which opened Canada's first closed-system greenhouse and launched a new phase of agricultural medical cannabis production
in Canada (http://www.tantaluslabs.com).
Earlier this year, Victory Square announced a strategic partnership with Cannabis Wise to establish a national cannabis
certification program for Canada's post-prohibition marketplace (http://www.cannabiswise.com).
"We're closely watching and engaged in what is a fast-moving marketplace for medical and recreational cannabis and
appreciative of what innovation in the space will mean to the industry in British Columbia and
across Canada," said Shafin Diamond Tejani, CEO of Victory Square
Technologies.
Tejani noted the Grow Tech Labs Accelerator will be formally launched next month, in association with the legalization of
cannabis in Canada. Additional investments and project partners will be announced over the
coming weeks and months.
"Grow Tech Labs will attract a new and diverse generation of cannabis sector leaders to Vancouver through world-class programs that apply innovative technology and deliver education rooted in
entrepreneurship, mentorship and social responsibility," said Tejani. "We look forward to seeing Grow Tech Labs push the envelope
of best practices in the field, from opportunities for female entrepreneurs and Indigenous companies to collaborative sector-wide
partnerships."
To help reaffirm British Columbia's status as a global cannabis capital for excellence and
innovation, Grow Tech Labs will:
• Provide direct support, access to capital, mentorship and licensed space to locate innovative startup Canadian companies in
BC.
• Attract international investment to BC's cannabis sector.
• Accelerate the participation of small BC producers and processors in the legal marketplace.
• Establish dedicated programming for female-founded and Indigenous-founded/owned companies.
• Establish partnerships with community, business and education organizations.
Victory Square is a technology accelerator that uses its experience, expertise and resources to help grow and scale its 23
portfolio companies who are working on innovative and disruptive projects in every sector of the global economy, including
Finance, Health, Cannabis, Real Estate, Insurance, Entertainment and Education.
The Company provides investors with a curated portfolio of emerging technology companies focused on: Artificial Intelligence
("AI"), Blockchain, Esports, Virtual Reality ("VR"), and Augmented Reality ("AR"), with the ability to provide significant upside
to shareholders through monetization strategies that include IPO's, RTO's, and M&A activity."
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (NYSE: BBVA) is a global financial group that operates a customer-focused retail
business model, offering clients a comprehensive range of financial and non-financial products and services around the world.
BBVA recently announced that it has successfully completed the first global corporate loan transaction using blockchain
technology from the negotiation of the deal to its signing, in line with their close collaboration to leverage cutting-edge
technologies to streamline business processes. The pilot enabled the closing of an EUR 75 Million
loan using a solution developed by BBVA based on distributed ledger technology (DLT). This demonstrates how the BBVA continues to
incorporate innovative and disruptive technology into its customer solutions, including those products that up to now have seen
limited digital innovation, as is the case with wholesale finance. As for Indra, the project strengthens its blockchain
expertise, in this case applied to corporate financing, in line with its successful track record of blockchain implementations in
real-life scenarios, and with its leading position as a provider of digital-transformation products and solutions to companies
and institutions, through its Minsait business unit.
Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) is redefining business communications. Upco International Inc. recently announced that
it has contracted with Nexmo Inc., a subsidiary of Vonage Holdings Corporation, to provide SMS Authentication services for its
mobile platform. Nexmo is a leading cloud Communications Platform as a Service ("CPaaS") provider, offering APIs for SMS, voice,
and phone verifications to facilitate communications worldwide, and a range of other solutions to the mobile communications
sector. SMS Authentication via Nexmo's Verify API represents a major enhancement to Upco's current mobile phone and payment
offerings, and an important foundational step in the staged delivery of a full-featured international invoice/ payment /
exchange/ transfer service. The Nexmo solution will provide two-factor authentication of users who have downloaded Upco's
application. The phone number plus a token associating that number to the phone will be retained in Upco's blockchain database.
Corollary benefits, additional to authentication, will include spam and hack protection, and improved control over phone number
association (ensuring that calls reach the intended recipient).
HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (OTC: HVBTF) is a growth-oriented, TSX.V-listed company building a bridge from the
blockchain sector to traditional capital markets. HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. recently announced its results for the first
quarter ended June 30th, 2018. For the period ended June
30th, 2018, HIVE's gross mining margin was 60%, with income from mining digital currency per average megawatt
of USD 485,000. First quarter income from digital currency mining was produced from an average of
21.98 MW of production capacity, with Sweden Phase 3 coming online on April 30th, 2018,
increasing total capacity to 24.2 MW in operation as at June 30th, 2018. "I remain
pleased with the progress made by HIVE on the operational front and in regard to our financial position. We continue to deploy
capital and have added an additional 6.8 megawatts of capacity in Sweden as well as closed the
acquisition of Kolos in the quarter. Financially, HIVE generated positive cash from operations and took another step forward in
growing the business," said Harry Pokrandt, Chief Executive Officer and Director of HIVE. "Our
financial position has advanced despite challenging market conditions which have seen major cryptocurrencies come under pressure
this year. We remain well capitalized and well positioned to achieve our goals of profitable deployment of capital to maintain
our leadership position in the blockchain infrastructure industry."
NXT-ID, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXTD) provides a comprehensive platform of technology products and services that enable the
Internet of Things (IoT). Fit Pay, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of NXT-ID, Inc., announced earlier this year that it was
accepting pre-orders for Flip™, a new contactless payment device that will enable cryptocurrency holders to use the value of
their currency to make purchases at millions of retail locations. The new device, which was announced earlier this month, uses
value exchanged from cryptocurrency to make traditional payment transactions. Flip's near field communication (NFC) antenna
allows it to transact payments at any retail point of sale location that accepts contactless payments. Flip will store a
preloaded amount of U.S. dollars that are exchanged from the user's existing cryptocurrency account. It includes a digital wallet
that allows the user to set how much value they would like their Flip to hold and when they would like it to reload. Flip does
not need to be charged. Initially, Flip will accept value exchanged from Bitcoin and will potentially expand to other
cryptocurrencies in the future. "NXT-ID's expansion into the cryptocurrency space is a natural extension of our leading edge
fintech capabilities," said Gino Pereira, Chief Executive Officer of NXT-ID. "In addition to
helping make crypto currencies more usable on a daily basis we are also pursuing applications for blockchain technology in our
core payment and healthcare businesses."
Subscribe Now! Watch us report LIVE https://www.youtube.com/FinancialBuzzMedia
Follow us on Twitter for real time Financial News Updates: https://twitter.com/financialbuzz
Follow and talk to us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/financialbuzz
Facebook Like Us to receive live feeds: https://www.facebook.com/Financialbuzz/
About FinancialBuzz.com
FinancialBuzz.com, a leading financial news informational web portal designed to provide the latest trends in Market News,
Investing News, Personal Finance, Politics, Entertainment, in-depth broadcasts on Stock News, Market Analysis and Company
Interviews. A pioneer in the financially driven digital space, video production and integration of social media,
FinancialBuzz.com creates 100% unique original content. FinancialBuzz.com also provides financial news PR dissemination,
branding, marketing and advertising for third parties for corporate news and original content through our unique media platform
that includes Newswire Delivery, Digital Advertising, Social Media Relations, Video Production, Broadcasting, and Financial
Publications.
Please Note: FinancialBuzz.com is not a financial advisory or advisor, investment advisor or broker-dealer and do not
undertake any activities that would require such registration. The information provided on http://www.FinancialBuzz.com (the 'Site') is either original financial news or paid advertisements provided
[exclusively] by our affiliates (sponsored content), FinancialBuzz.com, a financial news media and marketing firm enters into
media buys or service agreements with the companies which are the subject to the articles posted on the Site or other editorials
for advertising such companies. We are not an independent news media provider and therefore do not represent or warrant that the
information posted on the Site is accurate, unbiased or complete. FinancialBuzz.com receives fees for producing and presenting
high quality and sophisticated content on FinancialBuzz.com along with other financial news PR media services. FinancialBuzz.com
does not offer any personal opinions, recommendations or bias commentary as we purely incorporate public market information along
with financial and corporate news. FinancialBuzz.com only aggregates or regurgitates financial or corporate news through our
unique financial newswire and media platform. For Victory Square Technologies Inc. financial news dissemination and PR services,
FinancialBuzz.com has been compensated five thousand dollars by the company. Our fees may be either a flat cash sum or
negotiated number of securities of the companies featured on this editorial or site, or a combination thereof. The securities are
commonly paid in segments, of which a portion is received upon engagement and the balance is paid on or near the conclusion of
the engagement. FinancialBuzz.com will always disclose any compensation in securities or cash payments for financial news PR
advertising. FinancialBuzz.com does not undertake to update any of the information on the editorial or Site or continue to post
information about any companies the information contained herein is not intended to be used as the basis for investment decisions
and should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation. The information contained herein is not an offer or
solicitation to buy, hold or sell any security. FinancialBuzz.com, members and affiliates are not responsible for any gains or
losses that result from the opinions expressed on this editorial or Site, company profiles, quotations or in other materials or
presentations that it publishes electronically or in print. Investors accept full responsibility for any and all of their
investment decisions based on their own independent research and evaluation of their own investment goals, risk tolerance, and
financial condition. FinancialBuzz.com. By accessing this editorial and website and any pages thereof, you agree to be bound by
the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, as may be amended from time to time. None of the content issued by FinancialBuzz.com
constitutes a recommendation for any investor to purchase, hold or sell any particular security, pursue a particular investment
strategy or that any security is suitable for any investor. This publication is provided by FinancialBuzz.com. Each investor is
solely responsible for determining whether a particular security or investment strategy is suitable based on their objectives,
other securities holdings, financial situation needs, and tax status. You agree to consult with your investment advisor, tax and
legal consultant before making any investment decisions. We make no representations as to the completeness, accuracy or timeless
of the material provided. All materials are subject to change without notice. Information is obtained from sources believed to be
reliable, but its accuracy and completeness are not guaranteed. For our full disclaimer, disclosure and Terms of Use, please
visit: http://www.financialbuzz.com.
For further information:
Media Contact:
info@financialbuzz.com
+1-877-601-1879
Url: http://www.FinancialBuzz.com
SOURCE FinancialBuzz.com