Janet LePage – Co-Founder & CEO at Western Wealth Capital and Doug Mather – Executive Vice President, Acquisitions at Western Wealth Capital, a renowned real estate asset manager specializing in value-add multifamily rental housing investment properties in the U.S. Janet and Doug shared their views on how Canada and U.S. real estate markets differ, why you should care about the multifamily real estate asset class, and how to approach investing in the current inflationary environment.

As seen in:

NFT Watch: The Good, Great and Ugly

(January 12th, 2022: Vancouver, Canada) Uzair Merchant, one of India’s first Production Designers in Hollywood, is here to change the scope of creativity with his latest music video STARDUST, winner of ‘Best Music Video‘ and ‘Best Original Song’ at New York Movie Awards 2021 & Milan Gold Awards 2021. Additionally Stardust also won an honourable mention at the Los Angeles Film Awards 2021

Shot entirely on an iPhone in Dubai, Vancouver and India, Stardust is the original soundtrack to the upcoming Sci-fi show Black Rose, written and created by Uzair Merchant and directed by James Bamford (Producer/Director of blockbuster TV show Arrow). Produced by bKreativ Productions in Vancouver, the Pilot Script has won six international screenplay awards, followed by the video and Soundtrack have won six additional international awards. The graphic novel is also available to purchase on Amazon.

Stardust details Uzair’s heart-breaking journey during the pandemic when his father was in a state of immobility post-cardiac arrest. Uzair comments: “Stardust is a tussle between two worlds where the character is desperate for an escape to find answers, only to learn life has a flow of its own. It is to be observed, not fought with — the idea that we all come from Stardust and to Stardust we shall return.”

Stardust music video will be minted as an NFT and be offered for fractional NFTs at Finhaven Private Markets. Fractional NFTs are deemed securities and Finhaven Private Markets is a security token marketplace based in Canada, offering a regulated trading environment for investors.

DH Kim, CEO of Finhaven says: “NFTs will present many innovative possibilities beyond traditional asset ownership, and Finhaven is well positioned to provide the technology solution and the compliance framework required for investor protection and a better user experience. Most importantly, we are thrilled to work with Uzair Merchant and James Bamford, both talented film artists based in Vancouver, Canada to expand the territory of the film industry by leveraging blockchain technology, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.”

This novel security-NFT offering by Finhaven and Uzair will bring innovation and health to the NFT space by bridging the worlds of NFT, traditional finance, and art in a way that is sustainable and robust.

About Finhaven:

Finhaven simplifies financial market infrastructure and drive innovation using blockchain. Finhaven built Finhaven Investment Platform in its distributed network.

About Finhaven Private Markets:

Finhaven Private Markets (“FPM”) is operated by Finhaven Capital Inc., an exempt market dealer registered in six provinces of Canada from British Columbia to Quebec. Using Finhaven Investment Platform, FPM received marketplace and clearing agency authorizations in November 2020. FPM focuses on the Environmental, Social, Governance (“ESG”) aspects, in industries such as information and communications technology, biotechnology, clean energy, real estate, and sports & entertainment.

Press Contact:

marketing@finhaven.com

Background: Capital market volatility is revisiting us along with Fed’s tapering, and inflation & fear of debt (Evergrande and US debt ceiling).

Long-term view: Tapering by the Fed will end in the middle of 2022, and the US central bankers will consider hiking the Fed funds rate. With the inflationary trend lasting longer than expected, the urge to raise the rate is likely to grow in the coming months. The Fed started raising the Fed funds rate in late 2015. The average yield in 2015 was 0.13%, and reached 2.16% in 2019. S&P 500 performed at 13.5% per annum (dividend reinvested) from November of 2015 to February 2020. The return was not bad at all. (See chart above.) Because the Fed funds rate will rise with the economic growth, the rate increase should not be a fear factor.

Difference to note: Although global GDP had substantially contracted by 5.93% in 2020, and as the global economy is not fully recovered in 2021, we are still seeing inflation due to global supply chain disruption. This is a big difference from the circumstances of 2014 and 2015. The key variable will be how quickly the world returns to normal with Covid-19. This variable will determine whether the current inflationary trend will be temporary. Temporary inflation with the gradual yield increase will be ideal for capital markets.

US debt ceiling: It is politics, a Republican’s bargaining chip. Republicans will get what they want and lift the US debt ceiling.

Evergrande: China is a large, relatively closed, controlled economy. Therefore, the catastrophe of Evergrande will unfold in an orderly fashion, unlike that of Lehman Brothers. Remember, the Chinese government owns the land in China. In addition, such major lenders as Agricultural Bank of China, China Minsheng Banking Corp, and China Citic Banking Corp are strongly influenced by the Chinese government. The immediate implication of Evergrade’s trouble will be limited, but it is noteworthy that the change in the Chinese real estate market following this incident may negatively affect the growth trend of China.

A good leading indicator: South Korea’s exports is a good leading indicator for the global economy as Korea’s economy is driven by exports spanning various industries. Since April 2021, the data shows very strong growth, over 30% YoY in many weeks ranging from semiconductor and automobile to steel.

Please visit finhaven.com and finhaven.ca to invest in alternative assets including private securities and crypto-assets.

By now, you’re probably familiar with Gartner’s Hype Cycle, a visual representation of how momentum for new technology builds over time.

It’s something to keep in mind as we hear more and more about cryptocurrencies and where they will play in financial services and capital markets in the years ahead. After what some have called the crypto nuclear winter of 2018–2019, crypto is coming through the “trough of disillusionment” and it is now something you shouldn’t ignore — not simply because of the market price of the currencies themselves, but how cryptocurrency is becoming and will become a platform economy going forward.

We already live in a platform economy. Amazon, Google and Apple are the most visible examples of platform economies where these companies have created technology-driven platform models where they engage with users and consumers instead of making physical things. Platforms are about connections, data, sharing and utility for the user. We have many transaction platforms and investment platforms that are part of the digital economy. And as the platform economy evolves it will be more efficient if it has its own platform currency.

Which brings us back to cryptocurrencies. Remember, although we take fiat currencies as the norm (fiat currencies are government back currencies not linked to a commodity, such as gold), fiat currencies are only 50 years old. In August 1971, American President Richard Nixon decoupled US dollars from gold, establishing the beginning of fiat currencies on a global scale.

So don’t fall into the trap that the current fiat currency system will last forever. As platform-based digital economies continue to grow rapidly and without borders, it will be inevitable that they will look for an evolved currency environment to fuel and support their growth.

And that’s where cryptocurrencies come in. More on that in my next piece.

At Finhaven Private Markets, blockchain and digital securities are at the core of our technology and business. That puts us squarely in the conversation about NFTs (non-fungible tokens) — a trend capturing the imagination of investors and media alike.

Blockchain is revolutionizing the way contracts and agreements are created, and the way securities and assets trade hands between buyers and sellers. Digital securities or tokens rely on blockchain to verify their value and authenticity free from the need for paper-based contracts and share certificates.

NFTs are just that: tokens. If minted as a digital asset and offered for whole ownership, there’s no need to worry about securitization of the NFT. People are free to buy, sell and trade those tokens as they please.

But as soon as people look to create and market a NFT for real assets with investment contract elements and/or offer fractional ownership in a NFT, they have created a security. For example, if someone creates a NFT for a piece of art valued at $50 million and sells 50, $1 million shares, then one has created a security — and this requires the issuer to comply with the applicable securities laws and regulations.

And that’s where Finhaven Private Markets comes in. We are a registered exempt market dealer and marketplace with a platform that allows for buying and selling security tokens. We adhere to all regulations and compliance standards set by securities regulators from BC to Quebec in Canada. We are able to work with people looking to sell tokens, providing a simple turnkey solution in our digital marketplace.

When we launched Finhaven Private Markets, we were determined to expand the types of issuers beyond those offered by traditional capital markets. We are pushing into ESG investing (our first issuer, SolarPark, a south Korean solar manufacturer at the centre of that country’s investments in solar and renewable energy, is one example) and other securities to offer our investors a range of choice and opportunities. Some innovative variations of NFTs deemed as securities fit that bill.

The digital asset revolution is here and we’re excited to be at the centre of it.