TZERO, the blockchain subsidiary of retail giant Overstock, has missed its mid-April goal for a $100 million fund raise from Chinese investment firm GSR Capital and Singaporean private equity firm Makara Capital. The firm announced the development in a shareholder letter on April 18. In the letter, Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne noted that while the diligence processes for both firms were going smoothly, “the parties will not have a definitive deal in place by the mid-April target.” Byrne added: “tZERO plans to continue facilitating Makara’s diligence, but is not under any exclusivity with Makara or GSR and has retained advisors …

The CEO of retail giant Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne, noted the potential profitability of the firm’s retail arm in its Q4 2018 earnings conference call on March 18. Byrne’s statements indicate that Overstock may not be divesting from its retail wing as soon as was previously indicated. Last year, Byrne reportedly told The Wall Street Journal that Overstock would sell off its retail wing sometime in early 2019. During the section of the conference call devoted to retail, Byrne said that “this is going to be a year of explosive growth,” and that the retail wing would “spit out cash.” The …

Canadian online retailer Overstock.com said it would counter its significant losses for 2018 with a return to profits this year in its Q4 earnings report released on March 18. Overstock, which is famous as being one of the first major retailers to accept Bitcoin (BTC), saw profitability dive through last year as a result of a change of strategy, something CEO Patrick Byrne says he will now reverse. “Our retail arm lost money last year because I gunned things in an attempt to create a conventional high-growth/money losing e-commerce business, but the losses were nauseating and we reverted back to …

Retail giant Overstock.com, Inc.’s blockchain subsidiary, Medici Ventures, has acquired a stake in blockchain banking platform Bankorus, according to a press release published on March 11. Medici Ventures has purchased a 5.1 percent stake in Bankorus, a blockchain banking platform that enables both individuals and institutions to buy, sell, lend and store digital assets. Jonathan Johnson, president of Medici Ventures, said that “the addition of Bankorus to Medici Ventures’ portfolio of companies will further our work in building the foundation of a blockchain-based technology stack for society.” The financial details of the acquisition were not forthcoming. Medici Ventures has been …

Chinese investment firm GSR Capital and Singaporean private equity firm Makara Capital will co-lead an investment of up to $100 million in tZERO, according to a press release on March 1. TZero is United States retail giant Overstock’s crypto-related subsidiary company. Overstock founder and CEO Patrick Byrne revealed that GSR and Makara have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to make the investment in tZERO’s common stock in April. According to Byrne, the investment will support diligence, regulatory approval, and negotiation of binding contracts, as well as assist with tZERO’s expansion into Asia and other regions. Having first announced the …

The founder and CEO of retail giant Overstock.com Patrick Byrne says that blockchain can make government “superefficient and incapable of being bribed,” in an interview with MarketWatch published on Feb. 12. Byrne reportedly said that government services have reached a turning point for a fundamental change of their structure, and blockchain technology, in his opinion, will be the optimal solution. Byrne proposed “building government-as-a-service, a set of applications and companies that, between them, can bring blockchain to different services that governments provide,” which will eventually “make government superefficient, inexpensive and incapable of being bribed.” He stated: “We could step into …

Retail giant Overstock.com’s blockchain-based land registry subsidiary has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Mexico to develop a digital land records platform. The news was revealed in a press release published by Nasdaq on Feb. 4. Under the agreement, Medici Land Governance (MLG) and the municipality of Tulum in Quintana Roo will jointly develop a digital platform for collecting real property ownership data issuing certificates of title to land and related proceedings. At a later stage, the parties will purportedly develop a method of automatically securing and storing land administration transactions and updates. Víctor Mas Tah, mayor of the …

E-commerce giant Overstock.com’s cryptocurrency subsidiary tZERO announced that secondary trading of tZERO tokens is now live, according to a press release published Jan. 24. Per the release, accredited investors can trade the security tokens through a digital securities brokerage account at Dinosaur Financial Group, which will act as a broker-dealer. Dinosaur partnered with tZERO subsidiary PRO Securities, which provides an alternative trading system for secondary trading of tZERO security tokens. CEO of tZERO Saum Noursalehi said: “The world of security tokens has lacked a regulated venue for secondary trading. The trading of our own security tokens is the crossing of …

The security token exchange subsidiary of e-commerce retail giant Overstock, tZero, has started releasing control of its tokens, according to a letter to investors released on Jan. 11. Last August, the subsidiary had announced that its security token offering would close, having raised $134 million out of the maximum amount of $250 million previously specified. In June 2018, tZero had also signed a letter of with investment company GSR Capital for the purchase of $160 million in tZero Security Tokens. According to tZero CEO Saum Noursalehi’s letter, investors now have the option of choosing where to hold their security tokens, …

E-commerce giant Overstock.com’s cryptocurrency subsidiary tZERO has filed a patent for a “crypto integration platform” for trading digital assets. The patent was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Jan. 1. The patent filing describes a system that would be able to receive orders to trade “digital transactional items” — such as securities, tokens, digital shares, cash equivalents and digital assets — from broker-dealers and then translate the orders into crypto orders on a digital exchange. The platform reportedly aggregates various market data from cryptocurrency exchanges and “locate[s] the best price in the crypto market for the …

United States retailer Overstock.com has announced it will pay part of its business taxes in the state of Ohio using Bitcoin (BTC), according to an announcement on its website Jan. 3. Overstock will cover commercial activity taxes (CAT) with Bitcoin starting February, using the recently launched cryptocurrency taxpayer platform, OhioCrypto.com. The company’s CEO and founder Patrick Byrne — a longtime crypto enthusiast — said in the announcement that governmental adoption of cryptocurrencies and other emerging technologies, accompanied by friendly legislation, is "the best way to ensure the U.S. does not lose our place at the forefront of the ever-advancing global …

Wyoming has continued its blockchain integration via a new partnership with online retailer Overstock targeting land records, a press release confirmed Dec. 20. Signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with administrators in Teton County, Overstock subsidiary Medici Land Governance will seek to develop and release a “blockchain-based land records and information platform” next year. “We are proud to see Wyoming lead the way in implementing cutting-edge technologies, such as blockchain, into existing markets like land registry,” Sherry Daigle, Teton County’s county clerk commented. She added: “With Medici Land Governance’s expertise, we can create a reliable property registry system in Teton …