As the year winds down and we look back on 2018 — The Mandala team is looking forward to 2019 and beyond.

A year of milestones in review:

Mandala Headquarters in Malta

Idea becomes reality with the Version 0.9 release of the Mandala Exchange

Massive functionality and user experience improvements are released in Version 0.9.8

Mandala begins listing tokens

Bitgo Wallet integration is completed

We couldn’t be prouder of the work our team has done to bring the Mandala vision to life. Our mission to connect the universe through blockchain and drive opportunity for the masses becomes a reality through the foundation being laid with continuous improvement central to our development cycle.

Check out the exchange and share your feedback! Let us know what you think!

With vast improvements to mobile functionality yet to come and features being developed and tested in the background, Version 1.0.0 of the Mandala Exchange is coming.

Malta Update

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) introduced the Virtual Financial Assets Act (VFAA) to “support the innovation and new technologies for financial services in the area of crypto-assets whilst ensuring effective investor protection, financial market integrity and financial stability.” As a Maltese based company, the MFSA is our governing body and compliance with the recently enacted VFAA is paramount. So how does this impact Mandala?

As a Distributed Ledger Technology exchange based in Malta, naturally we are subject to the newly enacted VFAA and will be required to run a Financial Instrument Test (FIT) for all DLT assets we intend to list, including our native token MDX. While this means we won’t be able to list all 2000+ coins and tokens in existence, we are confident there are still an abundance of options that will meet the criteria of the VFAA and generate tangible growth to the platform.

As we maintain and grow our established compliant foothold in Malta, our sights are also set at on-boarding the currently restricted countries as quickly as is logistically and legally feasible. Cutting corners and rushing decisions without properly evaluating the immediate and future implications is an area where we will not make sacrifices. Fortunately, we were recently able to remove 14 countries from that list and will continue to pursue applicable licenses where necessary.

With regards to the United States and US citizens, our initial plan for token flowback was through doing a Reg A+ offering in tandem with the Reg S exemption we raised under. There has been a lot of discussion specific to Reg A+ in the time since our crowdsale ended, and we want to clear up any lingering confusion and set the record straight on what needs to happen to legally on-board US participants.

Reg A+ permits private companies to raise capital from the public by issuing an offering circular. Reg A+ doesn’t mean that US citizens may use or trade on the exchange, it is simply an approval by the SEC to offer shares in a private company. The route of achieving token flowback through a Reg A+ offering is no longer being pursued as viable or applicable. We’re not now or ever intending to have another token offering, and therefore the usage of a Reg A+ offering is entirely unnecessary.

That being said, the path to US compliance is still a top priority that our team is adamantly working on. With the ever changing global regulatory landscape, Mandala is able to begin operations in Malta as we continue to work towards our mandate of global compliance and user-ship. In light of our strategic shift, the Mandala team is exploring numerous other options such as global compliance settlement providers to accomodate for US participants in the future. These settlement providers could also potentially allow us to create a secondary marketplace for security tokens as well. Through the initial discussions that we’ve had with potential partners, this type of infrastructure could be ready for trial by mid 2019.

Version 0.9.8 — What’s next?

With the extensive front and backend upgrades implemented to the Mandala Exchange, we are working to bring back some of the functionalities that required reworking with the transition to a more flexible react library and backend framework.

The Mandala community can look forward to much more development as we close out the year and start the next!

Functionality & Features in Development:

Day Mode

Multi-Language Support

Quick Trade Mode

Dashboard enhancements

Mobile responsive enhancements

Continued Coin and Token listings

Here’s looking to 2019 and Beyond

As we celebrate the 2018 milestones and make short term plans for the Mandala path forward, we’ve also updated our 2019 roadmap as we work to develop our unique feature suite, creating value for the MDX community!