Today is a significant day in crowdfunding arena. For those who are following the latest news, SEC has finally released the final rules on Title III to permit crowdfunding for investors, entrepreneurs, and startups. Meanwhile, here’s a curated weekly roundup of the breaking news and must-read thought leadership pieces on the crowd economy spotted by the Crowdsourcing Week team. Aside from crowdfunding updates, we also found hot topics on Bitcoin, sharing economy, and smart cities.

SEC adopts rules to permit crowdfunding

Here’s the latest scoop from SEC’s press release.

The final rules, Regulation Crowdfunding, permit individuals to invest in securities-based crowdfunding transactions subject to certain investment limits.  The rules also limit the amount of money an issuer can raise using the crowdfunding exemption, impose disclosure requirements on issuers for certain information about their business and securities offering, and create a regulatory framework for the broker-dealers and funding portals that facilitate the crowdfunding transactions.

Europe should embrace sharing economy says Commission

European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told a news conference Europe embrace sharing economy, Reuters reported.

BRUSSELS, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Europe should not shut itself off to “new business models” offered by the sharing economy and companies such as Uber, the EU’s executive Commission said on Wednesday as it launched plans to revamp the bloc’s single market.

The European Commission is trying to inject new impetus into the single market, which has helped the 28-nation EU to become the world’s largest economy, by opening up the crucial services sector, traditionally least open to cross-border competition.

Bitcoin price passes $300 after EU’s issued VAT ruling

Following one of the scoops last week – Bitcoin is exempted from sale taxes – this week’s price passes $300 after the surge, International Business Times reported.

Bitcoin last rose above the $300 mark during a brief price spike in July, however, the last time the cryptocurrency was valued at more than $300 for any prolonged period was in January. Since then, bitcoin’s price has fallen to as low as $177 (£116, €160), according to some price indexes. At the time of publication, CoinMarketCap had bitcoin’s price at $301 with a market cap of $4.4bn (£2.9bn, €4bn).

What PM Narendra Modi thinks about Smart City

PM Narendra Modi has included Chennai for a “renewed spree of urban development” project over the next five years, NDTV wrote.

According to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a ‘smart city’ with world-class infrastructure, sustainable environment and smart technological solutions, translates to “very high quality of life”.

According to Neelvanthi, a smart city would be a city that does not make her feel unwanted. She hopes of becoming part of a discussion to develop the city as a more inclusive one.

Epi’s Thoughts on SEC’s new ruling: both an opportunity and stumbling block for startups

Federico Guerrini, Forbes Contributor interviewed CSW’s Founder and CEO, Epi Ludvij Nekaj in the wake of SEC’s final rules to permit crowdfunding. Here’s a peek via Forbes.

Investors are going to look for traction in a startup so an equity crowdfunding round will not exactly qualify as seed round for most startups. This will be a challenge for many, not to say that there won’t be startups that fit this bill. For example, as my own company, Crowdsourcing Week is getting ready to embark on a equity crowdfunding raise on Crowdcube in UK, we are seeing that our global track record will become an important reason for our success, one that has come after more than two years of bootstrapping and hard work.

There are tons of fantastic stories out there. What else caught your eye this week? Did you come across some breaking news or a good thought piece?