Switzerland-based bitcoin brokerage and ATM operator Bitcoin Suisse AG was forced to halt plans to launch a new machine in Zurich today after the country’s financial authority, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), requested a review of the legal issues related to its proposed services. Bitcoin Suisse already has a handful of operational bitcoin…
Would-be bitcoin buyers in Poland now have a new option: The country’s first bitcoin ATM opened in Warsaw this week. According to a report on CoinDesk, the machine is housed at the recently opened Bitcoin Embassy Warsaw, and will be the first of a network of Lamassu-made machines across the country. Speaking with CoinDesk, Bitcoin…
Speaking with payment industry trade publication PaymentsSource, Xapo founder Wences Casares said his company’s much anticipated bitcoin-backed debit card will debut later this month. First announced in late April, the debit card is tied directly to a Xapo-hosted hot wallet, with coins instantly sold and converted to local currency. Although other bitcoin services offer debit…
It probably won’t surprise many people that the man behind Get Rich or Die Tryin’ has his eye on bitcoin. Best known in the mainstream as a Grammy-winning rapper with over 30 million album sales to his name, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson is almost equally famous in the investment world for a series of shrewd…
Earlier this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began an investigation into popular bitcoin-backed gambling site SatoshiDICE and its founder Erik Voorhees. The charges stem from the initial public offering of SatoshiDICE and related startup FeedZeBirds, both of which took place in the U.S. without registering as securities with federal authorities. Given that…
Like most major financial institutions, banking giant Citi publishes an in-house magazine to keep its customers and employees well versed in the major trends in finance and investment. The articles focus on the big topics likely to come up for investors over the next few quarters, and are written for a wide audience focused less…
Is Apple reversing its long-held blockade of bitcoin wallet apps? Earlier this year, the Cupertino, California-based technology behemoth effectively banned all cryptocurrency wallet apps, including those created by the most reputable companies in the bitcoin community. In most cases, Apple support simply cited a non-specific violation of its App Store guidelines. At yesterday’s Worldwide Developer’s…
In the bitcoin community, Boston University School of Management professor Mark T. Williams is often referred to by the sarcastic nickname “Professor Bitcorn.” He earned the nickname during some of his earliest anti-bitcoin presentations, occasionally mispronouncing bitcoin as “bitcorn” while demanding the virtual currency was wildly overvalued at the then-price of around $110. But that’s…
There’s a reason that the criminal underworld tends to be a violent, dangerous place to do business. It’s a closed system where everyone involved faces serious criminal consequences should something go wrong. Control of a city’s drug market is generally limited by a handful of suppliers, and they’ll all fight tooth and nail to maintain…
Breaking with a long tradition of boring weekends, bitcoin prices surged to the highest levels since early March over Saturday and Sunday. With average prices briefly breaking the $675 wall on Sunday, prices soon dropped back to the $625 range seen through most of Monday. On some smaller exchanges, such as Vault of Satoshi, bitcoin…