Last week, a report on China’s Caixin financial news service sent wave of panic through the Chinese bitcoin community. The report, which is still unconfirmed by any official source, claimed that the People’s Bank of China would be introducing harsh new banking rules for bitcoin-related businesses on April 15. Not surprisingly, rumors and speculation have…
Last week, Chinese business newspaper Caixin reported that the People’s Bank of China had plans to ban all banks and third-party financial systems from working with the country’s 15 bitcoin exchanges. The rumor sent bitcoin prices into a steep plunge, dropping to around $450. Today, those rumors have a bit more fuel. Chinese exchange BTC38…
In February, the world’s first “bitcoin bank” Neo opened to much fanfare in Cyprus. Barely a month later, the stock price is in the gutter, stock trading on Havelock has been halted due to “unusual activity,” the company’s offices in Cyprus are shuttered, and CEO Danny Brewster is no longer in the country. There has…
Yesterday, a list of roughly 2,000 names and email addresses tied to Coinbase accounts was released by an unknown person to Pastebin. The post warned readers that “Coinbase provides your full transaction history to the FBI, FinCEN and IRS every day. They are under a gag order.” While the list does seem to contain valid…
Today marks the final day of normal operations for UK-based bitcoin exchange Bit121. The company explained via their website that they were not officially closing, but merely entering a period of “hibernation,” and hope to re-open “at some point in the near future.” While the closure of an exchange is difficult to see as good…
In a report published by Reuters today, former staffers at failed bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox claim that client funds were used to cover internal costs. In a series of exclusive interviews with reporters, the former staffers claimed that they had voiced concerns to CEO Mark Karpeles in early 2012, but that no changes were made. By…
With his Bitcoin Investment Trust rapidly gaining interest from curious mainstream investors, it’s no surprise that businesses want to talk to Barry Silbert. What is surprising, however, are the kinds of businesses who are now knocking on his door. Earlier today, Silbert posted this tweet, hinting at what may be the strongest indicator yet of…
In a research paper titled “Bitcoin Transaction Malleability and MtGox” posted to the arXiv archive yesterday, authors Christian Decker and Roger Wattenhofer determined that Mt.Gox could not have lost 850,000 bitcoins through a transaction malleability glitch in the site’s code. Instead, the researchers note that an attack of that scale has never taken place, and…
The venture capital world has been spreading their money around the bitcoin ecosystem in a big way this week. While much the attention is understandably going to the $17 million raised by Circle, two smaller VC investments may have even bigger impacts in the coming months. San Francisco-based bitcoin exchange Kraken has raised $5 million…
Earlier this month, Canadian virtual currency exchange Vault of Satoshi announced it was ceasing all U.S. currency transactions due to ongoing issues with regulators. In recent weeks, the exchange has been focused on becoming a legitimate financial institution in Canada, even though there are few formal rules for how bitcoin fits into Canadian banking law….