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…
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…
Earlier this week, Argentina’s central bank (BCRA) issed a stern warning about the risks of virtual currencies. Although this is a fairly typical attitude towards bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from central banks across the world, in Argentina the context is different. Argentina’s peso has seen 100% inflation in the last year, and the massive and…
San Francisco-based bitcoin mining hardware maker BitFury announced today that it had secured a new round of financing worth $20 million dollars. Investors in the new round included Binary Financial, Crypto Currency Partners, Georgian Co-Investment Fund (GCF), Queensbridge Venture Partners and ZAD Investment Company. Angel investors Bill Tai and Jonathan Teo were also involved in…
As bitcoin’s current rally heads into its 10th day, prices have skyrocketed up from yesterday’s $570 range to well above $600. Average prices have risen 34% from the previous month’s stagnant $440 range. Bitcoin prices haven’t been above the $600 threshold since March 21, as ongoing downward pressure from Chinese regulators and other factors pushed…
In a report published today on Bloomberg, banking insiders in the Netherlands hinted at growing interest in working with bitcoin-based businesses. With a massive amount of global attention now directed at bitcoin-based payment systems, Dutch banks are becoming interested largely because their most innovative customers are. The report quoted a recent statement by Mark Buitenhek,…
As lofty as the bitcoin community’s planet-changing ambitions can be, the mainstream investment world is still focused on one thing: The bottom line. Trading volumes and prices can be manipulated; merchant acceptance and successful conferences can be little more than well-executed publicity. What counts, at least as far as Wall Street is concerned, is how…
Last week, Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn and Richard Muirhead of Firestartr subjected U.K.-based bitcoin exchange Bitstamp to a proof-of-reserve audit. Bitstamp is widely thought to be the largest bitcoin exchange in the world in terms of trading volume, and is under increasing scrutiny from investors to verify its deposits as bitcoin gains mainstream attention. According…
Speaking on the Fox Business segment “Opening Bell”, Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne explained his long-term view for the virtual currency. During a discussion about the overall state of the online retail economy, host Maria Bartiromo asked Byrne “Where’s the money [in bitcoin]?” “Bitcoin is tiny at this point, but it’s growing about 25% a month,”…
Online financial-services provider Fidor Bank announced a new partnership with European bitcoin payment processor BIPS, further increasing it’s “peer-to-peer banking” network. Earlier this month, Fidor announced it would be integrating the decentralized, “currency agnostic” trustless exchange system developed by Ripple Labs, but the BIPS partnership is the first true cryptocurrency connection for the Germany-based bank….