Coin News

CaVirtex, one of the oldest and largest Canadian Bitcoin exchanges, disabled Bitcoin withdrawals yesterday. CaVirtex informed their twitter followers of the inconvenience via tweet. Litecoin withdrawals are still allowed, which leads some to believe that CaVirtex hasn’t run with funds and is just experiencing a delay. CaVirtex did not give any specific timeline for when […]

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CaVirtex, one of the oldest and largest Canadian Bitcoin exchanges, disabled Bitcoin withdrawals yesterday. CaVirtex informed their twitter followers of the inconvenience via tweet. Litecoin withdrawals are still allowed, which leads some to believe that CaVirtex hasn’t run with funds and is just experiencing a delay. CaVirtex did not give any specific timeline for when […]

The post Canadian Bitcoin Exchange CaVirtex Still Not Allowing BTC Withdrawals appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

 TechCrunch Radio Tuesday begins now. We’ll be back yet again tonight to discuss the goings on of the tech world on TechCrunch Radio on Sirius XM 102 Indie. HP is splitting the H from the P (not really, but they are definitely splitting into two separate companies), and Bitcoin had a weird week, so we’ll probably talk about that. We’re also slightly fascinated by the uptick… Read More

Minecraft gamers kicked into real-life survival mode on Sunday when a fellow player who IDed himself as a teen "crippled" by depression and social anxiety posted desperate messages on Reddit.

This week's roundup includes an interview with the FTC and a look inside pen-and-paper bitcoin mining.

If Bitcoin has its enfant terrible, Amir Taaki is it. Living on a shoestring-budget in squats throughout Europe, Taaki is leading the anarchist Bitcoin-countermovement known as unSystem, has built the alternative Bitcoin-implementation Libbitcoin, and helped to invent the peer-to-peer marketplace DarkMarket (which is taken over and re-branded as OpenBazaar). He is currently best-known as the front-man of the Dark Wallet, a Bitcoin-wallet designed to obfuscate Bitcoin users’ identities. Amir, your main focus within the Bitcoin-sphere is clearly on the anonymous features of Bitcoin, and keeping the internetcurrency that way. Why do you care about this so much? Anonymity is important because the current financial system is rigged against us. Right now the state steals from people through taxes and inflation, […]

The post ‘The Bitcoin-technology by itself is worth nothing'; an interview with Dark Wallet front-man Amir Taaki appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Chinese investment in foreign commercial real estate is booming.

Hilton Worldwide Holdings just announced it is selling the iconic Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan to the Anbang Insurance Group of China for $1.95 billion. As part of the deal, Hilton has signed on to manage the hotel for the next 100 years and Anbang has committed to major renovations to the building.

While on its face the deal seems bizarre, it isn’t that far from being an extension of the boom in luxury residential real estate in Manhattan. Instead of parking money in one luxury Manhattan condo and getting someone to rent it out, Anbang bought a whole city block worth of real estate (some of which can be converted into condos!) and is going to get Hilton to manage it for them (nearly) indefinitely. It has the added bonus of being a trophy property. 

Since the Chinese government announced its Go Global policy in 2012, encouraging Chinese companies to invest overseas, there’s been a rush into both residential and commercial properties. The less rosy way to frame it is China is experiencing a huge amount of capital flight, and U.S. real estate is a great place to park money that wealthy Chinese want to keep out of the country. Last year, the Shanghai-based Fosun International Ltd. made a splash when it bought One Chase Manhattan Plaza from JPMorgan for $725 billion.

Global direct real estate investment volumes were $165 billion in the third quarter — a 4% increase over Q2 and 13% more than the third quarter of 2013 — according to Jones Lang LaSalle. Earlier this year, JLL noted that Chinese buyers purchased $7.6 billion in foreign commercial real estate in 2013, a 125 percent increase from the year before. That number could reach $10 billion in 2014.

As for Anbang itself: It’s a relatively minor Chinese insurance company, which has recently also branched into financial services. Bruce Einhorn writes in Businessweek that, “in a market dominated by big, state-owned insurers, Anbang until recently was an extremely minor player. At the end of 2013, its share of life-insurance premiums was 0.1 percent.” It has recently experienced a lot of growth, but still only has 3.6 percent market share in China. According to its English language website, Anbang has assets of 700 billion yuan (about $114 billion).

The question that remains unanswered is how Anbang is going to pay for its new property. There’s no word in reports on the deal about financing. Back in July, Andrew Collier, managing director at Orient Capital Research floated the idea that loans from the Chinese shadow banking sector — where a lot of the financing for foreign deals is coming from — could cripple the international property markets if they started going bad.

This deal is drawing some comparisons to the $2 billion stake the Mitsubishi Company took in Rockefeller Center back in 1989. The Mitsubishi walked away from the investment in 1995 after the partnerships through which it owned the group of properties filed for bankruptcy protection.

While this is the largest U.S. hotel transaction on record, according to the WSJ, the sale price per room (roughly $1.4 million) was actually a lot lower than the $570 million sale of the Plaza to the Indian Sahara group back in 2012, which came out to more than $2 million per room. The Plaza is reportedly on the market again, as of August.

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Airbitz has launched an upgraded wallet with cloud-enabled encryption, a merchant directory and wireless transactions.

LAS VEGAS, NV – October 7, 2014 – Airbitz today announced the release of its integrated mobile bitcoin wallet and business directory, now with 3,200+ listings and coverage in 14 countries, at Inside Bitcoins Las Vegas. Airbitz CEO Paul Puey will present a session on “Bitcoin Wallets: Balancing Security, Privacy, and Ease of Use” at the conference on October 7th at 2:00PM. “In order to increase adoption of bitcoin and grow our ecosystem, we recognized the need to make transactions easier and more approachable,” said Airbitz CEO Paul Puey. “This was our impetus in creating a product with a carefully crafted UI and user experience, and we are extremely proud to bring the Airbitz wallet and directory to the masses.” […]

The post Airbitz Launches Mobile Bitcoin Wallet Designed for Mainstream Consumers San Diego Startup Brings Bitcoin User Experience and Security to New Levels appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Bitcoin Foundation’s Financial Standards Working Group will focus on applying for ISO 4217 approval for a Bitcoin currency code as well as drawing up recommendations for a Bitcoin currency symbol and Bitcoin subunits. The Financial Standards Working Group is chaired by Beth Moses, an aerospace engineer, formerly with NASA and now with Virgin Galactic. […]

The post Bitcoin Foundation Financial Standards Working Group appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Though the price of Bitcoin is shaky, and the mood of Bitcoiners is somber, Jason King is throwing quite a party down in Orlando, Florida. Coins in the Kingdom has come to an end after a packed weekend of speakers whose topics spanned the gamut of introductory programming and usage of Storj (Shawn Wilkinson) to the pragmatic applications of smart contracts by a seasoned attorney (Pamela Morgan). The atmosphere of the event was unique in the world of conferences in that: it is located in the heart of American consumerism, it embraces the simplicity of the world as espoused by Disney, and spent most of the weekend showcasing speakers who decry the absurdity of this surrounding circus. Lower bitcoin prices […]

The post Coins In The Kingdom Wrap Up appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The world’s largest Bitcoin wallet service just sealed a record venture capital deal. Backers include none other than billionaire Richard Branson

The Bitcoin 2.0 scene is often talked about as being the next necessary step in the evolution of an autonomous society. It’s the world of decentralized applications that run on top of Bitcoin‘s underlying technology, the block chain. Some even say the block chain itself is the most important technology to come out of Bitcoin. Also […]

The post Interview with DApps Fund Managing Partner Sam Yilmaz appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The Bitcoin Foundation's Financial Standards Working Group has shed more light on its priorities for the next two quarters.

London, 7 October 2014 – Blockchain, the world’s leading bitcoin wallet, today announced that it has raised over $30 million of capital in a Series A financing co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Wicklow Capital. Blockchain has been bootstrapped since it was founded by Ben Reeves in 2011; this constitutes its first outside financing round. The UK-based company is the largest Bitcoin wallet in the world, with 2.3M consumer wallets, more than the rest of the industry combined. It is adding new wallets faster than any other Bitcoin wallet and since the beginning of the year has doubled its user base and surpassed US$ 26 billion in transaction volume. “The company has grown exponentially in every way over the last […]

The post Blockchain Raises Over $30M in its First Financing appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin Price advance has held above $300 and is currently trading around the levels discussed in yesterday’s analysis. To strengthen the case for advance price must now proceed to $360. The details of the 30,000 BTC sell order placed below market value have some interesting implications that are considered in today’s analysis. Bitcoin Price Holding […]

The post Bitcoin Price, Gold Hold Steady appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Apple computer’s return from ashes in 1997 began in the public’s mind with one wildly successful ad campaign: “Think Different”. The story for how the ad campaign came together can be found on forbes.com. Back then, the hemorrhaging Apple Computer Corporation desperately hired back Steve Jobs, who led the company back from the ashes in spectacular fashion. The Apple PCs were then perceived as toys. Yet he established them as a counter-culture revolution. To be taken seriously by business and the public, it needed respect. It needed to show to the world how it was…different. It was an alternative. Today, Apple is as mainstream as apple pie. They are now the fifth biggest company listed in The Fortune 500.  How long […]

The post Here’s to the Crazy Ones – of Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

$60m of new venture capital was invested in bitcoin startups this quarter, despite a sharp drop in price.

Acromobile and Bitnet announced that Acromobile Payments is integrating with Bitnet’s platform to offer merchants the ability to accept Bitcoin payments. With this partnership, Acromobile and Bitnet are providing sellers with a new way to drive more customers to their business, simplify their operations, and process payments faster and cheaper. Jason Masciarelli, Founder at Acromobile, […]

The post Acromobile And Bitnet Enable Mobile Merchants to Easily Accept Bitcoin Payments appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

First Global Credit aims to let traders invest their bitcoin holdings in derivatives that mimic stock trading.

Commissioner-designate Lord Jonathan Hill is expected to discuss digital currencies during a hearing before the European Parliament this week.

ZeusMiner recently launched their ZeusHash cloudmining platform that features both GH/s for BTC mining and MH/s for LTC mining. ZeusMiner was kind enough to provide CCN with a ZeusHash beta account to test out the new platform. I was blown away by the new platform; it is by far the cleanest cloudhashing platform that I have […]

The post ZeusMiner Has Signed Up Thousands for New Cloudmining Platform: ZeusHash appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

ZeusMiner recently launched their ZeusHash cloudmining platform that features both GH/s for BTC mining and MH/s for LTC mining. ZeusMiner was kind enough to provide CCN with a ZeusHash beta account to test out the new platform. I was blown away by the new platform; it is by far the cleanest cloudhashing platform that I have […]

The post ZeusMiner Has Signed Up Thousands for New Cloudmining Platform: ZeusHash appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

When you first lay eyes on the DarkWallet, you know you’re looking at something unique. For starters, it’s literally dark—the background is jet black. But the color theme is just the beginning of what sets this new privacy tool apart from all other wallets. For starters, the DarkWallet offers something that no other crypto wallet has before: a stealth Bitcoin address. Because Bitcoin’s ledger of ownership, the blockchain, is available for all to see, the current balance and the full transaction history of any address is totally public. If your Bitcoin address is publically known, you have little privacy. That’s where a DarkWallet stealth address comes in. A stealth address is 102 characters long (whereas a traditional Bitcoin address is […]

The post Go Ahead – Peer Inside the DarkWallet appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Blockchain, the providers of the popular blockchain explorer and Bitcoin wallet, announced that they have closed a Series A round of over 30M of growth capital, co-lead by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Wicklow Capital. Jeremy Liew and his team at Lightspeed Venture Partners were one of the very first Silicon Valley firms to begin actively […]

The post Blockchain Announces Growth, the Future and New Partners appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

 Here comes another mega funding round in the bitcoin space. The world’s largest bitcoin wallet provider, Blockchain, has been a bootstrapped startup so far. But the startup eventually accepted VC money, raising “over $30 million” from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Wicklow Capital and others. Read More

On Friday afternoon, Bitcoin was selling at well over $350, and after a rough weekend where Bitcoin fell well under $300, BTC has almost completely rebounded to it’s previous level.  It’s what happened over the weekend that has remained a mystery, until now. According to Alex Wilhelm of TechCrunch.com, a massive singular sell order for […]

The post Bitcoin Fall Caused By A Single Sell Order? appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Popular wallet and data source Blockchain has closed one of the biggest funding rounds in bitcoin history, at $30.5m.

With deep Wall Street experience, SolidX's team is bringing a financial tool called the 'total return swap' to bitcoin.

Overstock.com’s CEO, Patrick Byrne, announced today at Inside Bitcoins in Las Vegas, Nevada that he intends to reinvent the stock market by using blockchain technology. Based on the bitcoin digital currency, Byrne’s project, code-named “Medici” will allow large retailers to issue their corporate stock over the Internet using “cryptosecurity” software. Byrne’s move seeks to disrupt traditional stock exchanges such as the NASDAQ by allowing any company can potentially issue financial securities over the Internet with these tools. Byrne took to the stage at the Inside Bitcoins to bring attendees through the process of the incredibly centralized and, what he considers to be highly fraudulent, world of stock market trading and settlement. Many have been made aware of the severely fraudulent […]

The post Overstock.com Seeks To Build New Stock Market appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Popular cryptocurrency exchange MintPal has been trying to migrate to their Version Two platform since Friday, October 3. The platform is a highly trafficked source of bitcoin and alternative coin trading, but was not functioning up until Monday due to unforeseen issues on the backend. At the beginning of the migration, the Moopay LTD team, […]

The post Cryptocurrency Exchange MintPal Offline Longer Than Expected; Back now appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.