Coin News

Criticisms from bitcoin pundits in the press almost always boil down to a few common misconceptions, argues Jon Matonis.

On Monday morning, Bitcoin wallet provider Coinbase launched the first licensed US Bitcoin exchange.

The post Coinbase Opens ‘First Licensed Bitcoin Exchange in the U.S.’ appeared first on WIRED.

Congratulations, virtual currency world—New York wants to expressly regulate you! That’s how important Bitcoin and other digital currencies have become in recent years. And as we know, what happens in New York’s financial world often has implications for the wider world. All the recent attention New York has paid to virtual currency is raising many important legal questions, with potentially profound implications. This article will offer a brief survey of just some of them. A Cryptic History of Money Bitcoin is the latest and best known in a long line of digital currencies. The basic premise of digital currencies is that they try to establish a medium of exchange based on immutable mathematics, thus putting the currency beyond the control […]

The post Virtual Currencies Hit the World Stage: Bitcoin’s Ever-Evolving Legal Status appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Bitcoin price has advanced to above $300 and 1,800 CNY in vigorous trade today. At the time of writing the market is maintaining trade above the $300 mark, but it is unsure price will make another high before profit taking corrects price back down into the $200s. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with […]

The post Bitcoin Price Advances To Above $300 appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Security firms McAfee and Symantec have issued warnings on CTB-Locker – bitcoin-demanding ransomware that is now being propagated via spam.

Only six weeks after bitcoin exchange Safello announced local deposit options for UK customers, the firm's banking partner is closing its accounts.

Ripple Labs, the company behind the Ripple protocol and the Codius smart contract platform, is close to finalizing the deal on a new $30 Million USD funding round. Wall Street Journal’s Venture Capital blog reports that it has received confirmation from Ripple labs that it is working on closing the deal for its Series B […]

The post Ripple Labs Nears Close of $30 Million Funding Round appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Coinbase's much-anticipated US exchange is now live to consumers in 24 US states.

Backed by the NYSE, the thriving San Francisco startup beat the Winklevii to the punch and is now processing trades in 24 states

While the bitcoin price may have taken a beating recently, it appears to be bouncing back, crossing the $250 and $300 mark in quick succession.

Virtual currency bitcoin is starting to get its act together. A startup funded with $106 million from the New York Stock Exchange as well as banks and venture capital firms, is set to launch the first licensed US bitcoin exchange. Coinbase reckons it...

Apple's gain looks to be its rivals' big loss.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney worries that technology will disrupt the banking and financial services industry in just the same way that it has torn apart newspapers, radio and the postal service. His chief concern is that governments will fail to regulate it until it's too late — "an Uber-type situation," as he put it at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.

The news that foreign currency exchange startup TransferWise has raised $58 million in investment at a valuation of $1 billion proves that Carney is right to worry: Tech startups — or fintech startups, as they're called in Europe — are working as fast as they can to turn traditional banks into the steam-engine manufacturers of the 21st Century.

• See Business Insider's ranking of the 15 best fintech startups in Europe.

At Davos, Carney said he envisioned that tech companies might do to banks what Uber is doing to taxis: destroy their business before governments can get around to regulating them. The backstory with Uber is that in most cities, taxis are heavily regulated and licensed by local governments. This has created dozens of taxi monopolies and cartels that are able to charge high prices for low quality taxi services. Uber — which lets anyone with a car turn into a taxi driver — makes the taxi business look anathema.

At the same time, taxi companies have been lobbying hard to restrict Uber's expansion as much as possible, because Uber will obviously put many of them out of business. In many cities, particularly smaller cities, Uber service is both vastly superior and cheaper than getting a taxi.

Likewise, TransferWise is vastly superior and cheaper than going to a bank to send someone a payment in a foreign country. It works by essentially obviating the need to actually send and exchange foreign cash. Instead, it matches your outgoing payment with someone else's incoming payment, and through domestic currency accounts makes both payments locally. The money never actually leaves the country it's in — which is what makes it cheap.

And, of course, that clever matching system means you don't need to use a bank to send money abroad.

Bitcoin similarly threatens banks. Not because it is an online currency. The currency is basically a joke. Rather it is the blockchain ledger that underpins Bitcoin, which makes all transactions transparent and guaranteed, that makes banking transfers look out of date.

That situation, a tech startup that does banking without the need for banks, is what Carney was referring to last week when he said this:

In terms of financial stability policy and the change in banking that is, er, imminent, we have to get the balance of regulation right now and not come down too hard and prevent this type of disruptive technology and not be in this position where we're filling in with prudential regulation after the fact. In other words, facing an Uber-type situation in financial services, which many jurisdictions are struggling with.

Although the headline-grabbing part of this statement was his reference to Uber, it was his deliberate, theatrical stress on the word "imminent" that caught my attention most. It's unfair to read to much into it without asking Carney why he said it that way but my feeling is that he was trying to indicate that banks and bank regulators don't seem to be aware of how much danger they're in, or how fast tech is moving to destroy traditional financial services.

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By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A court ruling that sharply curtailed the ability of prosecutors including Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara to pursue insider trading cases is increasingly testing regulators' abilities across the country.

    Defendants in California and Massachusetts have sought to take advantage of a December ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that narrowed the definition of insider trading, making it harder for prosecutors to pursue their cases.

    The challenges raise the possibility that the 2nd Circuit decision, legally binding only in New York, Connecticut and Vermont, could be adopted by other jurisdictions nationally or could create a split among the federal courts.

    The ruling reversed the convictions of Todd Newman, a former portfolio manager at Diamondback Capital Management, and Anthony Chiasson, co-founder of Level Global Investors.

    A three-judge panel held that prosecutors need to prove a trader knew the original source of a tip received a benefit in exchange for the information. It also narrowed what constitutes a benefit, saying it must be of "some consequence" and cannot be only friendship.

    Samuel Lieberman, a defense lawyer involved in a similar challenge, said judges across the country often look to the 2nd Circuit for guidance.  

    "The 2nd Circuit is the leading appeals court for insider trading," he said. "So disregarding it comes with some peril."

    While the pace of prosecutions had looked set to slow from the pace of recent years, the appeals court's ruling could slam the brakes on authorities' efforts to pursue future cases. The decision's effect was quickly felt in New York, where Bharara's office on Friday filed papers asking the court to reconsider the ruling.

    Bharara's office has charged 92 people with insider trading since October 2009 and had won guilty pleas or trial convictions of 86 of them, including Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and former SAC Capital Advisors trader Mathew Martoma, before the 2nd Circuit ruling.

    Many of those cases are unlikely to be affected by the ruling, because the benefits were financial and known to the traders. But some defendants have already sought to vacate guilty pleas and reverse trial convictions in light of it.

    In the first decision to follow the 2nd Circuit ruling, a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday threw out the guilty pleas of four men accused of illegally dealing in shares ahead of an IBM Corp acquisition.

     A spokeswoman for Bharara declined comment, but in court papers Friday, his office argued the 2nd Circuit ruling "threatens the effective enforcement of the securities laws."

    RIPPLE EFFECTS

    The ruling is having ripple effects beyond New York. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission data shows that 52 of the 66 people charged with insider trading civilly or criminally in the 2014 fiscal year were pursued outside of New York.

    In Boston, for example, authorities charged a group of friends who they said exchanged non-public information about American Superconductor Corp.

    One of the men, Eric McPhail, learned secret information about the company from one of its senior executives, who belonged to a country club where McPhail was a member.

    Despite being told the information in confidence, McPhail tipped off other golfing buddies, including attorney Douglas Parigian, who reaped $300,000 in illegal profits, authorities say.

    McPhail and Parigian were indicted in July, after earlier being sued by the SEC, which reached settlements with four of the friends for $145,309.

    Both men have moved to dismiss the SEC's case and plan to do the same in the criminal case in light of the 2nd Circuit ruling, said Allison Koury, Parigian's lawyer.

    In court papers, they argue no allegations exist that the executive received what would constitute a benefit under the 2nd Circuit's decision, and that authorities failed to allege Parigian knew about the benefit.

    The U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston did not respond to requests for comment. But the SEC has argued since the information was misappropriated, it has to prove a benefit flowed to McPhail, who acted as the tipper.

    The SEC said McPhail had made it clear he "was looking forward to getting paid back." Prosecutors on Wednesday meanwhile filed a superseding indictment that added a line saying he received a benefit from Parigian and others.

    In Santa Ana, California, former Advanced Medical Optics Inc CEO James Mazzo and three co-defendants charged with insider trading filed papers arguing prosecutors failed to establish there was a tangible quid pro quo for allegedly tipping ex-Baltimore Orioles third baseman Douglas DeCinces about a deal.

    Prosecutors say Mazzo, a close friend of DeCinces, tipped him in advance of Abbott Laboratories' $1.36 billion acquisition of the company, enabling him to make $1.3 million in illicit profits.

    DeCinces, in turn, told five other people about the deal, including his business partner David Parker and real estate lawyer Fred Jackson, who made $347,920 and $140,259 respectively trading ahead of the deal, prosecutors say.

    In court papers, prosecutors said the 2nd Circuit ruling is "inconsistent" with the law of the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers California and other Western states. They argue that insider trading includes making a "gift" of confidential information to a relative or friend.

    Before the 2nd Circuit ruling, U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford in Santa Ana previously denied a motion to dismiss by DeCinces that made similar arguments. Late on Friday, he denied the defendants' latest motions, saying with little explanation that he was upholding his earlier decision.    Lawyers for the defendants either declined comment or did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

But at a Jan. 12 hearing, Guilford warned prosecutors that if he did not dismiss the indictment, they needed to be prepared to "pursue their strongest claims," since the issue could still affect the case at the Feb. 3 trial or in any appeal.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and John Pickering)

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Bitcoin API provider Coinding is running a global hackathon, challenging game developers around the world to integrate block chain technology into a video game. Over $5000 USD in prizes are up for grabs in total, including a top prize of $3000 cash for the best integration of block chain technology into a game. Bitcoin and […]

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The bitcoin service provider Coinbase is set to make history later today: it's going to launch the first licensed U.S. exchange for the currency, approved in 24 jurisdictions around the country.

Read more...

Coinbase Inc., backed by $106 million from the New York Stock Exchange, banks, and venture capital firms, will open the first licensed exchange for bitcoin, according to The Wall Street Journal. The exchange could provide greater security for individuals and institutions to trade bitcoin and monitor real-time pricing of the cryptocurrency. The exchange could also […]

The post Coinbase Inc. to Open the First Licensed Bitcoin Exchange in the U.S. appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The bitcoin price has skyrocketed this weekend, starting from the low 220s and ending up on the high 290s! There might be a correlation with news this time as Coinbase just announced that they will become a licensed Bitcoin exchange in more than 20 US states (which is good news!). The bitcoin price has had […]

The post Bitcoin Price Is Skyrocketing – Back to Old Glorious Days? appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The recent drop in bitcoin price has given ammunition to bitcoin skeptics. But this weekend, readers of The Wall Street Journal got a long-term perspective on bitcoin with an essay titled, “The Revolutionary Power of Digital Currency.” The essay sported a dazzling illustration showing of the headline bursting out from an unzipped leather wallet. A […]

The post Wall Street Journal: Digital Currencies Like Bitcoin Will Disrupt Global Finance appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

 Fresh from scoring a massive $75 million funding round, bitcoin payment firm Coinbase has revealed that it will open the first licensed bitcoin exchange in the U.S. on Monday. Read More

Coinbase is set to launch the first licensed US bitcoin exchange Monday, the Wall Street Journal reports.