Coin News

Two new services, TeleBit and a tipping bot by BlockTrail, attempt to bring bitcoin transactions to popular chat platforms.

 US Marshals have sold the last batch of 50,000 seized Silk Road bitcoins at auction after a surprisingly quiet sealed bidding process. The USMS has not announced the name of the winner of the entire collection of bitcoin but VC Tim Draper has been quietly buying these seized coins for the past year. The auction marks the end of one of the oddest US auctions on record. When the Marshals… Read More

CoinDesk takes a look at this weeks bitcoin headlines from all over the world.

CheapAir, the first mainstream online travel agency to offer customers the option to pay in bitcoin, litecoin and dogecoin, is now first U.S. company to provide its customers the opportunity to fly to Cuba. Although recent changes have lifted many travel restrictions to Cuba, there are still limitations. CheapAir’s website reads: “U.S. citizens and residents are only permitted to travel to Cuba for one of 12 authorized reasons. They are: family visits official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations journalistic activity professional research and professional meetings educational activities religious activities public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions support for the Cuban people humanitarian projects activities of private foundations or research or educational […]

The post CheapAir Allows Travel to Cuba, Payment with Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

CheapAir, the first mainstream online travel agency to offer customers the option to pay in bitcoin, litecoin and dogecoin, is now first U.S. company to provide its customers the opportunity to fly to Cuba. Although recent changes have lifted many travel restrictions to Cuba, there are still limitations. CheapAir’s website reads: “U.S. citizens and residents are only permitted to travel to Cuba for one of 12 authorized reasons. They are: family visits official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations journalistic activity professional research and professional meetings educational activities religious activities public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions support for the Cuban people humanitarian projects activities of private foundations or research or educational […]

The post CheapAir Allows Travel to Cuba, Payment with Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

CheapAir, the first mainstream online travel agency to offer customers the option to pay in bitcoin, litecoin and dogecoin, is now first U.S. company to provide its customers the opportunity to fly to Cuba. Although recent changes have lifted many travel restrictions to Cuba, there are still limitations. CheapAir’s website reads: “U.S. citizens and residents are only permitted to travel to Cuba for one of 12 authorized reasons. They are: family visits official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations journalistic activity professional research and professional meetings educational activities religious activities public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions support for the Cuban people humanitarian projects activities of private foundations or research or educational […]

The post CheapAir Allows Travel to Cuba, Payment with Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin-to-cash withdrawals are now available at 10,000 additional bank ATMs in Spain due to an agreement between Banc Sabadell and BTCPoint.

When you download the popular torrent client uTorrent, the website describes the software as "light, limitless" and "elegant, efficient." That's ironic because multiple users are reporting that the latest uTorrent update quietly installs processor-hogging bitcoin-mining software without your knowledge.

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In the 1-hour Bitcoin price chart, the last hour’s price action had concluded in a spinning top candle indicating the uncertainty in the market. It is, no doubt, related to the US Marshall Auction winner announcement at the end of the US session at 5pm EST. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3 […]

The post Bitcoin Price Anticipating US Marshall’s Office Announcement appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

If you recently installed or updated uTorrent on your PC, you may have have picked up an unwanted passenger: a Bitcoin miner called Epic Scale. That piece of code comes attached at the hip with the latest uTorrent build (version 3.4.2) and uses your ...

Thinking of paying your taxes in Bitcoin? That might not be so far-fetched. While you can pay your taxes now in Bitcoin using a third-party processor, states like Utah and New Hampshire are considering making it an official payment option.

CoinPlay, the online PC game store that lets developers and publishers get paid in bitcoin, has relaunched following a series of design improvements.

Ross Ulbricht clearly loves history. This is evident from the pseudonym that he chose for his online activity, and even the name he chose for the domain name. The pseudonym he chose was Dread Pirate Roberts, and he named his site the Silk Road though in my view Seven Seas would have been apter. Dread […]

The post US Marshals Conclude Online Bitcoin Auction of Ross Ulbricht’s Bitcoins appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

More US consumers are confident about bitcoin's security than that of mobile wallets like Apple Pay, according to a new survey.

Diners in Midtown Manhattan can buy bitcoin from an ATM now that Zen Palate, a vegan Asian restaurant, has a General Bytes bitcoin ATM on the premises. The placement of the ATM at the restaurant on Third Avenue in East Midtown takes Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Bitcoin Brands one machine closer to its goal of operating […]

The post Midtown Manhattan Vegan Restaurant Lets Patrons Buy Bitcoin From ATM appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Newly elected Bitcoin Foundation board member Jim Harper discusses his plans for the organisation and why he believes in leading by methodology.

By Thomas Atkins

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank AG has passed the first "stress test" set by U.S. regulators but is unlikely to clear the next hurdle as the German bank struggles to tighten compliance fast enough to appease controllers at the Federal Reserve.

Deutsche eased through the capital test of the two-part exam on Thursday, showing its U.S. operations had an ample cash cushion to survive even a severe market downturn.

It even came out as the most robust of all the 31 banks to take the test, due to the fact that the unit tested represented only a small, low-risk part of its sprawling U.S. operations.

But the Fed is widely expected to fail Deutsche Bank in a test of processes and controls on March 11, underscoring how much work lies ahead for Deutsche to expand successfully in the world’s largest market, analysts say.

“It’s almost inevitable that you won’t pass with flying colors, whatever you do,” said Bridget Gandy, managing director at Fitch Ratings. Many first-time test takers, in fact, fail, she said.

“It won’t be because of lack of capital or managing their operations that they fail, but that they haven’t managed their operations in such a way as to tick each box to come through the test well,” she said.

Deutsche said Thursday’s results demonstrated the robustness the unit that was tested, which represents less than 5 percent of its total assets, but declined to comment on the outcome expected next week.

“Like the other banks, we’ll know the results on March 11,” a spokesman said.

PRIMARY SUPERVISION

Other foreign banks have failed the U.S. test the first time round. Banco Santander , Europe’s biggest bank, failed last year, as have HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland .

Deutsche has avoided primary supervision by the Fed up to now by structuring its operations so they came largely under the purview of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Legal changes in 2013 forced the bank under the Fed's oversight.

By running its Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) tests, the Fed aims to ensure foreign banks are as well-run as domestic ones, and that the U.S. government is not left on the hook for problems created by overseas-based lenders.

While no punitive actions are expected, a failure would give Deutsche a black eye just as it races to bolster internal reporting and controls. The bank is half way through a four-year plan to invest some 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in beefing up compliance.

The bank has hired some 500 staff to address weaknesses in U.S. financial reporting and hired Elizabeth Ford from Goldman Sachs as head of compliance in the Americas. Deutsche will also bring on board Steven Reich, a U.S. defense lawyer with experience in the White House.

In doing so, Deutsche is playing catch-up with those banks who have already taken the Fed tests for the past four years.

Deutsche aims to fortify its position as a global securities house and is the only global bank with such a strategy that doesn't have its headquarters on Wall Street.

A failure would highlight an even bigger challenge ahead: Deutsche’s entire U.S. operation is set to be tested in 2018.

The unit examined this time, Deutsche Bank Trust Corp, or DBTC, has a balance sheet worth about $62 billion, making it the smallest part of the bank’s U.S. empire. It houses primarily wealth management and transaction operations.

The rest, most housed in its Deutsche Bank Securities Inc (DBSI) unit, contains the important broker-dealer operations, the core of its investment bank and the heart of its U.S. push.

Deutsche was the target in 2014 of punishing criticisms from U.S. regulators for “low quality, inaccurate and unreliable” financial reports at some of its U.S. divisions, showing the scope of the task ahead to bring those operations up to snuff.

($1 = 0.9114 euros)

(Editing by David Holmes)

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ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran said oil prices will not rise above $60 until 2016 and that it would increase crude exports if Western sanctions over its nuclear program are lifted, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Friday.

"We're not expecting oil prices to go over $60 until 2016. What will happen after that is not clear," Mehr quoted National Iranian Oil Co's head of international affairs Mohsen Ghamsari as saying.

"When sanctions are lifted, it is our natural and legal right to increase our oil sell aimed at having more market share."

U.S. and EU sanctions that came into force in 2012 prohibit the import, purchase and transport of Iranian petroleum products, to pressure Tehran to halt its nuclear program.

World powers are in talks with Iran to try to persuade Tehran to curb the program in exchange for relief from the sanctions that have crippled the major oil exporter's economy.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; editing by David Clarke)

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Bitcoin price has taken a major hit since Mt. Gox, but that has not stopped Bitcoin from building a worldwide infrastructure that has led to massive expansion opportunities. It seems to have traded price for a deeper market penetration, in every sector of modern society. Bitcoin has already made a connection with online consumer payment […]

The post SWIFT Panel sees a Future for Bitcoin in International Banking appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Nine-year Deutsche Bank veteran Marcelo Miranda is launching FlowBTC, an institutional bitcoin exchange for Brazil tomorrow.