Coin News

More than 80% of bitcoin transactions take place in Chinese yuan, according to a new research report on payments from Goldman Sachs. 

Chinese yuan trading volume has made up a majority of bitcoin exchange transactions for the last year or so. But as you can see in the chart below, yuan bitcoin transactions really spiked in mid-2013. They went from less than 10% of transactions to more than 50% in less than six months. And there's no sign that this is going to change anytime soon.  

Interestingly, this transaction volume probably isn't coming from major Chinese merchants, who by and large don't accept bitcoin. From the GS report: 

Thus far, most merchant Bitcoin activity has been concentrated among US and European-based  merchants. Despite China’s higher trading activity, restrictions enacted by the PBoC to limit Chinese Bitcoin companies’ access to traditional Chinese payment processors have  prompted many large Chinese companies to stop accepting Bitcoin. However, in light of a somewhat stabilizing Bitcoin economy in China, a few payment processors have reemerged, such as BTC China’s JustPay.

The report also points out that credit card rewards systems are basically non-existent in China, which likely makes the market much more open to alternative payments systems.

SEE ALSO: Ex-JP Morgan superstar Blythe Masters is getting into the Bitcoin business

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An additional 150 victims of alleged bitcoin exchange MyCoin have come forward to local police.

Badoo, a dating-focused social network with 200 million global users, is now accepting bitcoin in more than 20 countries.

Bitcoin trading has the price chart making higher lows just below $300. The development of price action in this chart area is favorable, and we should soon see another attempt on $300 and 1850 CNY. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3 hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member?Join now […]

The post Bitcoin Trading: The Assault on $300 Continues appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Decentralised printing network 3D Hubs has partnered with BitPay to allow customers in over 140 countries to pay using bitcoin.

Goldman Sachs has published a report naming bitcoin and Ripple among the technology trends that could shape the future of global finance and payments.

Goldman Sachs has published a report naming bitcoin and Ripple among the technology trends that could shape the future of global finance and payments.

Counterparty founders have joined with MathMoney f(x) and its founder Mark Smith as co-founders of the new fintech company Symbiont. Symbiont will focus on fostering the symbiotic relationship between traditional financial markets and cryptographic blockchain technology. “Since we founded Counterparty over a year ago, our focus has consistently been on the creation and positioning of this technology as a solution for structural issues in the larger financial markets,” said Robby Dermody, co-founder of Counterparty and now President of Symbiont. “Symbiont is the next step in achieving that goal,” Dermody said. “We’re excited about the positive impacts blockchain adoption will have in the systems that power modern finance, and we look forward to seeing this technology put into use in a […]

The post Counterparty and MathMoney f(x) Create Symbiont to Make Financial Markets Smarter appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Digital economy startup Digital Asset Holdings will allow its clients to trade financial assets using bitcoin as operating currency for cheaper, faster and fully traceable transactions, Financial Times reports. Former JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive Blythe Masters will be the CEO of the new company, overseeing employees in New York, Chicago and Tel Aviv. This latest episode of the ongoing love story between Bitcoin and Wall Street follows a wave of announcements of new publicly traded Bitcoin financial products. Recently, Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Investment Trust became the first publicly traded Bitcoin fund, beating the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund (ETF) to the finish line. MGT Capital Investments announced a reverse merger with Tera Group, which will create the first publicly […]

The post JPMorgan Star Blythe Masters Leads Bitcoin Startup appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Ex-JP Morgan Chase & Co executive Blythe Masters has joined bitcoin trading platform Digital Assets Holdings LLC as chief executive.

As you may remember, Roger Ver and other large Bitcoin holders were targeted last year by attackers and extortionists. Rather than capitulate and pay the ransom for the return of his hacked e-mail account, Ver created a website, BitcoinBountyHunter.com, to issue a bounty on his attacker as well as allow others to create bounties. Also […]

The post Catch a Scammer or Thief and Earn Bitcoins in the Process appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Coinbase has become the first bitcoin company to join the Internet Association (IA), a Washington, DC-based public policy group.

Last year was a record year for Bitcoin when it came to venture capital investment, at almost $350 million in 2014. It looks like Bitcoin is approaching that amount already, and we’re not even through the first quarter of 2015 year. Bitcoin startup 21 Inc. has announced that they have secured $116 million in venture […]

The post Bitcoin Startup 21 Inc. Scores $116 Million in Venture Capital appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Blythe Masters is now the chief executive of a bitcoin-related startup.

The former global head of commodities at JP Morgan is now the CEO of Digital Asset Holdings, which "aims to be a venue for buyers and sellers of financial assets to meet and transact, switching currencies into bitcoin in order to cut the cost and time of settlement and make use of the decentralised 'block chain' as a secure record of transactions," according to the Financial Times.

Details on the venture are sparse, but the FT reports that DAH was founded by Sunil Hirani and Don Wilson last year, and currently has offices in New York, Chicago, and Tel Aviv.

The idea is that DAH "will admit creditworthy members — such as big banks and asset managers — to trade between themselves using DAH’s technology," writes the FT.

Masters also told the paper that she won't be needing regulatory approval because it's not "an exchange, a custodian, or a money transmitter."

Blythe is not the first Masters to get into cryptocurrency.

Masters' ex-husband, Daniel Masters (also an ex-JP Morgan commodities trader), started a Bitcoin fund last year, although he's had trouble finding banks to work with it. In an interview with Newsweek last spring, he compared Bitcoin to the oil market: 

“The state of Bitcoin is a lot like the state of the oil market 25 years ago, where you had a lot of these transactions happening merchant to merchant, this product that everyone wanted and could use but whose prices were very, very volatile, very shaky.”

SEE ALSO: Goldman Sachs just tweeted about millennials in a string of emoji — here's what it means

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