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Bitcoin price dropped once during the morning and by afternoon it did it again. Not a record but an unexpected show of resolve from a market that couldn’t find direction for four days prior. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3 hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? Join now […]

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Stocks were all over the place on Tuesday. The S&P 500 and the Dow rallied above the record highs set on Monday, but slid in the final 90 minutes of trading. But virtue of a positive close, the Dow made a new record high. 

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 18,305.52, +6.64, (0.04%)
• S&P 500: 2,127.03, -2.17, (-0.10%)
• Nasdaq: 5,069.76, -8.68, (-0.17%)

And now, the top stories on Tuesday:

1. In economic data, housing starts surged to the highest level since November 2007. Starts rose 20.2% in April to an annualized pace of 1.135 million, crushing expectations for a 9.6% rise to an annualized rate of 1.01 million. Building permits rose 10.1% to an annualized pace of 1.143 million, versus forecasts for a 2.1% rise to an annualized pace of 1.06 million. "The uptick in mortgage rates over the last month will be a headwind going forward," wrote Nomura analysts in a note. "However, today's data reinforce our basic view that housing will contribute to stronger growth this year and that we should expect stronger growth in the US going forward."
2. US government bonds sold off. As their prices fell, yields rose; the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed to a year-to-date high of 2.303%, a rise of about 5 basis points. The long 30-year bond yield also rose about 5 basis points to as high as 3.09%.
3. West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell more than 3.5% to as low as $57.95 per barrel. The American Petroleum Institute is due to report on US crude stockpiles after the closing bell, and the Energy Information Administration will release its tally on Wednesday. Inventories have declined in the past few weeks. Over the weekend, Goldman Sachs slashed its price forecast for the next five years.
4. The New York Stock Exchange has launched a bitcoin index. NYXBT will reflect data from the Coinbase bitcoin exchange, which the exchange made a minority investment in earlier this year. The NYSE said in a statement: "NYXBT utilizes a unique methodology that relies on rules-based logic to analyze a dataset of matched transactions and verify the integrity of the data to ultimately produce an objective and fair daily value for one bitcoin in U.S. Dollars as of 16:00 London time." Bitcoin is currently worth $233, down almost $3 from yesterday.
5. Shares of Chinese sports lottery site 500.com surged as much as 30% despite the company announcing a first-quarter loss, the resignation of its CEO and one director, and saying it is currently generating no sales. The company saw an earnings per share loss of 6 cents, much less than the expectation for a profit of 28 cents, and sales of $15.9 million versus $24.7 million expected. It saw a net loss of $8.4 million. Last month, 500.com suspended all online lottery sales in agreement with the Chinese government. And in the earnings report Tuesday, it said it is not generating revenues due to the suspension.
6. TJX Companies beat estimates on earnings and revenues in the first quarter – something that's been unusual for retailers this season. The parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshalls reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.69 (versus $0.66 expected) on sales of $6.9 billion (versus $6.8 billion.) The company saw a 5% rise in same-store sales, and raised its full-year guidance based on these results. Its stock rose as much as 3%. Macy's and JCPenney are two of the retailers that reported weaker-than-expected earnings. 
7. Urban Outfitters also missed expectations, and its stock tanked by up to 16%. It reported first quarter sales of  $0.25 ($0.30 expected,) and record sales of $739 million (still below $757.58 expected.) Analysts at Oppenheimer downgraded the stock to "Perform" from "Outperform," citing several lackluster quarters, and "fashion misses" at Anthropologie in their note.
8. Shake Shack shares rallied by more than 5%, bringing the stock's gains since reporting earnings after the close last Wednesday to around 12%. After the company's initial public offering priced at $21 in January, the stock has more than tripled and was trading at around $76 on Tuesday. There's been no big news since the earnings results that one analyst described as a "historically impressive 'beat and raise quarter.'" Shake Shack's flagship location in Madison Square Park in New York will reopen on Wednesday May 20.

DON'T MISS: This demographic trend will be bullish for stocks for years »

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AlphaPoint has just announced that it is integrating two-factor authentication service Clef into its platform, making it convenient to login securely to more than 20 exchanges that depend on its digital currency exchange technology. According to the company, AlphaPoint “offers a white label solution that allows clients to launch their own digital currency exchange in under 20 days.” AlphaPoint has also recently partnered with IdentityMind to solve know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance issues. No more passwords, no more tokens Security has always been an important focus in the digital currency world, but high-profile hacks of several exchanges have only heightened these concerns. Clef, which has already integrated its authentication service into more than 64,500 websites, also works with Apple’s Touch ID technology on iOS devices. This allows […]

The post AlphaPoint Integrates 2FA Service Clef for Secure Logins to Bitcoin Exchanges appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The digital currency takes another step toward the mainstream

There are a lot of abstract problems related to money for which bitcoin is supposedly the savior.

It is supposed to free us from central banks, and regular banks, and onerous centralized authority. So far, however, this hasn't worked out so well as regulators continue to crack down on those trying to use bitcoin to work around the current legal and regulatory frameworks.

But there's still (at least) one way the bitcoin technology could be revolutionary: transferring money from place to place instantaneously.

Take this passage from Nathaniel Popper's new book, Digital Gold, which was released Tuesday:

Wences [Casares, an entrepreneur from Argentina] drew the group in with an explanation of the basic notion of a new kind of network that could allow people to move money anywhere in the world, instantaneously—something that these financiers, who were frequently moving millions between banks in different countries, could surely appreciate.

"You can call someone in Jakarta on Skype," Wences told them. "you can see them and you can hear them and there's a synchronous connection with a lot of bandwidth. There's a ton of magic happening, which is incredible. And you hang up and you want to send them one cent and that's not possible. That's ridiculous. It should be a lot easier to send a cent than to see video and audio."

Casares is right: it's really hard to move money around the world. Even within countries, the US in particular, it takes multiple days for money transmission to clear. Services like Venmo and PayPal make it easier by allowing you to move money from account to account instantly, but it still takes a day or two to get your money from that service into your bank account. Internationally, it's even harder and much more expensive.

If the current money transfer system is like receiving mail in your mailbox once a day, bitcoin is like instant message. It's instant and cheap. (In this analogy, Venmo would be like an alert that lets you know you have a new email, but doesn't let you respond until the end of the day.)

So bitcoin is theoretically an almost perfect solution. Practically, though, the problem still is that nobody uses it.

SEE ALSO:  You can now track Bitcoin on the New York Stock Exchange

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This excerpt from Nathaniel Popper's book 'Digital Gold' looks at the ups and downs of bitcoin exchange BitInstant before its ultimate demise.

Bitcoin's march toward legitimacy just took a hop, skip and jump with the news that the New York Stock Exchange is going to start monitoring its value. The NYSE Bitcoin Index (NYBXT) will keep a beady eye on how much the cryptocurrency is worth, rela...

Did you know a tenth of HSBC’s workforce is in compliance? Or that the average corporate fine from the U.K.'s financial industry regulator increased nearly seven-fold from 2010 to 2013? Meanwhile, similar trends are being seen in the U.S. and around the world. The regulatory clampdown is happening at the same time that technology is transforming our world. Just this month, New York State’s top financial regulator granted the first license to a Bitcoin exchange, giving it bank-like status. This is technology literally throwing down the gauntlet to our monetary system. Social media is another case in point.

As a result of a six-month joint investigation between the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS), law enforcement agencies charged four Australians with attempts to purchase illegal firearms and arrested 17 Dark Web buyers and merchants across Europe and North America. Following the arrests from the undercover operation, all firearms, ballistic armor, and illicit drugs were seized and around $80,000 USD worth of bitcoin was confiscated. In September of 2014, the joint investigation between the law enforcement agencies in the United States and Australia focused on the illicit trade of firearms via the Dark Web which led to the identification of an online alias account for a 33-year-old man in […]

The post 17 Arrested and $80,000 Worth of Bitcoin Seized in Dark Web Sting Operation appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Danish cryptocurrency exchange CCEDK has announced a MasterCard Bitcoin debit card product, building a bridge between bitcoin users and MasterCard-enabled merchants all over the world, while adhering to strong compliance standards in accordance with E.U. financial regulators. The Bitcoin Debit NanoCard MasterCard will enable withdrawals from their multi cryptocurrency exchange to ATMs and MasterCard-enabled merchants worldwide. Unlike other Bitcoin debit cards including BitPlastic, CCEDK claims this card “is regulated by The European Union (EU) MasterCard rules” and as such it is covered under their fraud protection programs. As such, CCEDK and any financial movements of its customers are strictly regulated under European anti-money laudering (AML), know-your-customer (KYC) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) guidelines, as explained on their website. While this will alarm […]

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Texas-based record-keeping service Factom has reportedly partnered with the Honduras government to pilot a program using the blockchain to record land ownership in the country. The trail will be made with the help of software company Epigraph, a title registry company building “next generation” solutions, based in Austin, Texas. As reported by Reuters, the Honduras government has agreed to use “a permanent and secure land title record system using the underlying technology behind bitcoin.” The idea to use the blockchain to record land ownership in underdeveloped countries was a use case Factom had in mind since it went live late last year. According to a video by Factom, nearly 70 percent of Latin America’s land is unregistered, leaving the poor, […]

The post Factom Partners with Honduras Government to Build Blockchain-backed Land Registry appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The New York Stock Exchange today launched its NYSE Bitcoin Index (NYXBT) to track the price of bitcoin and give the digital currency’s value a definitive global benchmark. This move by one of the oldest stock exchanges in the world gives bitcoin new legitimacy and “gravitas” and may seal its spot in first place as the digital currency of choice. New York Stock Exchange President Thomas Farley made the announcement today saying in a news release: “Bitcoin values are quickly becoming a data point that our customers want to follow as they consider transacting, trading or investing with this emerging asset class. As a global index leader and administrator of ICE LIBOR, ICE Futures U.S. Dollar Index and many other […]

The post New York Stock Exchange Launches Bitcoin Pricing Index NYXBT appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

For all the naysayers, all the critics, all the people who pronounced bitcoin dead based on nebulous metrics like its value against a U.S. Dollar, bitcoin is winning the war. Bitcoin continues to grow, evolve, and gain acceptance with industry leader after industry leader, much to the mainstream’s chagrin. If you are a part of […]

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The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has announced the launch of a bitcoin price index (NYXBT).

The New York Stock Exchange launched a bitcoin index Tuesday.

NYXBT, as it will be called, will reflect data from the Coinbase bitcoin exchange, which the NYSE made a minority investment in earlier this year.

According to the NYSE, "NYXBT utilizes a unique methodology that relies on rules-based logic to analyze a dataset of matched transactions and verify the integrity of the data to ultimately produce an objective and fair daily value for one bitcoin in U.S. Dollars as of 16:00 London time."

This is just the first of many bitcoin-based indexes that the NYSE plans to launch, according to a spokesperson. Details about further indexes have yet to be released.

The current price of bitcoin is about $233. It's down almost $5 since yesterday.

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NOW WATCH: 70 people were injured while filming this movie with 100 untamed lions

Nathaniel Popper's new book, "Digital Gold," covers the colorful history of Bitcoin. He discusses how a currency that gained notoriety for fueling illicit transactions could become part of our everyday lives.

Mexico has seen modest Bitcoin market penetration so far but has also avoided any condemnation or over-regulation by government. Bitcoin is seen as a digital asset and is not illegal to use in Mexico. 7-Eleven stores have taken Bitcoin under agreement and merchants are starting to hear about Bitcoin and accept it in larger metropolitan […]

The post Volabit Brings Bitcoin Mobile App and Bill Pay to Mexico appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The hope is that blockchain technology can provide a truly independent, more reliable, and more transparent way of managing trades.

The post Eying Bitcoin-Like Stock, Overstock Invests in Trading Firm appeared first on WIRED.

Julia Tourianski, who grew up on a small farm in a family of small business owners in Russia, has become an internet sensation through Brave The World thanks to her intriguing, educational and entertaining catalogue of videos. Her sense of humor and intrepid journalism have made her a favorite in multiple thought circles. Her interview […]

The post Anti-State Propagandist Julia Tourianski: “How to be a Bitcoin Hater” appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Bitcoin wallet providers Darkwallet and Armory are among the strongest on matters of financial privacy, according to a new study.

 Lithuania startup Trafi, which offers a public transport app to help you plan journeys, has closed a $6.5 million Series A funding round led by Octopus Investments. EBRD Venture Capital Investment Programme and BaltCap also participated, along with previous investor Practica Capital. Read More

Digital currency startup Ripple Labs announced today that it has closed a new $28m Series A funding round.

Ripple Labs, the creator of the international payment network and digital currency Ripple (XRP), has raised a $28 million series A funding round. The funding round featured many strategic investors including the venture arm of Chicago Mercantile Exchange & Chicago Board of Trade (CME Group Inc.), one of the largest security and future exchange operators in the United States. Other notable investors in the round are Chinese venture capital firm IDG Capital Partners and the global data storage company Seagate Technology. Previous investors into Ripple Labs including Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Opportunity Corp., Core Innovation Capital, Vast Ventures, and Venture 51 also participated in the series A. This new infusion of capital and the strategic investors gained through this round will […]

The post Ripple Labs Raises $28 Million Series A from Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Seagate appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Ripple Labs, the creator of the international payment network and digital currency Ripple (XRP), has raised a $28 million series A funding round. The funding round featured many strategic investors including the venture arm of Chicago Mercantile Exchange & Chicago Board of Trade (CME Group Inc.), one of the largest security and future exchange operators in the United States. Other notable investors in the round are Chinese venture capital firm IDG Capital Partners and the global data storage company Seagate Technology. Previous investors into Ripple Labs including Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Opportunity Corp., Core Innovation Capital, Vast Ventures, and Venture 51 also participated in the series A. This new infusion of capital and the strategic investors gained through this round will […]

The post Ripple Labs Raises $28 Million Series A from Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Seagate appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

DeMorgan Ltd., a Sydney, Australia-based company focused on alternative currency and next generation banking, will offer a free, five-week webinar course on Australian supercomputers beginning June 17. The course will be offered in conjunction with IT Masters and Charles Sturt University in Australia. DeMorgan Ltd. has completed several bitcoin-based research projects. The course has been […]

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