Coin News

ItBit has launched its Global OTC Agency Trading Desk, a new, five-person over-the-counter (OTC) trading service based in New York.

CoinDesk's Pete Rizzo discusses why the bitcoin industry should learn from the early Internet's sillier success stories.

Today, New York-based bitcoin exchange itBit announced that it had launched its Global OTC Agency Trading Desk. This agency offers over-the-counter trades between large investors and is targeted toward clients who are interested in transactions over 100 bitcoin. This service is similar to brokerage services offered by Binary Financial or Barry Silbert’s Genesis Trading. By using an OTC trading desk like the one introduced by itBit, large investors can make trades directly with other traders, without using an exchange. Many institutional investors prefer this because it allows them to execute trades without affecting the exchange order books or market prices. Due to the low volume, high volatility nature of bitcoin, traders who had to trade on the exchange would see […]

The post itBit Announces Launch of Global OTC Agency Trading Desk appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Curious how the BTC invasion of Africa is going? If you've got five minutes, the below film might be a great way to spend it. Also read: Coming to Africa: Bitcoin Ready to Invade Featured image from Shutterstock.

The post Video: How Bitcoin is Changing Banking in Africa appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Spanish Bitcoin startup Coinffeine has launched the world’s first decentralized Bitcoin exchange platform in more than 70 countries, including Russia, China, Indonesia and Brazil. The company, which started offering a technical preview of their platform in May, was funded by the Spanish bank Bankinter through the Bankinter Innovation Foundation in November. The Coinffeine platform is still in beta, and the company recommends exchanging only moderate amounts of money through the platform until further notice. The founders describe Coinffeine as “BitTorrent for Bitcoin,” a decentralized exchange based on peer-to-peer operations. “Coinffeine is completely distributed, just like BitTorrent,” notes the Coinffeine website. “The exchange is done peer-to-peer (P2P), so there is only a very limited disclosure of information (your payment processor account […]

The post Coinffeine Launches Beta Version of Decentralized Bitcoin Exchange Platform Worldwide appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Last week, Bungie generated some inevitable controversy by finally spelling out their plans for Destiny weapon balancing. It included a few known quantities, Auto Rifles need buffs, PvP dominators like Thorn need nerfs, but the proposed patch goes out of its way to cripple other strong weapons like Ice Breaker, Black Hammer, and the game’s Ark of the Covenant, the Gjallarhorn.

Bitcoin wallet service provider and one of the leading bitcoin payments processors Snapcard has entered into a strategic partnership with Alpha Payments Cloud to enable Alpha hub users to accept bitcoin payments. Alphahub is an omni-channel access platform that combines payments, risk management and transaction settlement onto one single platform, with “over 250 connected third-party solutions and a suite of white-labeled product.” By integrating Snapcard’s bitcoin payment infrastructure, Alphahub will begin offering its third-party solutions, which include banks, financial platforms and institutions, with a bitcoin payment option, together with many other online payment tools. “We’re excited to work with Snapcard to help our clients capture the added-value of accepting global alternative payments like Bitcoin,” announced Ronan Gallagher, chief product officer […]

The post Snapcard Partners with Alpha Payments Cloud appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

BitX is delighted to report their $4M Series A funding round led by the Naspers Group, through PayU (Naspers Group’s payment subsidiary). Also in participation at the round, was their long term investor, Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group. Major growths and engagements have been experienced across the markets BitX operate in over the past 12 months, and as a result, their platform is now available to more than half a billion consumers - cut across strategic markets in Africa and Southeast Asia. As a result, BitX now has the biggest market footprint of any cryptocurrency company in the world. In line with […]

The post BitX Has Been Awarded $4 million in Series A Funding appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

CoinDesk is pleased to announce the addition of Coinbase and ItBit to its Bitcoin Price Index.

SanDiegoMeetUpIn North Park, a hip and central bedroom community of San Diego, local businesses Airbitz and CoinStructive hosted an evening of craft beer and Bitcoin discussion at Union Cowork last week. Founder of OpenBazaar, Brian Hoffman, who comes from San Diego but lives in Washington D.C., held an hour-long speech about the state of his company.

The post P2P E-Commerce Network: OpenBazaar CEO Gives Talk To Packed House In San Diego appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin price is holding above the rising support level near $276. Overhead, price faces some obstacles and may not advance immediately, but a larger advance seems more and more likely - with certain risk caveats, as outlined below. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3 hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? Join now and receive a $29 discount using the code CCN29. Bitcoin Price Analysis Time of analysis: 04h33 UTC Bitstamp 1-Hour Chart From the analysis pages of xbt.social, earlier today: As discussed in yesterday's last analysis post, price has not been advancing strongly […]

The post Bitcoin Price Making Gradual Progress appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Following its integration with payment processor OKPay, Coinffeine will allow customers in over 70 countries to purchase and sell bitcoin.

Globally-focused bitcoin platform, BitX, has raised $4m in a round led by Africa's largest company, the Naspers Group.

A single point of failure is a sure way to test Murphy's Law (can go wrong, will go wrong), and when dealing with a massive store of wealth, in bitcoins or otherwise, this is not a law you want to prove. Ever since the failure of Mt. Gox and the subsequent centralized Bitcoin exchanges which have been hacked, proved insolvent, have been the object of exit scams, or buckled under the weight of obvious manipulation, there has been clamor toward a decentralized exchange. There exists technology on which this can be done, escrow services and multi-signature addresses, but these methods, […]

The post Goxxed No More: First Decentralized Bitcoin Exchange Launches Today appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The online adultery hub known as Ashley Madison, as readers are most likely aware, has had its entire database compromised and has given the website a deadline to either shut down or have its nearly 40 million users details made public. Though the site is categorically legal, and the hackers are without a doubt in violation of numerous laws, everyday citizens seem to believe this speaks to a higher law.

The post Anti-Adultery Populace? Many Rooting For Hackers in Ashley Madison Breach appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

In December 2008, I wrote "Black September: Why the economy suddenly went into free fall" a day-by-day chronology of the events of that month, intending it to be a "first draft of history," and leave a concise record of what happened, and why it happened while it was still fresh in everyone's mind.

Now in 2015, memories have already faded, and there is an internet tussle between Brad DeLong and Dean Baker about whether the Great Recession was primarily a housing event or a credit event. 

In particular, as summarized by Robert Waldmann at Angry Bear, Baker has argued that:

"the decline in construction plus the decline in consumption due to reduced housing wealth explains the decline in aggregate demand (without any need to discuss finance, underwater mortgages, or clogged credit channels...."

Waldmann is inclined to agree with Baker:

"I think his calculations make sense. He gets to his conclusion with simple estimates (no finance included) using data from before the great recession. He has a problem with the timing of the recession which was very mild until Lehman collapsed then very severe. I think he can argue that this was a short run fluctuation with effects which didn’t last ...."

This argument is a variation on the joke about economists that "it works in practice, but will it work in theory?" Because we have the facts: the anomalous consumer decline between September 1 and October 10, 2008,  during which the shallow recession which had crippled the housing industry and Wall Street, but left Main Street virtually intact, suddenly metastasized into a collapse of the consumer economy that some were beginning to liken to the 1930s, was due to a complete drying up of credit due to a fundamental loss of faith in the financial system.

As I said at the time:

The decline in housing values did not have a major effect on most American consumers’ behavior. The 30%+ who do not own houses, and the 20%+ who own their houses in full, were completely unaffected. Of the remaining minority, ... although their home equity position may have declined, even now [December 2008] 90% of all homeowners are “above water”, meaning they have positive equity in their houses.But the dramatic 45% decline in the stock market from its October 2007 highs is another matter entirely. It [ ] created perhaps the biggest single negative wealth effect ... in all of American financial history.

...American consumers sustained two massive shocks as a result of Black September. First, their confidence was shattered ... mo[st] importantly by the magnification of those collapses by the public figures (the President, the Treasury Secretary, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Senator and Members of Congress) in statements that quite plainly advised Americans that imminent panic over the fate of the entire economy was a proper reaction. And panic American consumers did, as millions of households listened to a President’s speech telling them that the End was Imminent, and then had sober discussions over the kitchen table in which they decided to drastically pull back on discretionary spending, literally overnight.

Below are selections from my "Black September" post. If you don't want to read everything, skiip to September 24 and 30, and you'll get the gist:

On December 3, John Bergstrom of Bergrstrom Automotive, a major auto dealer, appeared on CNBC and said, "on about September 10, we saw our business fall off 30-35%."

A similar sudden decline in consumer spending during September was reported by Shoppertrak:

...While the consumer has remained fairly resilient during this time [2008], two very recent events are dramatically impacting mall visits and consumer confidence.- Once the financial crisis emerged at the beginning of September, retail traffic declined even further. Between August 31 and September 20, SRTI total U.S. traffic fell an estimated 9.2 percent per day….- After the failure of Washington Mutual, President Bush’s address to the nation, the presidential debate and the initial rejection of the TARP bailout, traffic fell by an average of 10.5 percent (September 21 – 29).- The day the TARP bailout package was rejected by congress (September 29) and the NYSE Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 778 points, consumers again responded negatively as shopper traffic fell 12 percent as compared to the same day in 2007.

...Despite all of these things [events through August 2008], the unfolding events ... [left] Main Street unscathed. For example, Prof. Brad DeLong, who has been an astute observer of the collapse, noted that "The Financial Economy Has Galloping Pneumonia, Influenza, *and* the Grippe, But the Real Economy Just Has a Cold."

...In short, the August picture of the economy as a whole showed a recession, but so far a shallow one.

Sept 5 

• Report that treasury is going to do $500Bln bailout/backstop  of Fannie/Freddie in a “conservatorship"

Sept 8

• Treasury officially takes control of Fannie/Freddie
• The late Tanta, in one of her last posts, notes that US Today headline says taxpayers on hook for $5.4 trillion, says that’s what average Americans are reading

Sept 9 

• Lehman in imminent peril per news – faills from $13 to $9 in one day – put on “credit watch” by S & P
• WaMu “cliff diving” credit outlook cut to “negative”

Sept 15 

• Lehman fails
• AIG seeks $40 Billion bailout, is downgraded
• Prof. Paul Krugman calls allowing Lehman to fail “financial russian roulette” with entire financial system
• WaMu bonds cut to junk rating

Sept 16

• US considering AIG “conservatorship” agrees to inject $85 billion to AIG to avoid collapse. Breadth of AIG failure a complete surprise
• The NYT reports: rumor that large money market fund has halted redemptions

Sept 19 

• Treasury to insure money market funds possible downgrades of MBIA, Ambac
• From the NY Times: Congressional Leaders Stunned by Warnings: As the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, laid out the potentially devastating ramifications of the financial crisis before congressional leaders on Thursday night, there was a stunned silence at first. Senator Christopher J. Dodd [said] the congressional leaders were told “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.”

Sept 21

• Paulson announced $700 bln bailout plan

Sept 24 

• From the WSJ: Bush Addresses Bailout Plan: President George W. Bush on Wednesday warned Americans and legislators reluctant to pass a historic financial rescue plan that failing to act fast risks wiping out retirement savings, rising foreclosures, lost jobs, closed business and “a long and painful recession.”
• From the NY Times: President Issues Warning to Americans
• From the WaPo: Bush: Our Entire Economy Is in Danger: Bush painted a grim picture view of the future if Congress doesn’t act, but he really didn’t address how the plan would work. Bush did comment that the plan was to buy assets “at the current low price”, seemingly contradicting the comments from Bernanke and Paulson earlier today that they would buy at above the current “fire sale” prices.
• Calculated risk observed, "I’m not sure if this speech will motivate people to call their representatives, but it might motivate people that haven’t been paying attention to say: 'Wow, this is bad. Let’s make sure our money is safe, and watch our expenditures.' And that could lead to a deeper recession"

Sept 29 

• House of Representatives votes down [bailout] plan

Sept 30

• Christoph Rieger, a fixed- income strategist at Dresdner Kleinwort, says: The money markets have completely broken down, with no trading taking place at all. There is no market any more. Central banks are the only providers of cash to the market, no-one else is lending.

The bottom line is that, while economic theory may be able to generate equations which can generally shoehorn the huge decline of the Great Recession into a "decline in housing wealth" story, what factually happened was an abrupt and discontinuous decline in consumer spending and business hiring due to a nearly complete loss of faith in the fundamental financial system.

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