Coin News

The price of bitcoin on the CoinDesk USD Bitcoin Price Index fell more than 10% today to reach a seven-day low of $335.14.

Bitcoin Press Release: The world’s first truly international Bitcoin bank NextBank is preparing to launch during 2016 after successfully raising 950 000 USD seed investment capital. NextBank is now taking early registrations. The first Bitcoin and cryptocurrency friendly bank NextBank announced their upcoming launch in October stating that “their mission is to provide advanced banking services for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency users worldwide”. NextBank will offer their extensive services in 50+ languages, with accounts in over 135 currencies including Bitcoin, Gold, USD and GBP. Debit Cards and an escrow service will also be offered. NextBank is pleased to announce that they […]

The post World’s First Bitcoin Bank NextBank Receives 950 000 USD Investment And Opens For Early Registrations appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A new partnership between bitcoin wallet solution Snapcard and leading Brazilian mobile payments startup PagPop has enabled 12,000 Brazilian businesses to accept bitcoin. Merchants already using PagPop can now accept the digital currency by default, with no need to install additional software.

"We've been exploring the region of Brazil because it's got this perfect climate where bitcoin can flourish as a currency compared to the local currency that has been significantly devalued,” Snapcard CEO Michael Dunworth told Bitcoin Magazine. “Moreover, in Brazil and other Latin American countries, when accepting a credit card, payment is not released to the merchant for usually 30 days… and the fees are some 5 percent. That inhibits businesses significantly from an operational cashflow perspective. With bitcoin payouts, they're next day if being settled to local currency, or in real time if they're settling in bitcoin.”

PagPop, founded in 2006, enables product sellers or service providers to accept credit card payments using smartphones, tablets and an optional magnetic stripe reader. Through Snapcard Point of Sale, PagPop users can now easily accept bitcoin payments from their customers and get paid in Brazilian real on their bank accounts.

“We looked at all the players in the space based on the product positioning, and their current market penetration,” Dunworth explained. “This is when we reached out to PagPop. They're extremely excited about bitcoin just like us, so the conversation flowed naturally for us to start getting things up and running, ready for market."

Snapcard is a rapidly growing bitcoin wallet, claiming 25,000 merchants and over 75,000 active users worldwide. This has resulted in more than $250,000 in payments per day and an average of nearly 70 percent month-over-month growth, according to the company.

The post Snapcard Partners with PagPop, Enables 12,000 Brazilian Businesses to Accept Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

One of the biggest financial data breaches in history was "securities fraud on cyber steroids."

That's according to US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, who has charged Gery Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron, and Ziv Orenstein in connection to "the largest theft of customer data from a U.S. financial institution in history."

The defendants took a "classic stock fraud scheme" and brought it into the cyberspace, Bharara said in a Tuesday press conference.

He said they hacked 12 financial institutions, including JPMorgan, and stole personal information for over 100 million customers, targeting people engaged in significant stock trading.

They then used that private information to blast emails and tout penny stocks in multimillion-dollar "pump and dump" schemes, Bharara said.

They also allegedly performed "reverse mergers" of private companies with public shell corporations that Shalon controlled.

Payments processing for criminals and other charges

The three defendants were charged in a 23-count indictment.

In addition to the market manipulation scheme, Bharara accused Shalon and Orenstein of operating unlawful internet casinos and engaging in "massive hacks and cyberattacks against other internet gambling businesses to steal customer information, secretly review executives’ emails, and cripple rival businesses."

Separately, Bharara accused the same two men of operating illicit payment processing schemes for criminals.

Users included "unlawful pharmaceutical distributors, purveyors of counterfeit and malicious purported 'anti-virus' computer software, their own unlawful internet casinos," and an illegal United States-based Bitcoin exchange owned by Shalon.

Another charge is related anti-money laundering laws that Shalon's Bitcoin exchange violated.

Hacking banks, brokerages, and business news

In October 2014, JPMorgan, revealed in an SEC filing that more than 70 million households and seven million small businesses may have had their private data compromised in a cyberattack.

Bharara put the total number of customers affected from that incident at 83 million and called it "the single largest theft of data from a US financial institution."

At the time, the bank said, it hadn't seen "any unusual customer fraud related to this incident." It has since invested heavily in security and built a digital security team with ex-military cybersecurity experts. 

Last month, Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal and Barron's, said that hackers had intruded their networks, seeking contact and payment information for 3,500 customers.

Also last month, retail brokerage Scottrade said it had been the victim of a cyberattack in late 2013 and early 2014 that affected a system with data on 4.6 million clients.

Aaron is a fugitive and wanted by the FBI. Shalon and Orenstein arrested in Israel in July and Bharara is seeking extradition.

SEE ALSO: WANTED: The FBI is searching for one of the people charged in the JPMorgan hacking case

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Researchers have discovered 3 ways to tell if computer chips are counterfeit

One of the biggest financial data breaches in history was "securities fraud on cyber steroids."

That's according to US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, who has charged Gery Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron, and Ziv Orenstein in connection to "the largest theft of customer data from a U.S. financial institution in history."

The defendants took a "classic stock fraud scheme" and brought it into the cyberspace, Bharara said in a Tuesday press conference.

He said they hacked 12 financial institutions, including JPMorgan, and stole personal information for over 100 million customers, targeting people engaged in significant stock trading.

They then used that private information to blast emails and tout penny stocks in multimillion-dollar "pump and dump" schemes, Bharara said.

They also allegedly performed "reverse mergers" of private companies with public shell corporations that Shalon controlled.

Payments processing for criminals and other charges

The three defendants were charged in a 23-count indictment.

In addition to the market manipulation scheme, Bharara accused Shalon and Orenstein of operating unlawful internet casinos and engaging in "massive hacks and cyberattacks against other internet gambling businesses to steal customer information, secretly review executives’ emails, and cripple rival businesses."

Separately, Bharara accused the same two men of operating illicit payment processing schemes for criminals.

Users included "unlawful pharmaceutical distributors, purveyors of counterfeit and malicious purported 'anti-virus' computer software, their own unlawful internet casinos," and an illegal United States-based Bitcoin exchange owned by Shalon.

Another charge is related anti-money laundering laws that Shalon's Bitcoin exchange violated.

Hacking banks, brokerages, and business news

In October 2014, JPMorgan, revealed in an SEC filing that more than 70 million households and seven million small businesses may have had their private data compromised in a cyberattack.

Bharara put the total number of customers affected from that incident at 83 million and called it "the single largest theft of data from a US financial institution."

At the time, the bank said, it hadn't seen "any unusual customer fraud related to this incident." It has since invested heavily in security and built a digital security team with ex-military cybersecurity experts. 

Last month, Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal and Barron's, said that hackers had intruded their networks, seeking contact and payment information for 3,500 customers.

Also last month, retail brokerage Scottrade said it had been the victim of a cyberattack in late 2013 and early 2014 that affected a system with data on 4.6 million clients.

Aaron is a fugitive and wanted by the FBI. Shalon and Orenstein arrested in Israel in July and Bharara is seeking extradition.

SEE ALSO: WANTED: The FBI is searching for one of the people charged in the JPMorgan hacking case

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Researchers have discovered 3 ways to tell if computer chips are counterfeit

According to the NSA, it will report zero-day security vulnerabilities to software vendors “9 out of 10 times.” The other 10% of the time, it won't say what it does with them, but it does say there are times when the military and national security benefits outweigh the benefit to disclosing vulnerabilities to vendors.

The post Is the NSA Using Zero-Day Exploits before Reporting Them? appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A new indictment has been filed against Anthony Murgio, the former operator of the bitcoin exchange Coin.mx.

Dan McCrum was only mostly wrong in his factual assertions about Bitcoin recently. It was a bit sad to see someone demonstrate such little actual understanding, but deliver such an offensive opinion about Bitcoin. To his credit, McCrum did interview at least one mining pool operator for his article, but nevertheless managed to even get that person consider the idea that Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme. This idea has been debunked for so many years that it's irrelevant. But here we are: Bobby Lee, head of BTCC, the largest bitcoin exchange in China, argues its use for everyday transactions makes […]

The post Financial Times Writer Calls Bitcoin A "Pyramid Scheme" appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A proof-of-concept that would allow patients to record medical information on the bitcoin blockchain won the Blockchain Hackathon this weekend.

Banks, financial service providers, venture capitalists, and even governments, are showing more and more interest in blockchain technology. Venture capital money is flowing into blockchain companies, banks, credit card companies are experimenting with blockchain-related pilot projects, and public administrations are taking a more active role not only in regulating blockchain-based services, but also in stimulating the development of blockchain-related fintech and startups.

At the same time, a difference is often made between the blockchain technology and the specific blockchain implemented in the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin is considered as far too open and anarchic to be a suitable foundation for a solid financial system.

Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of digital financial service provider and “bitcoin bank” Circle, has written a thoughtful analysis of the blockchain vs. bitcoin issue on Re/code.

“If bitcoin is referenced, it’s dismissively, as if smart people are in the know that bitcoin (the digital asset) isn’t necessary or important to fueling this global network of distributed and decentralized trust,” says Allaire. “For the most part, it’s just a cop-out and intellectual laziness; I have yet to meet anyone who shares these thoughts who actually has any idea how any of the technology actually works.”

Allaire notes that the troublesome features of Bitcoin – its openness to everyone and its lack of centralized control – are exactly what make the Internet work. The success of the Internet and the failure of all the closed, regulated versions of the Internet that have been implemented, should suggest that openness is necessary for a robust blockchain system to work.

In many recent articles, Bitcoin Magazine reported the trend toward private, “permissioned” non-Bitcoin blockchains, supported by Accenture and Digital Asset Holdings CEO Blythe Masters .

Permissioned blockchains, under development by giant Swiss bank UBS , Bitcoin exchange itBit and others, would offer the advantages of digital currencies powered by public blockchains – fast and cheap transactions permanently recorded in a shared ledger – without the troublesome openness of the Bitcoin network where anyone can be a node on the network anonymously.

Instead of anonymous miners, only banks and vetted financial operators would be allowed to validate transactions in permissioned blockchains.

Allaire notes that “they want all the benefits of bitcoin, without bitcoin,” and asks, “Do we really think that financial industry consortia and alt-chain startups can challenge the open Internet? Does anyone really think these 'permissioned blockchains' have an iota of a chance at accomplishing anything more than building buggy, insecure closed back-end IT systems for banks?”

“[Until] someone actually builds, ships and scales a global open platform, open like the rest of the Internet, that can do what the bitcoin blockchain can today, there’s really nothing else to talk about,” is Allaire’s conclusion.

Like Allaire, legendary cryptographer Nick Szabo thinks that the mainstream financial establishment should embrace the crowd-sourced power and resiliency of permissionless blockchains like Bitcoin.

Allaire notes that bitcoin shouldn’t be considered as a new currency, but as a more efficient settlement network.

Most people don’t want a new currency, they are quite happy with their dollars, euro, pound, yuan and yen,” says Allaire. “They get paid in these currencies, they pay their taxes in these currencies, they understand their purchasing power in these currencies, etc. But, pretty uniformly, people want the benefits of bitcoin and the blockchain: near-instant transfers, globally available on any Internet-connected device, highly secure and nearly free value transfers.”

Services that use the bitcoin blockchain as a transparent channel for value transfers, for example cross-border transactions where a fiat currency is spent at one end and another fiat currency is paid at the other, are emerging.

We can hide bitcoin technology in the background,” noted Jack Liu, head of international at OKCoin, Bitcoin Magazine reported in October. “Liu added that OKLink transactions aren’t affected by the volatility of bitcoin. “Because you are doing instant buy of bitcoin and sell of bitcoin, you are not affected by the bitcoin price,” he said.

“[Consumers and businesses] can share value globally and instantly for free, by using the bitcoin blockchain as an open and secure ledger and settlement network,” notes Allaire. “For the duration of a transfer, local currencies are converted into and out of ‘digital tokens,’ and the transaction is settled over the Internet.”

Earlier this year, Circle started offering customers in the United States the ability to hold their funds in U.S. dollars, which could be followed by similar offerings in other countries and permit transparent, cheap, fast bitcoin-mediated transfer between one currency and another.

The post Circle's CEO Jeremy Allaire Defends the Bitcoin Blockchain appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Today bitcoin price broke below long-term (1-day chart) horizontal support at 2300 CNY and $360 (Bitstamp). It appears that downtrend may resume, but an important barrier remains to the downside. 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: 15h36 UTC BTC-China 1-Hour Chart From the analysis pages of xbt.social, earlier today: Prior analysis, expected price to decline to this level as an extreme low for an ongoing correction to the rally. However, […]

The post Bitcoin Price Falls Just Too Far appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, has charged three people in connection to "the largest theft of customer data from a U.S. financial institution in history" — and JPMorgan Chase is the chief victim.

Gery Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron, and Ziv Orenstein were charged in a 23-count indictment related to the computer hacking of several financial institutions and financial news publishers.

They are accused of stealing the personal information of over 100 million customers, according to the indictment.

A fourth person, Anthony Murgio, who operated a Florida-based Bitcoin exchange service, is accused in a separate indictment of conspiracy.

Murgio and Aaron were previously linked to cyberattack on JPMorgan.

JPMorgan spokeswoman Patricia Wexler confirmed to Business Insider that the bank was a victim.

"We appreciate the strong partnership with law enforcement in bringing the criminals to justice. As we did here, we continue to cooperate with law enforcement in fighting cybercrime," Wexler said.

The people charged "orchestrated massive computer hacking crimes" from 2012 to mid-2015, according to the indictment.

Bharara will explain the charges during a press conference set for 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Last month, Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal and Barron's, said that hackers had intruded their networks, seeking contact and payment information for 3,500 customers.

Also last month, retail brokerage Scottrade said it had been the victim of a cyberattack in late 2013 and early 2014 that affected a system with data on 4.6 million clients.

SEE ALSO: The pillars of American finance are under attack

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Shark Tank' star Robert Herjavec has a simple tip to protect your identity

Good morning. Here's what you need to know.

China faces deflation pressures. China's consumer prices climbed by just 1.3% year-over-year, which was much slower than the 1.6% pace in September and the 1.5% expected by economists. Producer prices fell 5.9%. These weak inflation readings open the door for more monetary stimulus from the People's Bank of China.

Portugal's government is about to be ousted by socialists. "Portugal's centre-right government looks likely to be ejected from office on Tuesday evening, only a month after the country's most recent parliamentary election," Business Insider's Mike Bird writes. "A vote of no confidence from the country's parliament is expected to send Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho packing, with a left-wing coalition waiting in the wings. The two centre-right parties that formed a coalition after the 2011 election ran under a 'Portugal Ahead' banner in 2015 vote, winning 38.6% of the vote and 106 of the parliament's 230 seats.”

The IEA says oil is going to $80. In its World Energy Outlook report, the International Energy Agency predicted oil prices, which are near $47 per barrel, will rise gradually to $80 by 2020. The agency forecasts prices to rise as drilling capacity tightens.

Small business optimism goes nowhere. The NFIB's small business optimism index was unchanged at 96.1 in October, missing expectations for an improvement to 96.4. “The October NFIB survey gave no indication of a resurgence in growth in the small business sector with the Index remaining below the 42 year average of 98,” NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said. “The labor market components might have held at historically strong levels but this time owners reported no net growth in employment, which is a significant drop from reports in the previous four months.”

Greece can't convince creditors to release bailout funds. "Greece failed to convince European creditors Monday to release vital bailout funds to shore up the country's public coffers and its crippled banks but hopes are high that a deal will be concluded within a week," AP's Pan Pylas reported. "There are open issues," eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said.

SPONSORED BY FidelityInvestments
Get Fidelity’s take on the markets — perspectives on everything from trading strategies to market reports. Learn more here.

Goldman Sachs sees a 60% chance the recovery last for four more years. “The current economic expansion is now more than six years old, raising questions about its ‘life expectancy,’” Goldman Sachs’ Zach Pandl writes. “Fortunately, the historical record suggests the age of the expansion has little bearing on the risks of a downturn—i.e. recession odds are only loosely related to time. Using a dataset on developed market business cycles, we calculate that the unconditional odds that a six-year-old expansion will avoid recession for another four years—and mature into a 10-year-old expansion—are about 60%.”

The Fed is on "the knife's edge." During a webcast on Monday afternoon, DoubleLine Funds' Jeffrey Gundlach acknowledged that odds are up that the Federal Reserve hikes rates in December. He attributed some of the change to Friday's jobs report, which he said was "pretty good in a number of ways."

Gap warns. The clothing retailer offered some ugly preliminary sales numbers ahead of its official Q3 earnings announcement. Net sales fell 3% to $3.86 billion, largely to unfavorable currency moves. "The company noted that the translation of foreign currencies into U.S. dollars negatively impacted the company’s reported net sales for the third quarter of fiscal year 2015 by about $98 million, primarily due to the weakening Japanese yen and Canadian dollar," management said. Global comparable store sales fell 4% in October, which is worse than the 2% decline expected. Management expects to report earnings of $0.62 to $0.63 per share, which is weaker than the $0.67 expected by analysts. 

Markets are lower. US futures are modestly lower with Dow futures down 22 points and S&P futures down 2.2 points. Asian markets closed mixed with Japan's Nikkei up 0.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Sent down 1.4%. European markets are broadly lower with the UK's FTSE 100 down 0.4%, Germany's DAX down 0.2%, and France's CAC 40 down 0.4%.

Not much data on deck. At 8:30 a.m. ET, we'll get the import price report. Economists estimate import prices slipp 0.1% month-over-month or 9.4% year-over-year.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The killer jobs report could mean a rate hike in December

Coinbase is seeking to expand its bitcoin buying and selling services to new Asian and Latin American markets in 2016.

UK-based banking giant HSBC sees blockchain technology to benefit state-installed central banks, institutions that are tasked and responsible for a country’s economic growth and wellbeing. In a document obtained by Business Insider, HSBC sees the potential of blockchain technology to transcend private and investment banks and influence or even enhance central banks’ policies. The publication reports that HSBC sees central banks’ current method of helping the economy through interest rates has a few drawbacks. Notably, there’s no guarantee of the money pumped into the real economy as the choice rests among the banks and the creation of excessive additional debt […]

The post HSBC: Blockchain Technology Could Help Central Banks Policies appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A charity auction for Dorian Nakamoto features art pieces by well-known Bitcoin-only artist Crypto Graffiti, whose work explores cryptocurrencies and the big banks he believes Bitcoin undermines. The pseudonymous artist is the first to use a public-facing bitcoin wallet for donations for street art. His work can be seen in The Wall Street Journal and other publications. After Newsweek claimed it had found Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, a media whirlwind circled Dorian Nakamoto, who until this day denies being Bitcoin’s founder. Nakamoto claimed his world was turned upside down and received donations for the mess in which he found himself. […]

The post Crypto-Currency Only Artist Organizes Charity Auction For Ailing Dorian Nakamoto appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

NextBank, which claims to be the first bitcoin-friendly bank and is scheduled to open in 2016, announced it is accepting early registrations after receiving a $950,000 investment. Most of the investment is from founder Dim Voloshinsky, who is also the owner of London, U.K.-based Instaglobal Limited, which operates the exchange Bitcoins123.com, according to PRNewswire. Voloshinsky pledged $600,000 USD while an angel investor contributed $330,000 at the end of October. A NextBank account can be opened for free at http://nb.vu with no obligation. The First Bitcoin-Friendly Bank NextBank will allow conversion from fiat to cryptocurrencies without the 3% to 5% conversion charges found […]

The post Bitcoin-Friendly NextBank Accepts Early Registrations Following $950,000 Investment appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Good morning! Here are the 10 things you need to know in markets on Tuesday.

Chinese inflation came in weak.Consumer prices in China rose just 1.3% in October compared to the same month last year, missing expectations for an increase of 1.5%. The figure marked the slowest annual expansion seen since May, and was well below the 1.6% pace seen in September.

Asian markets are weak on the back of the price growth figures. Japan's Nikkei is up 0.25% at time of writing (6.30 a.m. GMT/1.30 a.m. ET), the Hong Kong Hang Seng is down 1.53%, and the Shanghai Composite is down 0.15%.

Prime Minister David Cameron kicks off his efforts to reform the European Union on Tuesday. Cameron, who has frustrated some EU officials by giving away few details on the changes he would like to see, will send a letter to the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, setting out his four main objectives.

Greece failed to convince European creditors on Monday to release vital bailout funds to shore up the country's public coffers and its crippled banks. Though the Greek government has met many of the conditions attached to the country's third international bailout, it still needs to push through some financial reforms.

Greek inflation figures are coming at 10 a.m. GMT (5 a.m. ET). Prices dropped 1.7% in September.

Global energy use is set to grow by one-third over the next 25 years, driven mostly by emerging economies, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday. Energy consumption in the most developed nations is expected to decline over the same period, it said in its annual World Energy Outlook.

Fitch ratings agency has cut Volkswagen's credit rating by two notches, saying that a widening pollution cheating scandal has exposed weak corporate governance at the German auto giant. "We believe that the emergence of a fraud of this magnitude, going either unnoticed or uncorrected by top management for so long is not consistent with a rating in the 'A' category," said Fitch.

The resumption of IPO listings is likely to lead to further gains in Chinese stocks in the period ahead, according to Credit Suisse. But the bank said worryingly that: "Individual investors believe the upcoming IPOs will bring them ‘risk-free’ returns as usual", in a note on the changes announced over the weekend.

easyJet CEO Carolyn McCall has given her first interview since the Egyptian security crisis to the BBC. She told the BBC: "This will be a global thing, not just an Egyptian thing or a North African thing. And I think passengers will be happy about that and I think airlines will support that, because no-one wants a security threat."

London office space under construction is at a 7-year high. But the Financial Times reports that this won't have an immediate effect on rents, as the amount of office space available in the capital is at a 14-year low.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: These are the watches worn by the smartest and most powerful men in the world

New York exchange itBit has revealed it successful bit for and won five auction blocks during last week’s bitcoin auction conducted by the United States Marshals Service (USMS). The U.S. government held its final auction of seized bitcoins from Darknet drug market Silk Road on Thursday, last week in an event that saw the sale of 44,341 BTC. With a total of 21 blocks, 20 auction blocks contained 2,000 BTC with one additional block of 2,341 BTC. At the time of announcing the auction, a notice from the USMS read: These bitcoins were held in wallet files that resided on […]

The post New York Exchange itBit Wins 10,000 BTC in Silk Road Auction   appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The Armada Collective, a group of extortionist hackers, seems to be responsible for taking out private email services, including Protonmail, Hushmail and Runbox. It also appears to have registered the biggest DDoS attack in history.