Coin News

 Bitcoin price plunged over $100 today, dropping to a low of $546.84 on the Bitstamp Price Index (BPI). Following weeks of a surging rally that scaled to two-year highs, bitcoin price fell $100 today in a week that saw prominent bitcoin exchange Bitfinex suffer outages. The result for the EU referendum will also be revealed […]

The post Bitcoin Price Falls Beyond $550, Recovers appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Britain will vote on the European Union Referendum on Thursday when millions of people will decide whether or not to stay in the EU. If Britain decides to leave, though, it could cost the UK economy as much as $5 billion over the next five years, according to a report conducted by consultancy William Garrity […]

The post Brexit Fears Haunt UK FinTech appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The Swedish National Land Survey (Lantmäteriet) recently announced that it is conducting trials of a system that uses blockchain technology...

The post Sweden Conducts Trials of a Blockchain Smart Contracts Technology for Land Registry  appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Thomas J. Curry, Comptroller of the Currency, opened today the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Forum on Supporting Responsible Innovation in the Federal Banking System at OCC’s headquarters in Washington DC which brought together “thought leaders from banks, financial technology companies, academia, community and consumer groups.” Curry’s agency is tasked with overhauling […]

The post US Regulators to Hold Defining Forum on Fintech in Washington appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

UK Only Article:  standard article Issue:  March of the machines Fly Title:  The DAO Main image:  20160625_FND001_0.jpg Rubric:  A cyber-attacker outsmarts a “smart contract” IS IT theft if no rules are broken? That is what users of the DAO, a futuristic investment fund, were left pondering after June 17th, when an unknown attacker made off with around 3.6m “ether”, an online currency similar to bitcoin. As cyber-heists go, it was a big one: the ether were worth about $55m at the time of the attack, about a third of the DAO’s assets. But the DAO, which stands for Decentralised Anonymous Organisation, does not have rules as such, or staff to enforce them: instead, it has computer code, which is supposed to embody its purpose and to operate automatically. If the attacker found a flaw in the code, whose fault is that? Indeed, some cyber-libertarians are arguing that whereas the heist was not a crime, altering digital ledgers to retrieve the lost ether would be an affront to the whole project. Like ...

The bitcoin price chart fell through another level of support earlier today, but is clawing its way back to $600. How will we know if the next upward wave is advance or merely a correction? The 1-day candle chart indicators give us clues. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3-hour delay. Read the […]

The post Bitcoin Price – Decline Inside A Channel Of Advance appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Circle allows the sending of payments to countries where it hasn't yet launched, with the payment transferred into bitcoin, then settled within minutes via the blockchain network that validates bitcoin transactions

Circle, the bitcoin blockchain-centric peer-to-peer payments firm, has raised $60 million in a new funding run from investors in China and has revealed the formation of ‘Circle China,’ based out of Beijing. Blockchain-based payments company Circle has announced a new series round of funding which sees $60 million raised from what the company calls a […]

The post Bitcoin Startup Circle Raises $60 Million ifor China Expansion appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Tax evaders stunned by the Panama Papers leak are likely to see bitcoin as a tax haven, according to a California law professor reported. Bitcoin wallets have no physical presence, and they do not require expensive assistance to create and maintain.   Bitcoin is especially attractive to workers in the gig economy who exchange skills for […]

The post UC Law Professor Sees Bitcoin Becoming a Tax Haven for the Gig Economy appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Coinetize, a micropayment service that pays in bitcoin, allows any website to accept payments for content. A key goal of the project, which is currently in private beta, is to free website content providers from having to compromise content quality with unattractive advertising that is often needed to monetize the content. Website visitors can purchase […]

The post Coinetize Micropayments Enables Bitcoin Monetization appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Good morning! Here's what you need to know in markets on Thursday.

It is finally referendum day. Brits go to the polls today to vote on whether or not the UK should vote to stay in the European Union. Polls suggest that the race is too close to call, although the Remain camp appears to have a small lead.

Britain leaving the EU would not be as bad for the markets as the Lehman Brothers collapse. Britain leaving the European Union would have a strong negative on European equity markets, but the impact would be nowhere near as bad as the fallout following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, according to Goldman Sachs.

British high street banks are stockpiling cash. High-street banks are building their cash reserves  for Friday under orders of the financial regulator, in case a vote to leave the EU prompts mass withdrawals, the Financial Times reports.

Oil prices are gaining. Oil prices rose in Asian trading on Thursday, shrugging off a smaller-than-expected decline in U.S. stockpiles, as the market nervously awaited the result of Britain's "Brexit" vote. Both benchmarks are up around 0.7% this morning.

Wall Street is turning its back on Elon Musk. Musk's electric-car company, Tesla, made an offer to buy Musk's solar-power company, SolarCity.

Japan's manufacturing sector is shrinking. Japanese manufacturing activity contracted in June at roughly the same pace as the previous month, a preliminary survey showed, but concerns remain due to supply chain disruptions from an earthquake in April and falling exports.

Venezuela's opposition is one step closer to ousting President Nicolas Maduro.The opposition appears to have the signatures to move forward with a recall referendum.

One analyst doesn't think Google is getting enough credit in the market, arguing the company's cloud business could cause the stock to soar to over $900.

Secretive $20 billion startup Palantir is buying $225 million of stock back from employees, in exchange for their silence.

Goldman Sachs-backed bitcoin payment app Circle just raised $60 million. Bitcoin-based payment app Circle has raised $60 million (£40.8 million) as payments over its app hit $1 billion (£680 million) a year. Circle on Thursday also announced the launch of a Chinese venture and plans to offer euro transfers as part of European expansion.

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Bitcoin-based payment app Circle has raised $60 million (£40.8 million) as payments over its app hit $1 billion (£680 million) a year.

Circle on Thursday also announced the launch of a Chinese venture and plans to offer euro transfers as part of European expansion. 

The $60 million funding round has been led by Beijing-based venture capital company IDG Capital, which has already invested in the startup. US-based Breyer Capital also took part in the round. A source close to the process told Business Insider the investment values Circle at close to $400 million (£272.5 million).

CEO and cofounder Jeremy Allaire told BI: "It has been widely reported that a lot of companies have struggled to raise capital and you see these markdowns in unicorn valuations. That is real. I think we are very fortunate to be able to have a high-quality round with great investors. This gives us more runway for what we are trying to do."

Circle lets people send and receive money anywhere in the world for free by harnessing bitcoin's blockchain. US dollars or UK pounds are converted into bitcoin, transferred to the recipient's Circle app over the internet, then converted back into the local currency. 

The startup, which is backed by Goldman Sachs, began by offering mobile digital wallets for bitcoin but launched a mainstream consumer payments product in the US last year and a UK version of the app earlier this year.

CEO and cofounder Jeremy Allaire told BI: "What we're trying to do is complex and requires a fair amount of capital. When there is market demand, it is always time to raise money."

However, Allaire added that Circle still has "a significant majority of the capital we had raised to date" — $76 million (£51.7 million) — on its balance sheet.

'Of our labour investment, almost half is in R&D'

Allaire says the fundraising began in January and closed around a month ago. He says the cash will go towards marketing, expansion in Europe, and R&D. Circle is today launching euro payments and opening up the service in Spain, with a wider European roll-out to follow.

Allaire says: "All of that marketing and market expansion requires capital. And then we are continuing to invest a great deal in R&D. We have got a busy product pipeline and as a company we look more like a consumer internet software company than a traditional financial institution. Of our labour investment, almost half is in R&D."

Discussing development, Allaire says: "At a high level, we've been continuing to iterate on what the social payments experience looks like, something that combines messaging and your contacts graph and media with payments. There is a lot more we want to do with that.

"Conceptually, what we think we are building is a future iteration of a spending account. There are more things that consumers expect out of their spending account and we want to work on some of those ideas as well."

Circle announced alongside its fundraising that it is now transferring payments at an annualised rate of $1 billion. Allaire says the app is now being used in over 100 countries, although 70% of usage comes from the UK, US, and Europe.

'Zero illusions that we can compete' with Alipay and Tencent

Circle today also publicised the existence of Circle China, a new company established in the country 6 months ago with seed funding from Circle's initial investors. Allaire says the $60 million won't be used to fund this venture.

"One of the critical things about building a company in China, especially in a regulated and somewhat protected sector like the financial sector, in order to operate there we really needed a separate company," he says. 

"Circle Global obviously has a very significant equity position in that company but it has got its own capital base and its own direct investment. The Chinese government wants Chinese companies with Chinese nationals and Chinese investors. That is the model we are building and pursuing. "

China's mobile payment and money management market is dominated by local players Alipay and Tencent. Allaire says Circle won't try and compete with the dominant brands.

He says: "We actually have zero illusions that we can compete with those companies [Alipay and Tencent] in the domestic Chinese market. That is just not feasible. But what we can bring to the table for Chinese consumers connectivity to the US and Europe, and provide a seamless experience for sharing value.

"The focus around Circle China is really cross-border payments. If I'm a parent in China and my son is studying at London Business School, I might want to send 500 RMB. I should be able to do that and have my child instantly receive it as pounds sterling, in the same way people do that with instant messages today.

"We are leveraging the fact that we are licensed across the different zones to connect to those use cases."

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The price of bitcoin fell $100 during a five-hour span today, dropping 15% over the current session as macroeconomic worries fade.