In a display of support, on December 4 a worldwide audience tuned in to Free Ross-A-Thon. The eight hour online fundraiser set a $14,000...

The post Revelations of Evidence Tampering Help Boost Global Support of Ross Ulbricht appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Virtual Technology Cluster (VTC) Group, an organization that wants to help major multinational companies to attract emerging and...

The post New Deloitte Virtual Technology Cluster for Healthcare Can Assist Blockchain Startups appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

New fintech companies are springing up around the world and disrupting the financial services sector.

Each of these companies brings a unique and useful service to the fintech ecosystem, which has swelled in the past couple of years. After it hit $19 billion in total in 2015, worldwide fintech funding hit $15 billion by mid-August 2016.

The U.S., Europe, and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region led the way in attracting the most fintech investment, but fintech companies are laying down roots all over the globe.

Below, we've compiled a list of fintech companies to know, sorted by location.

USA Fintech

Europe Fintech

Asian Fintech

South American Fintech

More to Learn

This extensive list of global fintech companies is just the beginning for the fintech industry, which is growing in entirely new ways.

That's why BI Intelligence spent months compiling the best and most comprehensive guide on the world of fintech entitled The Fintech Ecosystem Report: The Emerging Technologies and Firms Driving Change in Financial Services and How Legacy Players Can Navigate The Disruption.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the payments industry, choose one of these options:

1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of financial technology.

Join the conversation about this story »

New fintech companies are springing up around the world and disrupting the financial services sector.

Each of these companies brings a unique and useful service to the fintech ecosystem, which has swelled in the past couple of years. After it hit $19 billion in total in 2015, worldwide fintech funding hit $15 billion by mid-August 2016.

The U.S., Europe, and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region led the way in attracting the most fintech investment, but fintech companies are laying down roots all over the globe.

Below, we've compiled a list of fintech companies to know, sorted by location.

USA Fintech

Europe Fintech

Asian Fintech

South American Fintech

More to Learn

This extensive list of global fintech companies is just the beginning for the fintech industry, which is growing in entirely new ways.

That's why BI Intelligence spent months compiling the best and most comprehensive guide on the world of fintech entitled The Fintech Ecosystem Report: The Emerging Technologies and Firms Driving Change in Financial Services and How Legacy Players Can Navigate The Disruption.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the payments industry, choose one of these options:

1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of financial technology.

Join the conversation about this story »

Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours.

Finally.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday decided to raise its benchmark interest rate, as expected, and upped its expectation for the number of rate hikes in 2017. Here are the headlines:

• YELLEN: It's too soon to tell how Trump will affect the Fed
• The Fed's latest rate hike will soon have an impact on your wallet
• PEDRO DA COSTA: The Fed just proved it's not political
• Stocks are jumping towards new highs
• Bonds are flashing a warning sign
• The euro against the US dollar is at its lowest level since 2003

In other news, Morgan Stanley may be missing out on the big Wall Street rebound, and here's JPMorgan's pitch to top young talent.

Hedge funds have historically marketed themselves as a prestige investment, promising an exclusive group of investors higher returns in exchange for higher fees. The higher returns haven't been there of late, though. Now the high fees are starting to budge, too.

A conspiracy theory is going around about someone dumping Lockheed Martin stock right before Trump's tweet caused it to tank. Verizon could kill its $4.8 billion deal with Yahoo. John Zimmer, president and co-founder of Lyft, thinks that autonomous cars will lead to human drivers becoming illegal in some US cities.

Lastly, here are 21 bars with the world's most incredible views

Here are the top Wall Street headlines at midday

20 state attorneys general are suing 6 generic drugmakers over collusion and price fixing — New York's attorney general — along with the attorneys general of 19 other states — has filed a lawsuit against generic drugmakers for fixing prices and colluding.

The Bank of Japan will have to fire up its printing press again — Donald Trump's election night victory has sent shockwaves through bond markets around the world.

Citi backs foreign exchange blockchain startup Cobalt DL — Citi has made an undisclosed investment in Cobalt DL, a London startup aiming to use the technology behind bitcoin to simplify foreign exchange trading.

A top anthropologist says the US is flooded with "bulls---" jobs that should disappear — There is a job epidemic in America, anthropologist David Graeber says. And not because there are too few jobs, but because there are too many.

Inside the swanky private club where Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, and Justin Timberlake go to ski — Yellowstone Club, a private ski resort and residential community near Big Sky, Montana, was a pioneer in the members-only space.

We tested what might be the best dress shoes out there — There's a good amount of thought that should go into any bigger purchases you make for your closet.

SEE ALSO: North America is going to get a new billionaire every 6 days

Join the conversation about this story »

[…]

The post Bitcoin Exchange BTC-e Resumes Services after Latest DDoS Attack appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

San Francisco-based bitcoin startup Wyre has raised $5.8m in new funding.

Source

[…]

The post Bitcoin’s New Block Size Proposal ‘SegWit’ Could Help CryptoCurrency “Go Dark” appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Bitcoin prices will likely finish 2016 between $750 and $800, according to most analysts, but the price could go even higher.

Source

Jim Harper takes aim at bitcoin's so-called "successes" in 2016, arguing that deficient dialogue is holding back it and other blockchain-based monies.

Source

[…]

The post An Exciting Time for Bitcoin Traders Looms appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

LONDON — Citi has made an undisclosed investment in Cobalt DL, a London startup aiming to use the technology behind bitcoin to simplify foreign exchange trading.

Cobalt DL, founded by two veteran bankers, aims to apply distributed ledger technology, also known as blockchain, to the foreign exchange trading market. Currently, when banks trade currencies with each other there are multiple different records of the transaction held by the buyer, seller, broker, clearer, and other third parties, all of which have to be reconciled. This slows the process down and adds to costs.

The company aims to create a single, shared view of each transaction by using blockchain technology, which uses complex cryptography to allow people to safely view and edit shared ledgers. The technology was first developed to underpin cryptocurrency bitcoin, doing away with the need for a central bank.

James Bindler, Global Head of G10 FX at Citi, says in an emailed statement: "We have been impressed with the way Cobalt DL is redesigning the post-trade FX infrastructure with its practical implementation of distributed ledger technology. 

"The Cobalt DL solution has the potential to significantly improve post-trade services by cutting costs and reducing risk for our industry."

Cobalt DL is currently in the early stages of testing its network and plans to launch it in 2017. 15 institutions are taking part in the testing, including Citi. Cobalt DL estimates its technology could cut trading costs by up to 80%.

The company was founded last year by a veteran Andy Coyne, a veteran of Citi and Deutsche Bank, and Adrian Patten, a former foreign exchange dealer.

Coyne says in an emailed statement: "We have set out to radically improve the FX post-trade landscape by removing inefficiencies, duplicative legacy infrastructure and processes, as well as reducing significant costs and risks."

Banks and startups like Cobalt DL are pouring millions of pounds and hundreds of hours into applying blockchain technology to all manner of financial markets in a bid to drive efficiency and cut costs.

Cobalt DL also announced that Charlotte Crosswell, the former CEO of Nasdaq's derivatives trading market NLX, is becoming a strategic advisor to the company.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The US is $19.9 trillion in debt — here are the countries we owe the most

Genesis Mining CEO and Co-Founder Marco Streng (Photo courtesy of Genesis Mining) Since being introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, Bitcoin has swiftly evolved to transform the way we imagine global currency in a digital world. Developed by programmers and released as open-source software in 2009, Bitcoin is credited as [...]

IRS is after Coinbase account data and will probably get it, eventually. But court papers suggest not everyone is taking the IRS summons laying down.