Coin News

A startup tied to Australian academic and businessman Craig Wright, who last year claimed to be the inventor of bitcoin, has been sold.

Source

By raising borrowing costs, a central bank can usually slow down risky consumer credit and spending.

But this economic logic is not as straightforward to deal with Canada's housing market, where prices in major cities have escalated and created what many economists say is a bubble.

The Teranet and National Bank of Canada house-price index showed that Toronto prices had gained 13.5% year-on-year in March. In Vancouver, prices were up 12.2%.

With household debt at the highest level in at least two decades, the Bank of Canada is unlikely to use higher rates to cool the housing market because of the ripple effect it would have on the rest of the economy, according to Capital Economics' Jonathan Loynes. 

"The Bank of Canada confessed this week that speculation is partly responsible for the recent upswing in house prices, but doesn’t believe that higher interest rates are a solution to the problem," Loynes wrote in a note on Thursday. 

"While the Bank of Canada is well aware of the potential risks housing imbalances pose to financial stability, it believes that new mortgage financing rules will mitigate the recent rise in highly indebted households. Raising interest rates in the near term would obviously make it even more difficult for already heavily indebted households to service those debts, putting the entire economic recovery in jeopardy."

Loynes noted that the rise in Canada's housing bubble is worse than the one that helped trigger the Great Recession in the US.

Based on the ratio of house prices to income per capita, Canada's housing market is the most overvalued going back to at least 1981.

Some regulatory action helped slow homebuying in Vancouver, the hottest market in the country alongside Toronto. A foreign-buyer tax stemmed sales from people entering the market out of speculation that prices would rise. In Toronto, policymakers proposed a vacancy tax on unoccupied homes. 

But that has not made a significant dent in the largest housing markets. Additionally, tighter lending standards in the already highly regulated banking sector may have curbed mortgage credit, but is still not doing much to cool house prices, Loynes said.

And so, higher interest rates would be a textbook way to cool the housing market. The problem is that Canada's overall household debt is already high, and higher interest rates could make repayments harder.

"Moreover, the Bank still doesn’t believe and won’t say publicly that there is a housing bubble," Loynes wrote. "That said, it’s unrealistic to ever expect any central banker to admit to a bubble."

He said it is possible that the bank raises rates this year for the first time since 2010, but only if it sees "overwhelming" signs of growth led by higher exports. 

The Bank of Canada held its key interest rate steady at 0.50% on Wednesday, but acknowledged that the economy was growing faster than it had expected. 

"In the meantime, all they can do is cross their fingers and hope that the housing bubble doesn’t torpedo the economy before then," Loynes concluded.   

SEE ALSO: Bank of Canada holds interest rates

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's footage of the US military's new helicopter that'll cost as much as an F-35

Shares of Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, are down 0.7% at $20.08, after Instagram announced its Snapchat-like Stories app has more daily users.

The Facebook-owned Instagram announced on Thursday that Stories has more than 200 million daily users, ahead of the 161 million reported by Snapchat.   

Things haven't gone so well for tech's most darling IPO of 2017. Snap had a blistering March 2 debut, which saw its first trade occur at $24 after pricing at $17. The stock hit an all-time high of $27.09 on March 3, but has been in a tailspin ever since.

Snap received several "sell" ratings early on as analysts questioned its ability to deal with competition from bigger companies.

"Investors in Snap will be exposed to an upstart facing aggressive competition from much larger companies, with a core user base that is not growing by much and which is only relatively elusive," Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group, wrote as he placed a $10 target on the stock the day Snap went public. 

After putting in a high the day after its IPO, Snap tumbled nearly 30% in the following weeks before receiving a deluge of bullish ratings from its underwriters. 

Here's a rundown of those calls:

• Goldman Sachs: Buy, $27 price target
• Morgan Stanley: Overweight, $28 price target
• Citi: Buy, $27 price target
• RBC: Outperform, $31 price target
• Jefferies: Buy, $30 price target
• Oppenheimer: Market perform
• Credit Suisse: Outperform, $30 price target
• UBS: Neutral, $24 price target
• Stifel: Hold, $24 price target
• Cowen: Outperform, $26 price target

Snap was able to ride the momentum of those ratings, moving back up to $24.40 a share on March 27. Since then, however, the stock has pressed back towards the post-IPO low of $18.90 as the company has had to deal with companies like Facebook cloning some of its ideas. 

On Wednesday, Snap announced its first-ever quarterly conference call will take place on May 10. It is unclear if CEO Evan Spiegel will participate. 

SEE ALSO: Report says North Korea stole bitcoin from South Korea for years

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL explains why you should end a shower with cold water

Shares of Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, are down 1.2% at $19.97, after Instagram announced its Snapchat-like Stories app has more daily users.

The Facebook-owned Instagram announced on Thursday that Stories has more than 200 million daily users, ahead of the 161 million reported by Snapchat.   

Things haven't gone so well for tech's most darling IPO of 2017. Snap had a blistering March 2 debut, which saw its first trade occur at $24 after pricing at $17. The stock hit an all-time high of $27.09 on March 3, but has been in a tailspin ever since.

Snap received several "sell" ratings early on as analysts questioned its ability to deal with competition from bigger companies.

"Investors in Snap will be exposed to an upstart facing aggressive competition from much larger companies, with a core user base that is not growing by much and which is only relatively elusive," Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group, wrote as he placed a $10 target on the stock the day Snap went public. 

After putting in a high the day after its IPO, Snap tumbled nearly 30% in the following weeks before receiving a deluge of bullish ratings from its underwriters. 

Here's a rundown of those calls:

• Goldman Sachs: Buy, $27 price target
• Morgan Stanley: Overweight, $28 price target
• Citi: Buy, $27 price target
• RBC: Outperform, $31 price target
• Jefferies: Buy, $30 price target
• Oppenheimer: Market perform
• Credit Suisse: Outperform, $30 price target
• UBS: Neutral, $24 price target
• Stifel: Hold, $24 price target
• Cowen: Outperform, $26 price target

Snap was able to ride the momentum of those ratings, moving back up to $24.40 a share on March 27. Since then, however, the stock has pressed back towards the post-IPO low of $18.90 as the company has had to deal with companies like Facebook cloning some of its ideas. 

On Wednesday, Snap announced its first-ever quarterly conference call will take place on May 10. It is unclear if CEO Evan Spiegel will participate. 

SEE ALSO: Report says North Korea stole bitcoin from South Korea for years

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Children who eat too much sugar are developing diseases that only alcoholics used to get

Legislators in Washington state have put the finishing touches on new rules for businesses that offer digital currency services.

Source

[…]

The post Ethereum Rises, Bitcoin Falls appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Greg Maxwell discusses his assertions about an alleged controversial mining technique and the way forward for bitcoin.

Source

Bitcoin's legal status in Russia is again uncertain after a central bank official backed away from positive statements from its Ministry of Finance.

Source

[…]

The post Talk of 2018 Bitcoin Legalization Premature: Bank of Russia Official appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

North Korean hackers reportedly stole about $88,000 (100 million Korean won) worth of bitcoin from South Korean exchanges every month from 2013 to 2015, Yonhap News Agency reports, citing Radio Free Asia.

"Cyber criminals have turned to bitcoin for money as it is very difficult to track them down," Choi Sang-myong, a senior official at South Korea's cybersecurity firm Hauri, told Free Asia Radio. "Since tracking down the culprits is very difficult, North Korea had jumped on the bandwagon of bitcoin extortion since around 2012."

The alleged theft comes as North Korea looks for ways boost its hard currency amid an onslaught of sanctions levied against leader Kim Jong Un's regime, according to Radio Free Asia. 

It's not the first report of cyber hacks from North Korea aimed at the capital markets. Back in February 2016, North Korean hackers allegedly transferred almost $1 billion from Bangladesh Bank's account at the New York Fed by using the SWIFT messaging network. 

News of the alleged theft comes at an interesting time for the cryptocurrency.

Last month, the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected plans for two bitcoin exchange traded funds, partly because of security concerns.

In its ruling on the ETFs, the SEC said, "Based on the record before it, the commission believes that the significant markets for bitcoin are unregulated." The SEC continued, "Therefore, as the exchange has not entered into, and would currently be unable to enter into, the type of surveillance-sharing agreement that has been in place with respect to all previously approved commodity-trust ETPs — agreements that help address concerns about the potential for fraudulent or manipulative acts and practices in this market — the commission does not find the proposed rule change to be consistent with the Exchange Act."

However, the cryptocurrency is gaining acceptance elsewhere. Japanese regulators ruled that as of April 1, bitcoin would be accepted as a legal payment method. Additionally, on Monday, Russia said it would consider recognizing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2018. 

Bitcoin has been the top-performing currency every year since 2010, aside from 2014. It's up about 25% so far in 2017. 

SEE ALSO: The first investor in Snapchat thinks each bitcoin could realistically be worth $500,000 by 2030 — Here's how

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Meet the MQ-25A Stingray — the US's response to threats like China's 'carrier killers'

Overstock looks back at its groundbreaking decision to accept bitcoin in 2014 – a notable early boost for digital currency.

Source

[…]

The post North Korean Hackers Accused of Stealing ₩100 Million in Bitcoin Every Month from 2013-15 appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

[…]

The post (+) Analysis: Bitcoin is weak, Litecoin and Ethereum look strong appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

[…]

The post (+) Analysis: Bitcoin is weak, Litecoin and Ethereum look strong appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Will activating SegWit make litecoin a better investment? CoinDesk asks analysts and traders to weigh in on a pressing markets topic.

Source