Coin News

• Bitcoin had an incredible run in 2017, but in one respect the coin is worse off than it was at the beginning of the year. 
• It's share of the cryptocurrency market has more than halved since January 2017.

2017 was an incredible year for bitcoin.

In addition to appreciating by more than 1,500% since the start of the year, it also now has two futures markets, which have lured a number of traditional Wall Street players in to the nascent digital coin space. 

Still, in one respect the coin is far worse off now than it was at the start of 2017. 

At the beginning of the year bitcoin commanded nearly 90% of the cryptocurrency market, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com. That number fell off a cliff in March, after which it shortly rebounded as bitcoin soared to eye-popping new highs.

Since the beginning of December that number started to decline again, reaching a low of 42% of Monday. 

It's a similar story for Ethereum. For some time it looked as if it could take over bitcoin's number one spot. Since June its share of the market has fell from about 32% to near 13% on Wednesday. 

Take a look at the chart:

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SEE ALSO: Bitcoin is struggling to break through $15,000

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Sheila Bair, ex-chair of FDIC, argued that bitcoin shouldn't be banned. Instead, policies should be in place to protect investors.

•  A mysterious bitcoin tycoon called "PineappleFund" made a million-dollar donation to the digital library non-profit the Internet Archive.
• The donor, whose true identity is unknown, pledged in a Reddit post to give their $86 million fortune in bitcoin to non-profits, in a round of donations called "The Pineapple Fund."

The sharp rise in bitcoin’s value has inspired one early investor to sudden acts of generosity, the latest of which was announced on Wednesday.

The digital library non-profit The Internet Archive said it received a $1 million donation in bitcoin from a mysterious benefactor calling themself "PineappleFund," Mashable reported on Wednesday. The donation is a significant addition to the site's yearly funding, clocking in at two-thirds of the the Internet Archive's $1.5 million funding drive. 

In a statement posted to its site, The Internet Archive thanked the benefactor, whose true identity is still unknown: "Whoever you are, you are doing a world of good...It is especially gratifying to see those who dreamed big about Bitcoin using their wealth to support innovation across the world."

This isn't the first contribution from the mysterious benefactor, who is known only by their Reddit name "PineappleFund." The donor vowed to bequeath $86 million worth of bitcoin to a number of nonprofits in a post published to Reddit earlier this month. 

“Bitcoin has changed my life, and I have far more money than I can ever spend,” they wrote. “My aims, goals, and motivations in life have nothing to do with having XX million or being the mega rich. So I'm doing something else: donating the majority of my bitcoins to charitable causes. I'm calling it 🍍 The Pineapple Fund."

So far, PineappleFund has made several sizable donations to a number of charitable ventures in the inaugural acts of giving through The Pineapple Fund, handing out millions of dollars worth of bitcoin to healthcare nonprofit, a sustainable water project, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 

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• New Jersey residents who commute to New York may have to pay $0.90 more per trip starting in 2020 under a new proposal by outgoing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. 
• The fare increase would jump to $1.70 in 2028 and $2.20 in 2038.
• The new revenue would go toward a plan to build a new tunnel between New Jersey and New York and repair the Amtrak North River Tunnel. 
• The projects would cut commute times and increase reliability.

New Jersey residents who commute to New York will see their daily transportation expenses increase dramatically over the next two decades, according to a new plan proposed by outgoing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

The plan would raise New Jersey Transit rail fees by $0.90 per trip starting in 2020, $1.70 in 2028, and $2.20 in 2038, according to a letter from Steven Santoro, the agency's executive director. This would amount to daily cost increases of $1.80, $3.40, and $4.40, respectively, for round-trip commuters.

The cost increases would fund a new tunnel running under the Hudson River and repair the 107-year-old Amtrak North River Tunnel, which was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, according to a statement released by Christie. The projects would cut travel times and increase reliability between New Jersey and New York. Christie cancelled an initial proposal for the new tunnel in 2010, as he feared that New Jersey taxpayers would have to pay for cost overruns.

Bloomberg projected that some commuters would have to pay almost $30 per day once the rate hike went into full effect in 2038.

The current proposal is projected to cost $12.7 billion and relies on federal funding to fill in the gaps left by the $5.55 billion in combined funding pledged by the governments of New Jersey and New York.

While the plan is currently under review at the US Department of Transportation, the new tunnel wouldn't open until 2025 at the earliest if federal funding is approved, Bloomberg reported.

SEE ALSO: Chris Christie's fall from grace: How a presidential frontrunner became the country's least popular governor

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NOW WATCH: We talked to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman about tax reform, Trump, and bitcoin

• StockTwits is a Twitter-like site for people interested in talking about finance and stocks.
• Ian Rosen joined as CEO last year to help teach young readers how to invest.
• The site's audience is getting younger each day and is now mostly millennials.

When millennials aren't busy eating too much avocado toast and killing the beer industry, some are off investing for their futures.

While apps and roboadvisors have flooded the market to help make investing easier, truly understanding your investments can still be tricky for those getting started. That's why Ian Rosen says he decided to join StockTwits last year as the company's CEO.

"I wanted to take more and more steps to more easily engage newer, younger, novice investors because one thing that we know is there is a giant opportunity," Rosen told Markets Insider.

Before he moved to StockTwits, Rosen said the platforms for learning how to invest were driving him crazy because they were missing a chance to teach people. He thought StockTwits had an opportunity to address a market of young investors hungry to learn more about saving money.

StockTwits began nine years ago on Twitter, where it started the "cashtag" feature which lets users place a "$" in front of a stock ticker to add their Tweet to a stream of other users discussing a specific company. Since then, the company has built its own platform and exists entirely outside of Twitter now.

The company's site still focuses on streams of posts from users, similar to Twitter's platform. Rosen said users posts 150,000 messages a day including annotated charts and investing ideas. Users can also add price targets and watch lists to show off their best ideas and keep an eye on the stocks they care about.

Reading through the stream of user posts is at times a bit overwhelming. Lots of users seem to want to show off deep knowledge of a company's financials or brag about how much money they've made betting on a company before it skyrocketed. But hidden between the braggarts are helpful tips tidbits of knowledge and helpful commentary.

If a user wants to buy an individual stock after reading a bit of commentary on the site, they can do so through a linked brokerage account.

Rosen said StockTwits moderates the discussions to keep them as friendly as possible, and he hopes people who are new to the platform can eventually move from reading and learning from its users to helping others who once were "noobies" like they once were.

Those users who have bought into this idea are heavily invested in the platform. The average user spends 51 minutes a day on the platform, and a majority of them are young retail investors. More than half, 52%, are between the ages of 18 and 34, and they are trending younger every day, according to data from the company. Only 20% of the site's users are 45 or older.

A lot of the discussions focus on popular consumer stocks. The most popular for August included companies like Snap, Apple, Alibaba, and currencies like Bitcoin. The conversations are a bit more relaxed than on other sites, and memes are regularly used by users to show their enthusiasm for a particular company.

"[Users] share about 10,000 charts a day, most of those are annotated," Rosen said. "Someone will share a chart to support their opinion, like, 'Listen, Twitter is going to hell and here's why. Take a look at this breakout pattern down' or something like that."

He points out that the site does have professional investors, but most seem to use the platform as a way to measure the "zeitgeist" of the markets. A hedge-fund manager can quickly see what retail investors are saying about Amazon as it announces a takeover of Whole Foods, for example. These conversations can prove valuable beyond an anecdotal context, Rosen said.

In September, Rosen said the company would be launching a suite of new "premium" features. Advertising currently accounts for about 60% of StockTwits' revenue a year with the rest coming from events, selling community-level user data and low-volume merchandise sales. Rosen hopes to grow the data portion of the business and allow users to access that data with a subscription. Rosen declined to detail what those changes would look like or how much they would cost before they were announced.

StockTwits is growing 50% a year entirely organically and currently boasts 1.1 million registered users, according to Rosen.

"We want people to have good experiences, and if there is someone that is ganging up on a newbie and saying, 'Hey, you're an idiot,' that's the kind of thing that we take and say, 'Hey, listen. Everyone is learning' or whatever," Rosen said. "So the conversation can certainly get exciting, and that's one of the reasons why I joined the company."

SEE ALSO: Apple's customers don't really care about the new bezel-less screen on the iPhone 8

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• The Pineapple Fund, a bitcoin charity project, has announced a $5 million donation in bitcoin to GiveDirectly.
• GiveDirectly is a charity that conducts a basic income experiment in Kenya and issues cash transfers in other East African countries.

Two of the year's trendiest niche ideas, basic income and bitcoin, have finally crossed paths.

The Pineapple Fund, a charity project started by a bitcoin millionaire, has committed $5 million worth of bitcoin to GiveDirectly, an organization that is currently running the largest basic income experiment in history across dozens of villages in rural Kenya.

GiveDirectly will split the money between its core model of issuing lump-sum cash transfers and the 12-year basic income experiment, the organization told Business Insider.

The Pineapple Fund announced the news on the basic income subreddit. In committing to supporting basic income, the fund adds GiveDirectly to a list of initiatives focused on giving people access to clean water, research into the use of psychedelics as medicine, and cures for aging.

Pine, the alias of the person who started the fund, found fortune through early investments in bitcoin. The Pineapple Fund has said it will give away nearly all of the $86 million it has amassed through bitcoin ownership.

GiveDirectly has been running its full basic income experiment for just under a month. In mid-November, the charity announced it had started enrolling the 120 villages set to receive basic income. Of those, 80 will receive $22 monthly for 12 years. The remaining 40 will receive the same amount, but for two years.

The charity has also picked 100 villages to serve as the control group and receive nothing.

For 13 months before GiveDirectly launched the full study, it had been conducting a pilot study in just one village. Like the full study, it will also continue for 12 years. Early results have been promising. Business Insider recently visited the village and spoke with nearly a dozen recipients, many of whom said the money was life-changing.

They've been able to spend the money on things like food, school fees, home repairs, and investments in their business. If they need to borrow money from neighbors, they no longer have fears about paying back the debt.

"If this money were to be given to everybody, this would be a very good thing," Edwine Odongo Anyango, a 30-year-old day laborer, said. "What this money does is it creates hope. And when people have hope, they are happy."

SEE ALSO: 32-year-old investor with ties to Elon Musk wants to upend America with a crazy utopian plan for the future

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The post South Korea Pushes Monero and Ripple Price Up While Other Cryptocurrencies Fall appeared first on CCN

The Monero and Ripple price has surged over the past 24 hours, while other cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and Ethereum fell by around 5 percent. Extreme Premiums Investors in the South Korean cryptocurrency market are driving the price of Ripple and Monero up, given that nearly every cryptocurrency in the local market are being traded with

The post South Korea Pushes Monero and Ripple Price Up While Other Cryptocurrencies Fall appeared first on CCN

The post South Korea Pushes Monero and Ripple Price Up While Other Cryptocurrencies Fall appeared first on CCN

The Monero and Ripple price has surged over the past 24 hours, while other cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and Ethereum fell by around 5 percent. Extreme Premiums Investors in the South Korean cryptocurrency market are driving the price of Ripple and Monero up, given that nearly every cryptocurrency in the local market are being traded with

The post South Korea Pushes Monero and Ripple Price Up While Other Cryptocurrencies Fall appeared first on CCN

Stocks closed virtually unchanged amid the light trading volumes that are expected through the end of this week.

Here's the scoreboard: 

• Dow: 24,757.49 +11.28 (0.05%)
• S&P 500: 2,679.92 -0.58 (-0.02%)
• Nasdaq: 6,934.14 -2.11 (-0.03%)

1. US consumer confidence slid off 17-year highs in December, according to The Conference Board's monthly survey. The headline index fell to 122.1, making for a much steeper drop than economists had forecast. 
2. Barclays expects to take a writedown of about 1 billion pounds ($1.34 billion) on its annual post-tax profit as a result of the U.S. tax overhaul. The reform to the tax system signed into law by President Donald Trump  will force the British lender to reduce the value of its deferred tax assets, prompting it to take a one-off charge in its results for the 12 months to the end of December.
3. Bitcoin stabilized then fell again after several days of volatility over the Christmas period, which saw it crash below $12,000 before recovering by more than $4,000 in short order. Around 3:49 p.m. ET on Wednesday, bitcoin is down by 7% at $14,773 a coin.

Additionally: 

• HUSSMAN: Trump's tax cuts are a 'quickly planned looting through a broken window in our nation's character'
• GE is raising its stake in Sweden's Arcam to more than 90%
• Kim Kardashian's Christmas present from Kanye West was hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stocks
• Some of the biggest crypto exchanges are shutting out new users because they can't keep up with demand
• 'It's been insane here': People are lining up in droves to prepay property taxes before the GOP tax law kicks in

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The post $6,500 or $22,000? Wall Street Analyst Sees Wild Bitcoin Fluctuations in 2018 appeared first on CCN

Nick Colas argues bitcoin's in for a wild ride in 2018

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The post Bitcoin Hard Forks: This is Not the SegWit2x You Are Looking For appeared first on CCN

In a stunning reversal, the SegWit2x hard fork has been revived from the ash heap and is scheduled to activate on Dec. 28 — or so a group of developers would have us believe. ‘SegWit2x’ Rises From the Ash Heap As CCN reported, SegWit2x would have raised the bitcoin blocksize to 2MB, easing network congestion

The post Bitcoin Hard Forks: This is Not the SegWit2x You Are Looking For appeared first on CCN

The post (+) Trade Recommendation: Short Bitcoin appeared first on CCN

The post (+) Trade Recommendation: Short Bitcoin appeared first on CCN

Bitcoin trading companies in Israel may soon face a tighter rule imposed by the country's financial watchdog.

The post South Korean Regulators Conduct Onsite Inspections of Bitcoin Exchanges Following Youbit Hack appeared first on CCN

South Korean authorities have begun conducting onsite inspections of domestic bitcoin exchanges following the hack of Korean exchange Youbit earlier this month. Korean Regulators Conduct Onsite Inspections of Bitcoin Exchanges According to an official notice published by the Office for Government Policy Coordination, regulators conducted onsite inspections of more than a dozen bitcoin exchanges to

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The buzzword of the year in 2017 has been "bitcoin" and merchants are asking the question - should we accept it?

• A number of cryptocurrency exchanges have temporally halted on-boarding of new users. 
• Crypto-exchanges are under pressure to keep up with the breakneck growth of the booming digital coin market. 

Cryptocurrency exchanges are experiencing growing pains as the market for digital coins explodes.

Exchanges have struggled to keep up with the breakneck growth of the crypto-market and eye-popping volumes. Exchanges have halted trading, experienced outages, and crashed during periods of high volumes and demand. Part of that pressure has been driven by hundreds of thousands of new market entrants.

Now, at least three cryptocurrency exchanges — Bittrex, Bitfinex, and CEX.io — have stopped onboarding new users altogether.

"We have received an enormous number of new account registrations over the past few weeks," said an alert on Bittrex, a US-based exchange."Unfortunately, we have to make a few upgrades to our support and backend systems to handle the increased traffic and load."

Bittrex is the third largest exchange by volume, according to data provider CoinMarketCap.com. 

It's the same story for Hong Kong-based Bitfinex.

"Thank you for your interest in opening a Bitfinex account. However, due to extraordinary demand, new account creation has been temporarily paused," said an alert on Bitfinex. 

Bitfinex said new account creation would be enabled by January 15. CEX.io, an exchange based in the United Kingdom, said the "enormous" amount of new users opening accounts on the exchange was making it difficult for the company to address a backlog of other technical issues on the site. 

"Every day, an enormous number of users registers on our exchange, which we are extremely excited about," the company wrote in a blog post dated December 21. "At the same time, this has been putting additional pressure on our support and verification teams."

On the US-based exchange Kraken, it appears users can open a new account, but they cannot verify their account to buy and sell digital coins. This reporter was unable to verify his account when setting up a Kraken account, and other new users reported similar problems on Reddit. A representative from Kraken did not respond immediately to a message seeking comment. 

Kraken chief executive officer Jesse Powell told Business Insider in November the firm was actively hiring new developers to build out its infrastructure to better handle record trading volumes. 

Global cryptocurrency markets are now seeing daily trading volumes similar to the New York Stock Exchange.

Twenty-four-hour trade volume in the cryptocurrency market soared above $50 billion earlier in December, which is on par with trading activity on the New York Stock Exchange. The milestone illustrates just how hot the market has become in 2017. 

Investors have flocked to the crypto-market to capture its eye-catching returns. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has grown by about 1,400% against the dollar in 2017. A boom in so-called initial coin offerings, an crypto twist on the initial public offering process, has created a raft of other digital assets for investors to speculate on. There are now more than 1,300 cryptocurrencies in circulation, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

SEE ALSO: TOM LEE: Bitcoin just had a much-needed pullback and is quickly headed back to $20,000

SEE ALSO: A partner at one of the top bitcoin trading firms told us why crypto is 'such an amazingly fun space to be in'

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The post Russia’s Finance Minister Confirms Upcoming Bitcoin Regulations appeared first on CCN

The Russian Ministry of Finance has prepared a sweeping regulatory law that will cover many facets of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin in Russia. In an interview with state-owned television broadcaster Rossiya 24 over Christmas, Russia’s finance minister Anton Siluanov confirmed the ministry’s draft law on a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. The regulation, as expected, will cover

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• An All Nippon Airways Boeing 777-300ER was forced to return to LAX on Tuesday after it was discovered that a passenger boarded the wrong flight.
• As a result of the diversion, passengers spent 8 hours on board the flight to nowhere.
• How a passenger managed to board the incorrect flight is under investigation. 

An All Nippon Airways (ANA) jet was forced to return to Los Angeles International Airport Tuesday evening after cabin crew discovered that a passenger was on the wrong flight. 

"As part of the airline’s security procedure, the pilot in command decided to return to the originating airport, where the passenger was disembarked," ANA said in a statement. 

It is unclear how the passenger managed to board an incorrect flight. The airline said on Wednesday that it is investigating the situation. 

In addition, ANA apologized to passengers for failing to provide "exemplary customer service."

However, the airline is working to accommodate all of the passengers who were on board the diverted flight.   

At the time of the diversion, ANA Flight 175 was flying over the Pacific Ocean, nearly four hours into an 11-hour flight to Tokyo Narita Airport. 

In total, passengers spent eigh hours on board the Boeing 777-300ER jet before returning to LAX at 7:33 pm local time. 

Among those onboard was model Chrissy Teigen who live-tweeted the diversion. 

Here is the airline's full statement:

All Nippon Airways (ANA) confirms that NH175 scheduled from Los Angeles International (LAX) to Tokyo Narita (NRT) departed on time at 11:36 AM PST December 26, and safely returned to LAX at 7:33 PM PST.

During the flight, the cabin crew became aware that one of the passengers boarded the incorrect flight and notified the pilot. As part of the airline’s security procedure, the pilot in command decided to return to the originating airport, where the passenger was disembarked.

ANA is researching the situation currently to determine how the passenger boarded the flight.

ANA would like to express its apologies to the passengers for the inconvenience and is making accommodations for all passengers until the next flight.

We take great pride providing exemplary customer service, and on this flight, we failed to do so.

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 10 best economy-class airlines in the world

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• Tax cuts are coming a little too late in the economic cycle, when there's little room for much faster growth, according to John Hussman. 
• "The current tax legislation isn’t some thoughtful reform to benefit Americans," he said in his December monthly note. "It’s a quickly planned looting through a broken window in our nation’s character."
• Congress should instead be providing tax incentives for real investment, education, research & development, and other factors that could increase productivity, he said. 

John Hussman is also bearish on tax cuts.

The president of Hussman Investment Trust has warned about a stock market crash for several years and thinks investors have a decade of losses ahead of them. 

While he's not calling for an outright recession, he doesn't buy the Trump Administration's belief that lower taxes will grow the economy much faster than its recent pace. 

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed last week by President Donald Trump, is expected to lower corporate and individual taxes by nearly $1.5 trillion. With extra income for consumers and cash flow for companies, several analysts expect at least a minimal boost to the economy. 

The only problem is that tax reform is coming too late in this economic cycle, according to Hussman. 

"The central feature of both the Reagan and Kennedy tax cuts was that they were enacted at points that provided enormous slack capacity for growth," Hussman said in his December monthly note. 

"In particular, the Reagan cuts were enacted at a point where the unemployment rate had hit 10%, and an economic expansion was likely simply by virtue of cyclical mean-reversion. The Kennedy tax cuts (which brought the top marginal tax rate down from 90%) occurred as baby-boomers were just entering the labor force, again providing enormous capacity for growth."

Today, the unemployment rate is at a 17-year low of 4.1%, and baby boomers are retiring from the workforce. As demographics have changed, Hussman said, the growth of the labor force has slowed, and so has productivity growth. 

"If our policy makers are interested in boosting long-term structural US GDP growth, they should be providing direct and targeted tax incentives for real investment, education, research & development, and other factors that could, over time, increase our nation’s productive capacity," he said. 

Other market commentators have argued about the timing of tax cuts including Jeff Gundlach, the DoubleLine Funds CEO. During an investor call earlier in December, he said tax cuts could boost economic growth, but the timing was odd versus 30 years ago when the economy needed stimulus. 

Hussman also takes issue with who could benefit the most from lower taxes. After-tax savings depend on how much you currently earn, and nearly half of Americans could see a tax increase when many of the provisions in the law expire in 2025. Also, wealthy people stand to benefit from specific changes like the repeal of the estate tax.

"Frankly, the notion that corporate tax cuts will unleash some renaissance in US real investment and growth would be laughable if the bald-faced corporate giveaway wasn’t so offensive," he wrote. 

"The policy not only vastly favors the wealthy, but is even more preferential to wealthy individuals who take their income in the form of profits rather than wages. The current tax legislation isn’t some thoughtful reform to benefit Americans. It’s a quickly planned looting through a broken window in our nation’s character."

SEE ALSO: The GOP's big tax break for landlords could make America’s housing crisis worse

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NOW WATCH: PAUL KRUGMAN: Bitcoin is a more obvious bubble than housing was

The cryptocurrency landscape has seen a flurry of activity lately as values have reached eye-watering figures and people scramble to get a piece of the digital pie -- they're even re-mortgaging their homes to get in on the action. But while many are...

• Consumer confidence fell off 17-year highs in December, Conference Board data showed.
• Consumers were more positive about present conditions but mixed about the state of the labor market.

US consumer confidence slid off 17-year highs in December, according to The Conference Board's monthly survey.

The headline index fell to 122.1, making for a much steeper drop than economists had forecast. They were expecting a fall to 128.0 from November's 128.6, according to Bloomberg.

Consumers were more positive about present conditions but were mixed on the state of the labor market.

The percentage of those who said business conditions were "good" increased to 35.2% from 35%, while those saying business conditions were "bad" slipped to 12.1% from 12.3%.

People claiming jobs were "plentiful" fell to 35.7% from 37.5%, while those claiming jobs were "hard to get" hit a 16-year low of 15.2%, down from 16.8%.

"Consumer confidence retreated in December after reaching a 17-year high in November," said Lynn Franco, the director of economic indicators at The Conference Board. "The decline in confidence was fueled by a somewhat less optimistic outlook for business and job prospects in the coming months. Consumers' assessment of current conditions, however, improved moderately. Despite the decline in confidence, consumers' expectations remain at historically strong levels, suggesting economic growth will continue well into 2018."

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NOW WATCH: PAUL KRUGMAN: Bitcoin is a more obvious bubble than housing was

• Nvidia is one of the best-performing companies of 2017, and it has a somewhat unique approach to investing.
• The company isn't necessarily trying to make money from the startups it invests in, but it is trying to get more people to use its GPUs.
• As more data in the world is processed using artificial intelligence, the companies Nvidia invests in can help it create more potential customers.
• Check out how Nvidia's stock has done this year.

Nvidia, the maker of the graphics chips powering modern video games, was crowned the smartest company in the world this year by MIT, and it didn't get there by accident.

The company helped spark 2017's artificial intelligence revolution by providing the computing backbone for all the power-hungry AI systems. Its powerful graphics processing units and its CUDA software platform help speed up AI research in a way that isn't otherwise possible.

MIT estimated that the company spent around $3 billion on its own R&D to develop its newest chips, but Nvidia is also investing in smaller companies and startups working on AI applications.

According to Jeff Herbst, Vice President of Business Development at Nvidia, the company has two main goals when it invests in a startup: make money, and spread the GPU gospel.

According to Herbst, 90% of the today's data goes unprocessed, which is a travesty. For Nvidia, every underutilized dataset is another that could have been processed by one of its GPUs. To that end, the company looks for companies that can process more of the world's data in unique and interesting ways. 

There are three types of companies Nivida is currently investing in; self-driving cars and automotive companies, data analysis and artificial intelligence, and GPU deep learning. Nvidia's current portfolio consists of more than twenty companies. Some, like Graphistry, are working on better ways to sort and use large data sets, while others, like DriveAI, are using data to develop the brains behind self-driving cars.

Herbst declined to provide the size of any of the investments or to quantify the performance of Nvidia's portfolio. He did say that Nvidia has done as good or better than the top venture capital funds.

Herbst said that it's only the "beginning innings" of AI research, and Nvidia is betting it can be there for the rest of the game. Part of those bets just happens to be in other companies.

Read more about what's coming for tech in 2018.

SEE ALSO: TOP TECH ANALYST: Only one thing could stop the FANGs from skyrocketing in 2018

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NOW WATCH: How to buy and sell bitcoin using one of the most popular cryptocurrency apps on the iPhone

The post Ripple Price Tests All-Time Highs on News of Further Penetration into Asian Markets appeared first on CCN

The ripple price leaped more than 15 percent on Wednesday in response to news that SBI Ripple Asia had entered into a partnership with several major Japanese credit card issuers. Ripple Price Leaps 15 Percent The cryptocurrency markets made a general advance on Wednesday, but no top-tier coin rose at a quicker pace than ripple.

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Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs will have a cryptocurrency trading desk up and running by June 2018, according to sources quoted by Bloomberg. 

Goldman is currently hiring a team in New York and getting to grips with fundamental issues like how it will custody the relevant assets, the sources added. The bank confirmed that it’s exploring ways in which it can meet client demand for access to cryptocurrencies.

The bank is an early mover in the cryptocurrency space. Goldman Sachs is one of the few large banks clearing the Bitcoin futures offered by the US-based Cboe and CME exchanges. Other banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, held off doing so, likely over concerns related to the volatility of the underlying asset and security.

That said, Goldman is asking some clients to set aside money equal to the full value of Bitcoin futures trades before clearing them, according to Bloomberg, whereas margins on other futures contracts are typically no more than 15%. That shows the bank is aware of the higher risk associated with such products, and will be unlikely to rush into launching its new trading desk without cryptocurrency-specific processes in place.

Goldman’s move will likely encourage more institutional investors to get involved with cryptocurrencies. Up until now, most investment in cryptocurrencies has come from retail investors, including via the new Bitcoin futures products. Goldman’s involvement will likely change that, as institutional investors will be more willing to participate in the market via an incumbent financial institution. In turn, that will likely encourage other banks to open their own trading desks, so as not to miss out on what could be a lucrative opportunity.

Sarah Kocianski, senior research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on blockchain in banking that:

• Outlines banks' experiments with blockchain technology. 
• Details blockchain projects at three major banks — UBS, Credit Suisse, and Banco Santander — based on in-depth interviews. 
• Discusses the likely trends that will emerge in the technology over the next several years.
• Highlights the factors that will be critical to the success of banks implementing blockchain-based solutions.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

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The post Cryptocurrency Market Cap Climbs to $600 Billion as Bitcoin Price Recovery Continues appeared first on CCN

The cryptocurrency markets continued their Christmas recovery on Wednesday. Led by strong performances from both the bitcoin price and ripple price, the cryptocurrency market cap recovered back above $600 billion for the first time since Dec. 23. At one point this morning, the cryptocurrency market cap rose as high as $620 billion, although it has

The post Cryptocurrency Market Cap Climbs to $600 Billion as Bitcoin Price Recovery Continues appeared first on CCN

The post Cryptocurrency Market Cap Climbs to $600 Billion as Bitcoin Price Recovery Continues appeared first on CCN

The cryptocurrency markets continued their Christmas recovery on Wednesday. Led by strong performances from both the bitcoin price and ripple price, the cryptocurrency market cap recovered back above $600 billion for the first time since Dec. 23. At one point this morning, the cryptocurrency market cap rose as high as $620 billion, although it has

The post Cryptocurrency Market Cap Climbs to $600 Billion as Bitcoin Price Recovery Continues appeared first on CCN

Good morning! Here's what's happening in the world of tech:

1. Amazon devices were a hit with consumers over the holidays: The Alexa app was the top Android and iOS app on Christmas day, and Amazon says its hardware devices had their "best holiday yet, with tens of millions of Alexa-enabled devices sold worldwide.”

2. Uber has reportedly found a buyer, and a partner, for its auto-leasing division that was losing more money than anticipated: Uber is selling its auto-leasing business, Xchange Leasing, to the startup Fair.com, sources have told The Wall Street Journal.

3. A new Microsoft patent is fueling rumors that the company is working on a foldable Surface Phone: The patent, titled "Hinge with Free-Stop Function," describes a hinge for a foldable smartphone that "would connect two screens in such a way that the actual hinge mechanism doesn't stick out or protrude, so the device sits flat in your hand."

4. The Library of Congress won't be archiving every public tweet anymore: After December 31, 2017, "the Library will continue to acquire tweets but will do so on a very selective basis."

5. Uber's food-delivery company is outgrowing its traditional ride-hailing business in some cities: Uber general manager Toussaint Wattinne told Business Insider that UberEats was bigger than Uber's transportation app in 19 European cities.

6. HQ Trivia delayed the release of its Android app: After missing its initial Christmas deadline, the popular live trivia app announced it was aiming to get the app in the hands of Android users on January 1st, 2018.

7. Shares of several Asian Apple suppliers fell Tuesday following a local news report of relatively weak iPhone X demand: Their stock was hurt by a report from Taiwan's Economic Daily and some analysts saying iPhone X demand could come in below expectations in the first quarter.

8. The price of Bitcoin has stabilized following a rollercoaster period during Christmas trading: On Wednesday afternoon, Bitcoin was trading at around $15,940 per coin, a gain of roughly 1.3%.

9. Elon Musk said that Tesla's first pick-up truck may be a bit larger than an F-150 and may include a "gamechanging" feature: Back in April, Musk said to expect the company to reveal the Tesla pick-up truck in 18 to 24 months, which means the company could unveil it anytime between October 2018 and April 2019.

10. Amazon said its Echo Dot was its top-selling device over the holiday season: Amazon previously said it was the top-selling item on Black Friday.

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NOW WATCH: Amazon has an oddly efficient way of storing stuff in its warehouses

A long-time bitcoin investor is now staking his claim to a new blockchain network, one he believes will enable more value creation in the long term.

• Profits at Odey Asset Management drop by around 60% in the year to April 5.
• Bearish bets against bonds and assets inflated by recent loose monetary policy have so far failed to pay off.
• Crispin Odey was a prominent supporter of the campaign to leave the European Union in last year's referendum.

LONDON — Crispin Odey, one of the most recognisable names in the British hedge fund industry, has suffered a fresh setback after it was reported that his fund's profits have more than halved.

According to The Times, which cites the firms accounts, profits at Odey Asset Management dropped from £44.23 million to £18.6 million in the year to April 5. That's even further down from the £84 million profits the firm reported in the 2015 financial year.

Odey Asset Management was founded by Crispin Odey, an investor famed for his successful trading of the financial crisis. The firm's OEI Mac fund delivered 43.4% in 2008 as shorts against banks paid off.

Odey's profits have been hit hard by the fund's poor performance over the course of the last year, as Crispin Odey's bearish world view contrasts with rally assets around the world.

The hedge fund manager believes the world is heading for another crash, driven by loose monetary policy and Chinese debt, but his bets against bonds and assets inflated by recent loose monetary policy have so far failed to pay off.

That has led to a major drop in the overall assets under management in Odey's funds, which have fallen from £7.7 billion to £4.55 billion, according to The Times. Earlier this year, Business Insider reported that Odey's AUM was around £4.1 billion.

With performance struggling, the amount Odet Asset Management has been able to command in fees has also dropped sharply, with performance fees fall from £19.2 million to only £60,000. As recently as 2014, Odey's funds commanded performance fees totalling £143 million.

Odey was a prominent supporter of the campaign to leave the European Union in last year's referendum. He was one of the founders of the "Vote Leave" group, which became the official Brexit campaign, and is donated just over £500,000 to the cause.

A fund manager at Odey Asset Management reportedly made £110 million betting against the pound in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote but Odey himself has been bearish on the vote's economic effects, warning clients last year of likely recession in Britain and a collapse in stock values.

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NOW WATCH: Economist Jim Rickards on gold versus bitcoin — intrinsic value is meaningless for both but the bitcoin prices aren't real

Here is what you need to know. 

Oil hits $60 for the first time since mid-2015. West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed above the $60 per barrel mark for the first time since June 2015 on Tuesday following a report of a pipeline explosion in Libya. It's currently down 0.25% at $59.61 a barrel. 

Bitcoin takes a breather. The cryptocurrency holds unchanged at $15,738 a coin, according to Markets Insider data.

Barclay's to take a write-down because of US tax reform. The bank said it will take a $1.3 billion writedown and see its tier 1 capital fall by about 20 basis points because of President Donald Trump's tax reform, Reuters reports, citing a statement from the bank.

General Electric is upping its stake in Sweden's Arcam. GE will buy the outstanding shares of Swedish 3D printer Arcam that are owned by Elliott Management and Polygon Investment Group for 345 Swedish crowns ($41.44) per share, raising its stake to 90% from 77%, Reuters says. 

Apple slides on report of weak iPhone X demand. Shares fell 2.54% on Wednesday to $170.57 apiece after Taiwan's Economic Daily News reported, citing unidentified sources, that Apple will cut its sales forecast for the iPhone X this quarter from 50 million units to 30 million units.  

Elon Musk hints at a Tesla pick-up truck. Musk said Tuesday that Tesla will start on its first electric pick-up truck after it begins building the Model Y SUV, which is expected to go into production in late 2019 or early 2020. 

Uber finds a buyer for its auto-leasing business. Uber is selling its money-losing auto-leasing business to the startup Fair.com, unnamed sources told The Wall Street Journal. As part of the deal, Uber will take a stake in Fair which will become an exclusive partner, offering drivers the ability to lease cars.

HNA reiterates its commitment to Deutsche Bank. "Deutsche Bank is a core, high-prestige investment for HNA," Alexander Schuetz, the Chinese conglomerate's representative on the bank's board, said in an interview published in Wednesday's Handelsblatt. HNA owns just less 10% of the German bank, with its stake valued at around 3.3 billion euros ($3.9 billion), Reuters says.

Stock markets around the world are higher. China's Shanghai Composite (+0.78%) led the gains in Asia and Britain's FTSE (+0.2%) is out front in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open up 0.10% near 2,683.

US economic data keeps coming. Consumer confidence and pending home sales are both due out at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is little changed near 2.47%. 

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• Former Treasury head Lord Macpherson tweets that economic impact of Brexit should be "limited."
• "Brexit is a risk but its economic impact should be limited provided [the government] seizes policy opportunity and looks forward not back."
• Macpherson was a key part of so-called "Project Fear" — essentially an unproven Brexiteer belief that the pro-Remain establishment was deliberately trying to scare the British people into voting to stay in the EU.

LONDON — Lord Macpherson, the civil servant dubbed "The Architect of Project Fear," believes Brexit's negative impact on the British economy will be limited if it is handled correctly.

Macpherson was the Tresury's most senior civil servant before the Brexit referendum, and was responsible for the forecasts that suggested Britain striking a Canada style deal after a Brexit vote could lower long-term economic output by as much as 6%. 

Those forecasts — as well as predictions of a possible Brexit induced recession — were held up by many on the Leave side of the referendum campaign as the cornerstones of so-called "Project Fear." "Project Fear" was essentially an unproven Brexiteer belief that the pro-Remain establishment was deliberately trying to scare the British people into voting to stay in the EU with unnecessarily downbeat predictions of the post-Brexit future.

Despite having been at the heart of the Treasury's gloomy predictions about the impact Brexit could have on the British economy, Macpherson is now a little more upbeat.

"Brexit is a risk but its economic impact should be limited provided [the government] seizes policy opportunity and looks forward not back," he said in a tweet a few days before Christmas.

Following up from the tweet, Macpherson told the Financial Times that "there is still all to play for."

"If the government relentlessly focuses on achievable outcomes in Brussels and pursues a sensible economic policy at home, it could yet keep any lasting damage from Brexit to a minimum. But that remains a pretty big ‘if’."

While the British economy has noticeably slowed since the vote to leave the European Union, it has confounded the most pessimistic forecasts. Predictions that the country would collapse into a recession after voting to leave the EU did not materialise, but neither did the forecasts from Brexiteers that the economy would continue to boom.

The UK's growth slowed markedly as uncertainty around Brexit pushed businesses to delay spending, and inflation caused by the weak pound made spending more expensive for consumers.

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NOW WATCH: This is one of the best responses to Jamie Dimon calling bitcoin a fraud that we have heard so far

The post Bitcoin Price Surges to $16,500; $1 Million by the End of 2020? appeared first on CCN

Earlier today, on December 27, the bitcoin price surged to $16,500, recording a major gain for the first time since December 22, prior to Christmas. Analysts Optimistic Analysts including John McAfee and cryptocurrency hedge fund co-founder Ari Paul expressed their optimism towards the short and mid-term growth trend of bitcoin, given its latest momentum and

The post Bitcoin Price Surges to $16,500; $1 Million by the End of 2020? appeared first on CCN

• Britain's workforce faces another year without a pay rise.
• The Resolution Foundation expects zero growth in real wages over the course of 2018, as wage growth rises in line with inflation.
• That is an improvement on 2017 when pay growth was outstripped by rampant inflation caused by the fall in the pound after the Brexit vote.
• But it means a "noticeable" year-on-year rise in real pay is not now forecast until December 2018.

LONDON — Britain's workforce faces another year without a pay rise, according to the Resolution Foundation.

In a new report, the influential policy group said it expects zero growth in real wages over the course of 2018, as wage growth rises in line with inflation.

That is an improvement on 2017 when pay growth was outstripped by rampant inflation caused by the fall in the pound after the Brexit vote. But it means a "noticeable" year-on-year rise in real pay is not now forecast until December 2018.

Real pay remains £15-a-week below its peak before the financial crash of 2008, and is not predicted to recover to pre-crisis levels until at least 2025.

Resolution Foundation director Torsten Bell said 2017 was "a tough year for living standards as the pay squeeze returned."

"The good news is that things will get better next year.

"The bad news is we may only go from backwards to standing still, with prospects for a meaningful pay recovery still out of sight.

"While the public have famously defied recent gloomy economic predictions and continued to spend, public expectations do appear to be moving in line with experts’ pessimistic predictions.

"This pessimism is strongest among those on lower incomes, unsurprisingly given big benefit cuts set to take place.”

In response to the Resolution Foundation's report, a Treasury spokesman said: "We are helping families to earn more and keep more of what they earn. Our national living wage is delivering the fastest pay rise for the lowest earners in 20 years and we are cutting taxes for millions of people."

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NOW WATCH: This is one of the best responses to Jamie Dimon calling bitcoin a fraud that we have heard so far

The post Japan’s Biggest Financial House MUFG Prepares to Secure Bitcoin Adopters appeared first on CCN

Japan’s largest financial group, MUFG, is preparing a service that will secure bitcoin adopters’ holdings against any failure or losses suffered by the cryptocurrency exchanges they use. In what could be the first trust service of its kind anywhere in the world, the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust is preparing to offer bitcoin holders a service wherein … Continued

The post Japan’s Biggest Financial House MUFG Prepares to Secure Bitcoin Adopters appeared first on CCN

LONDON — Bitcoin's price stabilised on Wednesday after several days of volatility over the Christmas period, which saw it crash below $12,000 before recovering by more than $4,000 in short order.

On Wednesday morning, bitcoin's price is little changed from its opening quote,  trading at around $16,200 per coin, a gain of roughly 3%. For normal assets, a 3% move would be considered fairly substantial, but in terms of bitcoin, it is a drop in the ocean.

Here's how the cryptocurrency looks at around 8.20 a.m. GMT (3.20 a.m. ET):

"Although the recent plunge frightened many bitcoin fans, when looking at the relatively short history of bitcoin trading, the price action seems just normal. During 2017 the cryptocurrency crashed by 30% or more six times. Every fall was followed by huge price appreciation until it peaked on 17 December," Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM said in an email a little earlier.

"Whether the Bitcoin bull market is close to an end or just pausing for a short break, remains to be a wild question for 2018."

One of bitcoin's biggest issues right now is that it is difficult to value with any objective criteria, and traditional investors remain very wary of it.

On Monday, Business Insider's Jim Edwards highlighted a note from investment analysts at Morgan Stanley suggesting that bitcoin may soon have a practical value of nothing.

The analyst James Faucette pointed to the tiny number and the middling number of retailers prepared to exchange bitcoin for actual goods as reasons for a potentially rocky future. Faucette said bitcoin was not like a currency or like gold and had difficulty scaling.

In the days leading up to Christmas, bitcoin's price plunged, dropping below $12,000 to a loss of more than 30% at one point on Friday December 22.

Bitcoin's losses were exacerbated by the fact that unlike more traditional markets, it has no mechanism to halt trading when there are large losses in its value. These are known as circuit breakers, and they automatically pause trading when assets fall by a set percentage.

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NOW WATCH: Cryptocurrency is the next step in the digitization of everything — 'It’s sort of inevitable'

Bitcoin's markets may be booming but it's the network's rare development talent that may be most valuable.

A Japanese internet firm is the latest to offer its staff part of their salaries in the digital currency.

Bitcoin has had an interesting year, so should we now take it seriously?

• Dashcam video captured a three-car crash as a SpaceX rocket was flying over Southern California.
• Cars appeared to be slowing down to watch the Falcon 9 rocket that launched on Friday night.
• That SpaceX mission captivated people all over the region, and even prompted some emergency calls from people who were unaware of the scheduled launch.

Three cars collided on a Southern California freeway as a SpaceX rocket soared over the region Friday night. Video from a dashboard camera captured the crash, which happened on the westbound Interstate 10 in the city of Banning, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles.

A man and some children inside the vehicle that captured the video can be heard talking about the rocket when traffic began to slow down. A white Toyota Corolla in the left lane then gets rear-ended by a minivan, pushing that Corolla into a Toyota RAV4 SUV.

SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, carrying a collection of 10 satellites into low-Earth orbit. The payload was destined for a constellation of communications satellites owned by Iridium Communications. SpaceX conducted a similar launch for the same company in June.

The launch caused widespread confusion in Southern California and even prompted some emergency calls from people who were unaware of the scheduled launch.

Watch the crash below (starting at the 1:13 mark):

SEE ALSO: SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launch baffled people with an eerie light show in the sky above Southern California

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NOW WATCH: We talked to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman about tax reform, Trump, and bitcoin