Bitcoin Tracker | Week 31

bitcoin

Let’s play a little Bitcoin Jeopardy, shall we? We just gave you the answers, so tell us the questions. We’ll give you a hint. One of them is “How Much is Bitcoins.com expected to bring at auction?” See how well you do in this week’s Bitcoin Tracker.

PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price and Volatility index.

Follow 303 Cryptocurrencies here: http://coinmarketcap.com/ .

 

Bitcoin Tracker | Week 31

Wanna buy bitcoins.com? Well you, too, can throw your hat into that ring as a result of the disgraced former Mt Gox’s CEO interest in selling it in order to pay off creditors. We don’t think that Tim Draper will be in that line seeing that he bought all of the bitcoins that the government auctioned on June 27th, nearly 30,000 bitcoins for $19 million. This move wasn’t made for a quick flip and fast profit, rather though a partnership with an exchange, Draper will make the bitcoins available for emerging markets. Bitcoin prices rose up to $602.65 from $567.49 on June 27th according to PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price index. But according to another VC, the prices of Bitcoin will climb to $2,000 by the end of 2014, well; at least we’re not talking about a million dollars. Governments around the world are starting to circle the wagons, with the European Banking Commission telling its banks that bitcoin should be to global currency what garlic is to vampires (in other words, stay away) until it is regulated, and here in the US, the General Accounting Office is pressuring the CFPB to give it a look-see.

As always, if you have any news you’d like to share, please send it our way at contactus@pymnts.com.

On the Plus Side …

More opportunities are arising for customers to use their bitcoins to purchase electronics and used cars or to send money cross borders. Perhaps with these advances, bitcoin can clear its name of the work of the Silk Road, Charlie Shrem and the collapse and Mt. Gox to become accepted by the general public.

  • July 10, 2014 – The price of one bitcoin will reach $2000 by the end of 2014, or increase by 226% of the present value, according to Geoff Lewis a venture capitalist. Here the rumors go again!
  • July 10, 2014 – Bitcoins.com went up for sale on the auction block and is expected to fetch more than $750,000.
  • July 10, 2014 – UK Exchange Coinfloor brought Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse veteran Adam Knight, to be executive chairman.
  • July 9, 2104 – A new study reports that the low bitcoin transaction fees that are touted by bitcoin advocates are unsustainable. Not that is new news; David Evans published that opinion like forever ago.
  • July 9, 2014 – Poland’s deputy finance minister announced that bitcoin can be used as a financial instrument, under the country’s existing financial regulations.
  • July 9, 2014 – The Bitcoin Foundation hired a lobbying firm to serve as their political muscle power on Capitol Hill.
  • July 9, 2014 – The first shopping aggregator for Bitcoin launched, Spendabit.
  • July 9, 2014 – Bitcoin Vault Xapo is ready to ship their first set of bitcoin debit cards, which will allow card holders to withdraw bitcoin on the fly.
  • July 8, 2104 – Robocoin is out to disrupt money transfer and challenge traditional services like Western Union by using Robocoin ATMs to buy bitcoins and exchange them for dollars or euros.
  • July 8, 2014 – Overstock.com announced that they plan to offer faster payouts to vendors and bonuses to employees who will accept being paid in bitcoin.
  • July 8, 2014 – Xapo, a provider of secure online storage for bitcoins has raised $40 million, the greatest amount gathered by a startup focused on virtual currency. The company is now valued at over $100 million.
  • July 8, 2014 – An online used vehicle platform, Beepi, teamed with BitPay to become the first peer-to-peer marketplace to allow its users to buy cars with bitcoin.
  • July 3, 2014 – Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Tim Draper, bought all of the 29,656 bitcoins that the U.S. for $19 million. Government put up for auction. The bitcoins will be funneled back into Vaurum, a trading platform.
  • July 2, 2014 – The Russian authorities have softened their tone on Bitcoin and the central bank says that they won’t slow the usage of virtual currency.
  • June 1, 2014 – Electronics company Newegg started accepting payments in bitcoin.
  • July 1, 2014 – Bitcoin has moved another step towards legitimacy as the California government legalized virtual currencies – which were again the bitcoiners way of spinning the amendment of an old law to make it sound like bitcoin is legal.

On the Dark Side …

Terrorism, drugs and bitcoins reunite. The Judge overseeing the criminal case against the Silk Road founder decreed that cryptocurrency is functionally the same thing as real money, so the founder can be charged for money laundering. Ouch. Supporters of ISIS, the Sunni terrorist group that is instituting an anachronistic, violently intolerant group in Iraq have outlined how bitcoin could be used to fund their mission. Nice. So while it still may be difficult for the average consumer to use bitcoin to buy average goods, there are still are many opportunities for criminals.

  • July 9, 2014 – A judge denied a motion by the creator of the Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, drug case to have criminal charges against him dropped. The idea that Ulbricht was just creating an innocent platform, did not go over well.
  • July 9, 2014 – French authorities say that two men were operating an illegal bitcoin exchange in Europe and the men are now in custody for trading without approval from France’s banking authority.
  • July 9, 2014 – Business Insider pointed out that it is still really hard to buy bitcoin.
  • July 9, 2014 – Bitcoin is slowed down by accessibility.
  • July 8, 2014 – A supporter of Sunni terrorist group, ISIS, has outlined how to support the ISIS movement with bitcoin as it is anonymous and decentralized.
  • July 7, 2014 – The European Banking Commission has instructed EU lenders to avoid digital currency until rules are in place. A spokeswoman for Financial Services Commissioner Michel Barnier said “It’s imperative to move quickly on this issue. The potential for money laundering and terrorist financing is too serious to ignore.”
  • July 2, 2014 – Litecoin prices decoupled from bitcoin and litecoin’s slump continued.
  • July 1, 2014 – Where does the CFPB stand on digital currencies? Still widely unknown and the CFPB is being unusually quiet about their opinions although the GAO wants them to speak up – and out.

June 29, 2014 – Extortionists are