Thursday, April 30, 2015
Bitcoin’s Secret Function: Dollar Cost Averaging (Op-Ed)
APR 30 DIGEST: Goldman Sachs Joins US$50m Investment Round in Circle, Fidor to Open in UK
Tutanota Provides Stupid-Easy Email Encryption
CleverCoin Becomes First European Exchange to Offer Leveraged Trading
US Crowdfunding Deregulation Opens the Gates for Crypto-Equity
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
The Rise And Rise Of CoinTelegraph: An Interview with Business Development Director Victoria Vaughan
Maxim Group Bids $1.7M for GBTC Shares
Investors are increasing the pressure to acquire shares of the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) with a bid for 5,000 at $35 per share by the Maxim Group. Self-described as a full-service investment bank and wealth management firm, Maxim has taken the most aggressive approach as of yet to get investors in GBTC to sell their shares.
In the beginning of April, trading began for shares of the Bitcoin Investment Trust, one of the products rolled out by Barry Silbert’s new Grayscale Investments. Despite the fact that trading was possible, none have been executed.
The rules put forth by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) stated that only those who have held shares in BIT for longer than a year will have the option to sell their shares on the OTCQX exchange.
There has been concern that few investors would be willing to liquidate their positions because it would be at a significant loss. Considering the rule of one year, if an investor were to have bought shares on April 1, 2014, he or she would have bought with the value of a bitcoin at $481.20. Each share of GBTC is equal to roughly 0.1 bitcoin; therefore, a bid of $35 per share is only equal to $350 per bitcoin.
This is significant premium over the current price of bitcoin, but it still at least $130 per bitcoin less than what an investor who is allowed to liquidate would have paid. However, BIT launched in September 2013, when the price of bitcoin was $130 per coin, so there could be investors looking to sell.
At present, the other firms that have made bids to acquire shares of GBTC are Puma Capital, bidding for 100 shares at $38 per share, Canaccord Genuity, bidding for 100 shares at $37.50 per share, Citadel Securities, bidding for 100 shares at $36 per share, and KCG Americas, bidding for 100 shares at $35.55 a share.
Bitcoin Magazine has reached out to Maxim Group for comment.
Photo by Rafael Matsunaga / CC BY 2.0
Coinbase Expands its Services to United Kingdom
Coinbase announced the expansion of Coinbase services to the United Kingdom, including the ability to trade bitcoin on the Coinbase Exchange and to buy/sell bitcoin with British pounds (GBP) using the Coinbase Wallet, and the addition of BTC/GBP and BTC/EUR currency pairs on Coinbase Exchange for U.K. users.
Besides the United Kingdom, Coinbase services are also available to other European Union residents.
The move brings Coinbase into the competitive British market, which co-founder Fred Ehrsam argues is buoyed by the forward-looking attitude of U.K. regulators toward Bitcoin, as well as other financial technology innovations, The Guardian reports.
“The payments regulators and the Treasury are taking a very balanced view of bitcoin,” said Ehrsam. “They’re really taking their time to understand the core technology prior to regulating.”
“I’d definitely say that regulation is more favorable in the U.K. right now,” CEO Brian Armstrong told TechCrunch. “I have to give a lot of credit to U.K. regulators. They’ve actually been very forward-thinking about bitcoin.”
Armstrong hinted that the exchange might be the most revenue-rich part of the business in Great Britain for a while to come. Coinbase is divided into three pillars between a consumer wallet, a platform with APIs for developers and an exchange where investors can trade bitcoin against the major currencies.
The Guardian notes that Coinbase is one of a small group of companies attempting to “sanitize” bitcoin, ridding it of many of the negative connotations. In January, investors, including three of the world’s most respected financial institutions – The New York Stock Exchange, a subsidiary of USAA, and BBVA (NYSE:BBVA) Ventures – invested $75 million in Coinbase, bringing its total capital to $106 million.
“With this investment, we are tapping into a new asset class by teaming up with a leading platform that is bringing transparency, security and confidence to an important growth market,” said NYSE President Tom Farley. “We look forward to supporting Coinbase’s growth utilizing our global distribution capabilities and market expertise.”
The Coinbase exchange launched in January in the United States, and according to Ehrsam, “quickly rose to be the most liquid Bitcoin exchange in the U.S.”
The Financial Times notes that the Coinbase launch in Great Britain is a boost to plans to transform the U.K. into a global hub for bitcoin and digital currencies, with both the government and Bank of England having made recent moves designed to stimulate the development of digital fintech in the United Kingdom.
For European users, it’s good to have a solid alternative to Bistamp – not because Bistamp’s service is not satisfying, but because having more options to choose from is always good. A test revealed that opening and using a new Coinbase account is quick and easy for European Union residents in Great Britain.
After completing email verification, identity verification and phone verification (for two-factor authentication), new customers can start using their Coinbase wallet for bitcoin and euro, and buy or sell bitcoin using the integrated Coinbase exchange.
The Coinbase wallet can be funded with bitcoin deposits, or with euro deposits sent via Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) transfer from any E.U. bank. According to Coinbase customer service, European users can withdraw funds from their Coinbase euro wallet to their SEPA bank account, with a delay of one or two business days.
At a first glance, the Coinbase European service seems solid and professional, with a simple and intuitive web interface, a community forum for common questions and answers, and responsive customer service. Coinbase also offers a secure vault for long-term bitcoin storage offline, and is fully insured against hacking, theft or loss of customer funds.
Bitcoin Shop (BTCS) to Merge with Spondoolies-Tech to Create a Publicly Traded Bitcoin Mining Company
Bitcoin Shop, one of the first Bitcoin companies quoted on the U.S. stock market, announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent to merge with Israeli Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer Spondoolies-Tech. The Letter of Intent follows last week’s announcement that Bitcoin Shop raised $2.3 million in a venture capital funding round.
Bitcoin Shop, quoted on the OTC Market with the ticker BTCS, is based in Arlington, Virginia. Besides operating an e-commerce store which accepts a variety of digital currencies and offering a multi-signature wallet with bank-grade security, the company is the lead investor in Bitcoin ATM manufacturer Coin Outlet, and runs bitcoin mining operations in a new 83,000-square-foot facility.
The new mining facility is expected to handle more than 10 megawatts of power and up to 40,000 TH/s (terrahash per second) of mining hardware for “transaction verification” operations. (That means bitcoin mining, but with a crisp business-like aura.)
Bitcoin Shop wants to expand and consolidate its position as one of the leading players in the Bitcoin space. “We believe the sustained decline in the price of bitcoin has created tremendous opportunities for us to further expand our business and seize opportunities created from the market downturn,” said CEO Charles Allen, commenting on the latest funding round. “With the completion of this financing we believe we are well positioned to be a leading Bitcoin- and blockchain-focused company.”
The funding announcement noted that the company plans to leverage its transaction verification services business while it builds a universal digital currency platform with the goal of enabling users to engage in the digital currency ecosystem through one point of access.
The merger with Spondoolies-Tech is subject to a number of conditions, including satisfactory completion of diligence and execution of definitive agreements, and it will, therefore, probably take some time to work out the details. It’s expected that the merger will build a fully integrated transaction verification services business using Spondoolies-Tech mining technology.
Both companies believe the anticipated combination of Bitcoin Shop and Spondoolies-Tech will create the world’s first publicly traded company to produce Bitcoin transaction verification equipment.
“Our key goal in 2014 was to create the partnerships needed to build an ecosystem and start laying the foundation to put our vision into place,” said Allen. “Once completed, our merger with Spondoolies would be a significant leap forward in making this ecosystem a reality. [O]ur next objective will be to complete the development and production of a next-generation chip to drive our transaction verification services business and to generate revenue from the combination.”
Spondoolies-Tech is a digital currency hardware manufacturer. Founded in 2013 by a group of Israeli high-tech veterans, the company raised $10 million in capital from leading Israeli venture capital firms with the goal of building Bitcoin transaction-verifying servers from the bottom up, creating the infrastructure on which digital currencies will flourish.
Spondoolies-Tech produces a line of bitcoin mining hardware rigs, considered among the best in the industry. Besides, it offers cloud mining services in cooperation with Genesis Mining.
“Over the last several months, we’ve worked closely with Charles Allen and the BTCS team to establish the nature of our potential partnership,” said Spondoolies-Tech CEO Guy Corem. “The synergy between the teams is amazing. I have the utmost of confidence that together we will build a very successful and prosperous company by growing and expanding our business beyond bitcoin mining equipment.”
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APR 29 DIGEST: Bitcoin Startup Wins Deloitte Tech Competition, Coinbase Comes to the UK
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