PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price and Volatility index.
A mixed bag for bitcoin this week. First, FinCEN said that all virtual currency payment systems and trading platforms are money transmitters and must abide by those rules and regs. In this season of scary tricks or treats, this is cleary scary for some. And, the SEC has begun some investigations into companies involved with bitcoin. Bitcoin’s price has dipped below $350 to 340.81 from 358.33 according to the PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price index.
But on the bright side, the comedian Bill Murray launched his own virtual currency, the Murraycoin! And, former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt said he’d help both Bitpay and Vaurum in an attempt to make bitcoin be more appealing to the masses. We hope he’s still being paid in dollars though.
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 …
Well, at least if anyone in New York still has bitcoins, they can head to Manhattan for a haircut! Well, now all of those millennials and affluent customers (those found to be the most likely groups to use digital currency and the best bets for future drivers of digital currencies) can use those bitcoins to get a haircut in New York! And, Bill Murray has his own virtual currency now, the Murraycoin! And, those MIT students who were offered bitcoin last year? They can now get it if they complete a survey and spend it on campus. Shame that the $100 doesn’t buy as much now as it did a year ago.
- October 30, 2014 – Bitcoin platforms are reclassified as money transmitters after a ruling from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Lots of changes are ahead!
- October 30, 2014 – The Bitcoin exchange, Kraken, launched in Japan and is expected to have a strong security and engineering team.
- October 30, 2014 – A new study found that millennial and more affluent customers see the most promise in digital currencies and may be the main drivers behind digital currencies – a few decades from now.
- October 29, 2014 – InPay SA announced that shares of the company will be on sale to the public for bitcoin.
- October 29, 2014 – Comedian Bill Murray has launched Murraycoin, a peer to peer currency that enables worldwide instant payments.
- October 29, 2014 – Now MIT undergrads may claim their $100 in bitcoin by completing a survey and spend it on campus.
- October 29, 2014 – GoCoin, a payment gateway, has partnered with e-commerce platform Shopify to help Shopify to accept bitcoin, litecoin and Dogecoin payments.
- October 29, 2014 – The Bitcoin Association of Berkeley, is having a BitHack (hackathon) to increase the number of skilled bitcoin developers.
- October 28, 2014 – The former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt becomes bullish on bitcoin and agrees to advise payment processing company BitPay and bitcoin exchange Vaurum.
- October 28, 2014 – Trucoin will expand its bitcoin buying service to 32 US states in the next few weeks.
- October 28, 2014 – Now New Yorkers may have a haircut and can pay with bitcoin, at the Drawing Room New York in Manhattan.
- October 28, 2014 – The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority will explore the potential benefits of the technology behind bitcoin and how it relates to the wider financial services industry.
On the Dark Side …
And in one of the worst mash ups ever, blackmailers are threatening the Czech government – and if they don’t pay up, big time in bitcoins, the blackmailers claim they will attack the country with the Ebola virus. And the long time internet scammer, Ryan Kennedy, has plans to return all the missing bitcoins that disappeared when he disappeared last week. We’ll see.
- October 30, 2014 – The CEO of the closed bitcoin exchange, Moolah, insists that he is working on returning the money to customers.
- October 30, 2014 – The Bitcoin Foundation announced that one of the foundation’s board members, Jon Matonis, will be stepping down.
- October 29, 2014 – Users of bitcoin over the anonymity network Tor may actually leave users at a greater risk of having their identities revealed. For $2,500 a month hacker will attack the Tor network to expose a victim’s IP address.
- October 29, 2014 – A new study from Software Advice surveyed about 400 small business owners and customers to find that customers and businesses are still apprehensive about the prospect of using digital currency.
- October 29, 2014 – Although a great PR tool, bitcoin is not catching on for political donations.
- October 28, 2014 – Anonymous blackmailers are threatening to spread Ebola in the Czech Republic if the Czech government doesn’t pay a million euros, in Bitcoin.
- October 27, 2014 – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sent out letters to bitcoin companies asking questions about their operations, activities and the finances of the companies.
