Bitcoin traded in the in a fifty dollar range going from as low as about $450 and as high as $506, ending at $464 at about 7am EST on Friday. Our volatility index shows Bitcoin at a whopping 29 times more volatile than the euro. See the PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price and Volatility Index for more detail. There were lots of new developments including the addition of wearable for payments with Bitcoin. Meanwhile, Litecoin is catching up to Bitcoin as an alternative currency.
Follow 22 Cryptocurrencies here: http://coinmarketcap.com/ .
PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price and Volatility index.
Bitcoin Tracker | Week 21
Economist and founder of Market Platform Dynamics, David Evans, released his Digital Currency Deep Dive this week, to see what makes virtual currencies so special, check out the first installment here. Evans examined the six components of Bitconesque currencies to evaluate how virtual currencies vary from digital currencies, which are quite widespread and many decades old at this point.
Hope you enjoy, and if you have any news you’d like to share, please send it our way at contactus@pymnts.com.
On the Plus Side …
Bitcoin prices have leveled out this week, as seen in the PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price and Volatility Index, following many new updates including the addition of wearables for payment with Bitcoin. Google Glass better act fast if they want to add this payment option to their wallet. Litecoin is coming up close behind Bitcon as an alterative and Cleveland, Ohio is the newest bustling hub where consumers can pay with Bitcoin.
- April 24, 2014 – Xapo offers the first credit card to be linked to a Bitcoin wallet.
- April 24, 2014 – Litecoin is now competing for space with Bitcoin; the total value of Litecoins available for use is second only to Bitcoin.
- April 24, 2014 – A MIT group believes that Bitcoin is still the way of the future and will be hosting a symposium on Bitcoin in May.
- April 24, 2014 – The Federal Election Commission is in the process of reviewing a request that will allow political campaigns to accept Bitcoin donations for the midterm elections of 2014.
- April 24, 2014 – Ireland’s first Bitcoin ATM operator BitVendo has teamed up with Merrion Vaults, a safe deposit box facility, to offer an “ultra-secure” Bitcoin cold storage service.
- April 23, 2014 – The “face of Bitcoin,” Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, made a YouTube video noted Bitcoin activist, Andreas Antonopoulos, to thank the Bitcoin community for sending him over $20,000 in BTC donations.
- April 23, 2014 – New York-based bitcoin trading platform Atlas ATS is partnering with the National Stock Exchange to expedite a regulatory approval process that has hindered the development of digital-currency exchanges in the U.S.
- April 23, 2014 – The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin documentary will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival.
- April 23, 2014- A Bitcoin center aimed to provide hackathons, meet-ups, workshops and working space will open next month in Paris. La Maison du Bitcoin aims to raise the Bitcoin profile in France.
- April 22, 2014 – London-based Coinfloor is setting up an over-the-counter market for Bitcoin. The market will aim at investors and growing interest from hedge funds and investment banks.
- April 22, 2014 – Mevu’s bracelet wallet enables users to pay with Bitcoin using gestures.
- April 21, 2014 – The Cedar-Lee business district in Ohio will soon become the second “Bitcoin Boulevard” in the world to accept digital payments.
On the Dark Side …
Cyber crime is still increasing in the Bitcoin world and continues to attract the attention of cybercriminals. Various government organizations continue to warn against the investment into Bitcoin and Charlie Shrem claims that there “holes” in his case, but at least he’ll receive a break in his house arrest to attend the Bitcoin documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival next week!
- April 24, 2014 – A Dutch man known as “SuperTrips” has agreed to plead guilty to distributing illegal drugs through the Silk Road for payment in Bitcoins.
- April 24, 2014 – Charlie Shrem claims that there are “holes” in his money-laundering case.
- April 24, 2014 – The Secretary of State of Missouri, Jason Kander, cautioned Missouri investors on Bitcoins.
- April 24, 2014 – Bankruptcy proceedings began for the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange.
- April 24, 2014 – The number of cyber attacks targeting Bitcoin increased by more than 250 percent in 2013, and accounted for 8.3 million incidents in total according to a recent Kaspersky Lab report.
- April 23, 2014 – The Iowa State University suffered a massive security breach that compromised the security of student data. The servers were hacked by someone who was looking for computer power to mine Bitcoins.
- April 21, 2014 – The Emerging Payments Task Force, which consists of nine state bank regulators, will study the impact of new payment systems on consumer protection and the overall financial marketplace.
- April 18, 2014 – The Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation warned consumers to keep their monetary exchanges strictly to cash and credit cad and avoid the risk of the volatile new trend in Bitcoin.
