Bitcoin rose above the $9,000 level this past weekend as the cryptocurrency continued to notch gains following Tax Day, CNBC reported. Fundstrat Global Advisors’ Tom Lee had predicted that the digital currency would rebound following Tax Day. Americans were estimated to have owed the IRS a whopping $25 billion in taxes for their cryptocurrency holdings, after all, following bitcoin’s atmospheric rise to close to $20,000 last year. The price of bitcoin was $8,928.74 as of 7:16 p.m., according to CoinDesk.
And Goldman Sachs is thinking of creating a trading desk for bitcoin, Business Insider reported. The investment bank hired Justin Schmidt to be the company’s vice president and head of digital asset markets. He will look into how the bank could tap into the digital currency market, but will not trade any instruments at the bank – not even bitcoin.
In other news, Tim Draper is very bullish on bitcoin, CNBC reported. Draper, who made early investments in Skype, Hotmail and Tesla, said the cryptocurrency will be bigger than all of those companies – together. “This is bigger than the internet,” Draper said at an event on Saturday (April 21). “It’s bigger than the Iron Age, the Renaissance. It’s bigger than the Industrial Revolution.” Draper himself is an investor in crypto: In 2014, he purchased approximately 30,000 bitcoins in a U.S. Marshals Service auction.
And California may soon allow companies to store information, such as shareholder data, on the blockchain, CoinDesk reported. State Senator Robert Hertzberg introduced the bill in January, and the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee gave the law a “do pass” recommendation. Already, Delaware and Wyoming let companies use blockchain technology for administrative needs.
“The world around us is changing, and government must adapt with these rapidly evolving times,” Hertzberg said in a statement. “California needs to continue our legacy of taking on new and developing technologies, especially ones like blockchain, which is being embraced worldwide and presents a strong level of security that is resistant to hacking.”
