Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said the CME Group’s decision to list bitcoin futures has caused...
2018 has not been kind to the digital currency as it is down 50 percent against the dollar and the first quarter is the second worst on record; regulation, a clampdown in Asia hurting volume and the big price run up in late 2017 have all hurt Bitcoin; the prevailing thought about making fast cash has gone away as the price has dropped; the price today stand just below $7,000, down from a high of $20,000. Source.
“Bitcoin, for us, is not stopping at buying and selling," Square CEO Jack Dorsey told analysts on their earnings call as reported by Business Insider. "We do believe that this is a transformational technology for our industry and we want to learn as quickly as possible."; bitcoin has yet to effect Square’s earnings as they have only recently started crypto payments; they currently include a margin to account for the volatility of bitcoin; shares were down slightly after releasing earnings. Source.
Users in California, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana and New Hampshire will now have access to trade bitcoin and ethereum commission free; Robinhood plans to open to most states by the middle of 2018; over 4 million people have signed up for accounts with Robinhood. Source
Chain CEO Adam Ludwin sat with Business Insider to talk about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies; the interview goes through the basics of what blockchain technology is and how it has been viewed by the wider market in recent years; the hype around the technology has made many believe it can transform anything and everything; in reality, Adam says, it is a tool that should be applied where relevant; they also explore the differences in selling into an institution and how the technology is used in bitcoin transactions. Source.
Goldman Sachs has decided to begin a trading operation to trade bitcoin, becoming the first major bank to do so;...
Lightning Labs announced it had raised $2.5 million and at the same time released a beta version of their technology; one of the criticisms of bitcoin is that it can handle a limited number of transactions per second; some believe that bitcoin should increase its block size to process more transactions; Lightning Labs is working on the Lightning Network to add another layer of transactions to sit on top of the blockchain network which would allow for more transactions to take place. Source
Deutsche Bank examined whether bitcoin is improving in a recent note they sent to clients last week; a few factors have played into fees staying low, less demand with people looking to transfer their bitcoin and the SegWit upgrade to the bitcoin network; while only 14 percent of transactions occur through the SegWit update the tech is helping to improve the network; transaction volumes moving lower are the bigger reason for the drop in fees according to Mosaic.io co-founder Garrick Hileman. Source.
With the exception of those who reside in few states, users of Square’s Cash payments app can buy and sell bitcoin; users are limited to purchasing $10,000 in bitcoin per week; Square will not add fees to bitcoin transactions and uses the major exchanges to calculate prices. Source
Only five days after announcing they would enable bitcoin and ethereum trading Robinhood saw more than one million signups; Robinhood has made its name on zero commission stock trading and plan to roll out the new feature in five states first; “We see millions of trades a day. In our brokerage industry there is no excuse for down time. We plan on bringing that mind-set to the crypto space,” said Robinhood Co-Founder Baiju Bhatt to Business Insider. Source.