[Editor’s note: This is the first in a two part series on bitcoin P2P lending by Stu Lustman of p2plendingexpert.com....
This is a follow up to Stu Lustman’s two part series on Bitcoin P2P lending by Chris Grundy of Bitbond....
Reg. CF crowdfunding platform, Wefunder, is now accepting Bitcoin; Wefunder has taken the lead on Reg. CF crowdfunded investments accounting for 33 of 46 offerings; after numerous requests from its investors the platform has been able to incorporate Bitcoin investments; says the acceptance of Bitcoin will make it even easier to invest in early stage companies. Source
Reports continue to show Chinese investors increasingly investing in bitcoin as the yuan devalues; over 90% of bitcoin trading has been reported by Chinese investors and the cryptocurrency's price is showing close correlation with the value of the yuan; Chinese regulation limiting foreign investment to $50,000 per year in order to stabilize the currency appears to be a factor as wealthy Chinese investors use bitcoin investment to evade the regulation since it is considered a borderless investment; while China appears to be a driving force for the currency's gains, experts also believe improved trading efficiencies and solutions for bitcoin are also factors for its recent appreciation. Source
According to the Wall Street Journal, PayPal and bitcoin have been used for funding Islamic terrorist attacks in Indonesia; the virtual payments were reported to be more difficult to track; the Indonesian Financial Transactions Report and Analysis Center says terrorism financing cases have increased in the country from 12 in 2015 to 25 in 2016. Source
[Editor’s note: This is the second in a two part series on bitcoin P2P lending by Stu Lustman of p2plendingexpert.com....
Bitcoin Software Addition 'SegWit' Could Make Digital Currency Faster The Bitcoin community is ready to roll out an enhancement to the digital currency's code base; SegWit (which stands for "Segregated Witness") separates the encrypting of the transaction information from the currency miner's validation signature; currency miners need extensive computing resources and time to prove that a transaction is true and valid, therefore this step has traditionally slowed down the recording of transactions; done with testing, the new SegWit feature could be released as soon as November 15th; it is considered officially adopted once 95% of the Bitcoin software community deploys the code; this could take as little as a month or two, or significantly longer.
Bitcoin reported substantial gains in 2016, increasing 120% and 57% in the last three months of the year; on January 1 the cryptocurrency exchange rate versus the dollar increased to over $1,000; equity strategist, Christopher Wood of CLSA notes that trading in China has concurrently been high with trading on the China BTC Bitcoin Exchange increasing from Rmb 1 billion ($140 million) in September to Rmb 27.8 billion ($4 billion) in December; in an article from Asia Times, the source also reported that China accounted for 42% of Bitcoin's trading in the first six months of 2016; one factor significantly affecting the increased trading volume has been the weakening of China's currency causing increased interest in foreign investments. Source
Chinese regulators are investigating investment in the cryptocurrency bitcoin as its price is reporting high correlation with the value of the Chinese yuan; according to data from bitcoinity.org, yuan transactions have also accounted for 98% of bitcoin's trading in the past six months; regulators have met with bitcoin exchanges to monitor investment activity; they have also requested that the exchanges do not market the yuan's devaluation as an investment incentive; investors have reported that transaction volumes are limited to a few hundred thousand yuan. Source
Chinese regulators are considering custodian requirements for bitcoin to help mitigate effects from its market risks; the custodian support appears to be welcomed by platforms and investors in China; overall, Chinese regulators are taking a more active role in bitcoin market activity as Chinese investors increasingly account for a majority of bitcoin's trading volume. Source