The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Founders Fund has amasses hundreds of millions of dollars or bitcoin recently; the fund started with about $10mn to $15mn worth of bitcoin and has since seen that initial investment skyrocket; while many traditional wall street names have yet to buy into bitcoin the move by Mr. Thiel and his fund point to their confidence in the currency; during an interview in October Mr. Thiel was reported to say, “While I’m skeptical of most of them, I do think people are a little bit underestimating bitcoin, specifically, because it is like a reserve form of money.” Source.
Cryptocurrency startup Basis, led by former Google employee Nader Al-Naji, raised $133mn from GV, Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners,...
The challenger bank is working to add bitcoin, litecoin and ethereum; Revolut customers will also be able to transfer cryptocurrencies to others; what makes what they’re working on unique is allowing an instant conversion to happen within the app; typically users must have an account on a crypto exchange where funds are transferred between accounts; the firm is currently testing features with 3,000 customers. Source
Petro, Venezuela's oil-backed crypto is falling. Users are reporting paralysis, little acceptance among the public and a government overhaul.
Goldman Sachs announced plans to open a bitcoin trading operation and now other banks might be soon to follow; one...
Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck was hacked and saw the theft of $543mn worth of customer holdings; the Japanese regulator, FSA, said it was concerned that most of the funds were kept in hot wallets online, instead of cold wallets offline; seeing that this is not the first hack of a hot wallet model the regulators might start mandating customer funds be held offline; nothing has been passed yet but the more thefts we see the more regulators will look to try and mitigate future issues. Source.
According to the bank statement, “In view of the associated risks, it has been decided that, with immediate effect, entities regulated by RBI shall not deal with or provide services to any individual or business entities dealing with or settling [virtual currencies].”; the government had previously issued warnings about risks around trading cryptocurrencies; the Reserve Bank of India is more open to the development of blockchain technology. Source
The news that Facebook is building their own cryptocurrency has regulators nervous on many fronts including money laundering and know...
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and Cyprus’s CySEC have issued warnings to retail traders on contracts for difference based on cryptocurrencies; CFD trading based on the digital currencies has started to become popular with the volatility in bitcoin; regulators are worried that retail investors will suffer significant losses and are looking to limit leverage as a result; this continues a worldwide trend by regulators as they get a handle on the growing crypto asset class. Source.
BlockFi offers loans to those who own cryptocurrencies; the company is currently in a beta launch and is lending in 35 states; ConsenSys Ventures, Kenetic Capital, PJC, SoFi, Purple Arch Ventures and Lumenary participated in the round. Source