A new way to raise money: The Initial Coin Offering
The digital currency ecosystem has had a crazy year. The Bitcoin market capitalization has grown from $11 billion on June 5, 2016 to almost $47 billion USD on June 5, 2017. Negative news during that time included a 120,000 BTC heist from Bitfinex, worth $65m then and $350m now. The Winklevoss twins sought to create an exchange traded fund dealing in Bitcoin, but they were denied. Positive events were much broader, including Japan recognizing the coin as a legal payment method, Russia reversing their prior stand against Bitcoin, and Australia adjusting its policies to remove a double taxation problem for those accepting digital currencies. Now a new phenomenon is sweeping […]
Bitcoin price crosses $3,000 milestone to set new all-time high
The price of bitcoin topped $3,000 for the first time in history today, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI). After spending much of the last week seeking direction in the $2,700 to $2,900-range, the average price of bitcoin across major international exchanges edged up over this threshold finally at roughly 17:00 UTC. The new record comes at a time when alternative digital assets are seeing robust inflows, with ethereum’s ether token setting a new all-time high of more than $300 today as well. Indeed, analysts spoke to the ongoing broadening of the cryptocurrency market as a tide that is benefitting bitcoin. “The inflows into ‘alts’ are greater than […]
Coinbase seeks to raise $1 Bln to expand and go beyond Bitcoin
Demand for Bitcoin has once again gone up with the price of the digital currency continuing to hit all-time highs. Cryptocurrency exchange company Coinbase has been growing strong along with this demand in order to make more improvements and gain more transactions on their end. Coinbase has recently been in discussions with potential investors, according to Reuters. The company is looking to raise a total of $1 bln for their next funding. While Coinbase, according to its blog, has grown four times since January 2017, its co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong is looking to expand and cater beyond Bitcoin. The growing demand comes from the increase in new cryptocurrency exchange […]
BITPoint wants to bring Bitcoin to Japan
BITPoint Japan Co. is reportedly gearing up to enable hundreds of thousands of Japanese retail outlets to accept the digital currency bitcoin, reported Bloomberg News. In a Bloomberg report, Genki Oda, BITPoint’s president, said the company is in talks with a retail-related company and that “by going through a company providing payment terminal services to shops, we have the possibility of increasing its use at one stroke. It’s easier than talking to lots of individual retailers.” Bloomberg pointed out that BITPoint is joining a growing list of companies that are embracing regulations enacted in Japan in April that recognize digital currencies as a way to pay for things. Bic Camera […]
Japan lender Mizuho to launch fintech venture
Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group will start a venture next month to create new businesses using “fintech,” an executive said, joining a global race in financial technology that threatens to unsettle traditional players. Japan’s second-largest lender by assets said there were already 20 projects in the pipeline for the venture, utilizing blockchain technology and artificial intelligence programs in areas such as farming and travel. Daisuke Yamada, Mizuho’s chief digital innovation officer, said the challenges were cultural as well as technological, as truly new business models required a break from Japanese banks’ conservative, overly risk-averse attitudes. For that reason, he said the bank would limit its stake in the yet-to-be named venture […]
Bitcoin prices surge, here’s why cryptocurrency is skyrocketing
Bitcoin prices are skyrocketing. Business Insider reported Thursday bitcoin hit a record high, exceeding $2,700 per coin, up from $1,400 on May 1. The world’s second most influential cryptocurrency, Ethereum’s ether tokens, also broke its record this week. Ether is now evaluated at more than $200 per token, CoinMarketCap reported. For comparison, ether was selling for just $60 on April 27. There are a variety of factors driving up the market value of cryptocurrencies. The past few weeks have seen increased corporate investment in Ethereum, alongside a global “blockchain boom,” where companies like Ripple and IBM announce partnerships with leading financial institutions around the world. Japan has even kickstarted the […]
Cryptocurrency market cap reaches $77bn, surpasses Uber and Airbnb
The cryptocurrency sector has seen massive gains in the past few weeks. Almost every single altcoin has increased in value in one way or another this month. According to coinmarketcap, the overall market cap surpassed $77 billion. To put that in perspective, crypto is valued more than some of the world’s most successful startups such as Uber and Airbnb. It seems that cryptocurrency is becoming the next hot topic among investors and technology enthusiasts alike. With the price premium rising as high as 5-10% in Asian countries, it is evident the demand is there. While it was just Bitcoin that was exhibiting an amazing price rally, soon after the alts […]
Three regional fintech winners unveiled at Citi Tech for Integrity Challenge in Dublin
Citi has unveiled three winners from its regional Tech for Integrity Challenge (T4I) Demo Day held in Dublin last week, garlanding Aid:Tech, Paycode and Pole Star with the T4I Award for innovation. The global program aims to promote accountability and transparency in the public sector and beyond by supporting the effective use of financial technology (fintech) solutions and monitoring technology. It is run by Citi’s internal fintech team, treasury and trade unit, and Citi Ventures, its technology accelerator, investment and collaboration arm. Facebook, IBM, MasterCard, Microsoft and PwC are some of the other partners involved in judging the competition. The idea is to support small start-up companies’ applications on beneficiary […]
