Category: Uncategorized

Coinbase follows BTC debut for GBP market with four altcoin assets this week

Grayscale Investments announced Thursday morning that the new Zen Investment Trust is now open to accredited or institutional investors.

Popular marijuana-themed publication High Times is accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum for shares of its stock, which are now being offered in an initial public offering (IPO) at USD 11 per share. In August 2018, it initially announced that it would be accepting crypto during the IPO. But on 13 August, it sent a statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States clarifying that it would not actually be accepting Bitcoin.

Despite this letter to the SEC, High Times is still accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum in exchange for IPO shares. High Times representative Jon Capetta confirmed that it still is taking Bitcoin and Ethereum payments, but clarified that it isn’t holding any crypto.

Instead, crypto will be converted to fiat at the time payment is received, to avoid any legal implications of selling shares for crypto. Capetta said, “We’re accepting [cryptocurrencies] as a payment option, but technically Fund America takes the Bitcoin and Ethereum … It’s similar to the way if we were doing an international IPO, and we were accepting the pound or the euro, those guys aren’t accepting that money, they’re converting it to [dollars]”.

The publication is planning on going public on the NASDAQ stock exchange but before that, it is selling shares for USD 11, a 10% discount on the expected opening price on NASDAQ.

Perhaps if High Times’ experiment with crypto goes well, then other IPOs in the future will consider exchanging shares for crypto. Crypto is a fast, efficient, and irreversible payment method, giving IPO operators peace of mind. This is unlike most types of fiat transactions which can be reversed, which could cause financial trouble for an IPO.

Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom

Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews

Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here.

Image Courtesy: Pixabay

The post High Times IPO Will Accept Bitcoin, Ether appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Research And Markets has published a report on the Bitcoin ATM industry, and projects that it will grow from USD 16.3 million in 2018 to USD 144.5 million by 2023, with an average yearly growth rate of 54.7%.

It is unclear what these amounts specifically mean, whether it’s the profit generated from the ATMs, the amount of money it takes to manufacture the ATMs, or both. Regardless, the report says the Bitcoin ATM industry will grow an astonishing 787% during the next five years. This is in agreement with current data, which shows that eight new Bitcoin ATMs are being installed every single day.

Right now, there are 3,700 Bitcoin ATMs. Less than a month ago on 8 August 2018, Bitcoin News ran a story on how the number of Bitcoin ATMs is growing exponentially, and how there are 3,500 Bitcoin ATMs in the world, versus 2,090 at the beginning of 2018, 949 at the beginning of 2017, 502 at the beginning of 2016, 327 at the beginning of 2017, and a mere four at the beginning of 2014. Some 200 new Bitcoin ATMs have been installed since that article was written. Clearly, Bitcoin ATMs are a profitable business model and they are proliferating globally.

Research And Markets says two-way Bitcoin ATMs will have the highest growth rate long term. This is because two-way Bitcoin ATMs are essentially a fully functioning crypto exchange, since they can provide fiat to crypto and crypto to fiat services, and this is in high demand. In contrast, 1-way Bitcoin ATMs can only provide fiat to crypto, making them useless for people that need to cash out Bitcoins.

ATMs that print QR code wallets are expected to spread at a faster rate than ATMs that don’t provide that option. Additionally, even though North America dominates the Bitcoin ATM market at this time, Research and Markets expects the Asia-Pacific region to have the highest growth rate of Bitcoin ATMs over the next five years.

The spread of Bitcoin ATMs is providing critical infrastructure worldwide that is turning Bitcoin and crypto into a currency that can be used in everyday life, since these Bitcoin ATMs make it easy to convert Bitcoin back and forth into fiat. Additionally, the spread of Bitcoin ATMs has coincided with a drastic increase in Bitcoin’s price, and ATMs will likely prove as an essential source of demand during the next big rally.

Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom

Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews

Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here.

Image Courtesy: Pixabay

The post Report: Crypto ATM Market to Hit $144.5 Million by 2023 appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

The Founder and CEO of ShapeShift, Erik Voorhees, has announced that the exchange is launching a membership program and soon, anonymous trading will not be available.

For years, ShapeShift has been an easy way for cryptocurrency users to convert cryptocurrency into other types of cryptocurrency. The process is efficient and completely anonymous, up to now at least. The reason it was able to offer anonymous transactions is because it only offered crypto to crypto, with no fiat options.  Generally, in the past, customer information was only required for fiat to crypto transactions.

Cryptocurrency transactions are intrinsically immutable, meaning they can’t be reversed, so customer information is not needed by ShapeShift to prevent chargebacks. However, regulations on crypto exchanges have been increasing, and now apparently even crypto to crypto exchanges like ShapeShift have to collect know your customer (KYC) data to avoid getting in trouble with the government.

Collecting KYC data can help prevent money laundering, but simultaneously crypto users typically dislike their data being collected. This defeats one of the purposes of crypto, which is to be private and outside of government control. Many will feel that data collected on ShapeShift could be used later to open tax cases against customers.

It is likely that numerous crypto users will stop using ShapeShift due to this new KYC policy. Already BTCPay, a Bitcoin payment service, has said it is done using ShapeShift due to this policy change.

We will probably stop supporting @ShapeShift_io .

The shapeshift button does not work anymore, and they will probably require KYC soon.

Instead, I am thinking about open sourcing @ShapeShift_io by making it easy for anyone to be liquidity provider like shapeshift.

— BTCPay Server (@BtcpayServer) September 5, 2018

Aside from announcing the end of anonymity, ShapeShift has announced a membership program. It will be a tiered membership program where level 1 is free but for levels 2 through 5, increasing amounts of FOX coin must be held. FOX is a new Ethereum token that will be launched by ShapeShift soon.

Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom

Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews

Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here.

Image Courtesy: Pixabay

The post ShapeShift Will No Longer Be Anonymous appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

The Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange has developed a blockchain-based database for adding new customers, managing documents, and editing information

A new crypto-related patent for transaction security has been filed by the Winklevoss twins’ company

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told a Congressional committee Wednesday that the social media company is exploring blockchain solutions for its platform.

A lot of cryptocurrencies tend to thrive when they get listed on one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges. For altcoins and ERC20 tokens, getting a listing on Binance can make a lot of difference. Not all currencies will succeed in this regard, unfortunately. The following coins, ranked by descending trading volume are not seeing much success despite being listed on Binance.

#6 Bitcoin Diamond

Once touted as yet another fork of the world’s leading cryptocurrency, it appears a lot of initial momentum surrounding Bitcoin Diamond has dropped down as of late. That is not entirely surprising, as it never had the large-scale backing of Bitcoin Cash or even Bitcoin Gold. It is also one of Binance’s least popular BTC trading pairs, as it currently ranks in 253rd place with under $65,000 worth of volume.

#5 Blox

Although this project is not as well known among cryptocurrency enthusiasts, Blox is designed to be a mobile or web app which helps users keep their assets in sync. The project can support exchanges, web wallets, and so forth, to give users a good overview of their total holdings. Sadly, its native CDT token is not in high demand on Binance, as its volume struggles to surpass $61,000 right now.

#4 iExec RLC

There was a time when a lot of people were excited about the competition between decentralized computing platforms. iExec RLC still has its role to play in this regard, but interest in the native RLC token is diminishing, at least on the Binance exchange. With a daily volume of over $60,000, this currency is struggling for traction. Turning the ship around will not be easy in this regard.

#3 Monetha

Another touted project in the world of cryptocurrency, Monetha is still actively developed to this very day. Despite its focus on improving online marketplace deals, the native token does not appear to be in much demand at this time. With its volume of under $55,000, the native token faces a bit of a struggle during these crucial times in cryptocurrency history.

#2 Bancor

Everyone knew Bancor would get listed on Binance, as it was one of the more successful ICOs to date. Even so, getting listed on this prominent altcoin exchange has not resulted in the traction BNT holders were hoping for, as its current volume is one of the worst on Binance altogether. Surpassing $50,000 in daily volume happens on a good day, but as of right now, it seems too steep of a hill to climb.

#1 Iconomi

The Iconomi project has a lot of potential, yet getting people excited about it has proven to be an ongoing issue. Connecting consumers to the distributed economy is a viable business model, yet it seems people are not too excited about using the project’s native currency to do so. This results in a current Binance trading volume of just over $37,000, which is definitely disappointing.

A speech by a Bahraini minister at a local blockchain conference has hinted at major support for blockchain