Bitcoin dives below $7,000

Bitcoin dives below $7,000

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin has been on a wild ride since a plan to help the red-hot coin scale was scraped. Backers of the so-called Segwit2x proposal were considering to split from bitcoin’s main blockchain network, but power-brokers behind the plan called off their support for the upgrade on Wednesday. That mean’s the network will remain intact — at least for now. Initially, the news sent bitcoin up near $7,900 per coin.  Since then, however, it has tanked close to…

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Bitcoin Is No Bubble, Says Investor With $213 Million Stake

Bitcoin Is No Bubble, Says Investor With $213 Million Stake

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tim Draper was walking through a pavilion at a tech conference in Lisbon on Tuesday when he was cornered by an entrepreneur touting a new digital currency. No sooner had the venture capitalist heard the pitch than he was approached by another guy hawking his own initial coin offering. Another followed, then another. It’s no mystery why cryptocurrency peddlers flocked to Draper. As founder of the Silicon Valley VC firm…

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Bitcoin’s Exorbitant Energy Costs May Prove to Be Biggest Risk

Bitcoin’s Exorbitant Energy Costs May Prove to Be Biggest Risk

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – It may not matter whether bitcoin’s a bubble. The staggering energy costs associated with “mining” the digital currency could prove to be its downfall. Even as bitcoin flirts with $8,000, the price required for mining to be marginally profitable stands at a jaw-dropping $300,000 to $1.5 million by 2022 based on current growth trends and energy use, according to Christopher Chapman, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., with implied consumption matching…

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Bitcoin’s Spike Toward $8,000 Fades as Free-Money Trades Unwind

Bitcoin’s Spike Toward $8,000 Fades as Free-Money Trades Unwind

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Turns out not everyone is happy with the detente in bitcoin’s civil war. While the cryptocurrency soared to a record $7,882 within minutes of news that it would avoid another split on Wednesday, the gains quickly evaporated. Bitcoin is now trading about 3 percent below where it was before a faction of the community scrapped plans for a so-called hard fork. Some speculators are disappointed they won’t get the additional coins that…

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Ethereum Creator Wonders Whether His Currency Should Be Scarcer

Ethereum Creator Wonders Whether His Currency Should Be Scarcer

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Vitalik Buterin, the inventor of the ethereum blockchain, may have created too much of a good thing. The 23-year-old helped sell one of the first digital currencies in 2014 when he introduced ether to the public. Three years later he’s witnessed scads of other digital currencies raise more than $3 billion in 2017 via so-called initial coin offerings. The sheer number of coins now being created has made him ponder…

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Bitcoin Rally Is Eroding Gold’s Appeal, Top Online Vaulter Says

Bitcoin Rally Is Eroding Gold’s Appeal, Top Online Vaulter Says

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) –  Bullion’s rally faltered in the past two months as the dollar strengthened and global equities set new records, while concerns over Brexit and Catalonia’s push for independence failed to drum up notable haven demand. Now, bitcoin’s surge is attracting investor interest toward the cryptocurrency and away from the metal, the biggest online vaulting service said. According to Google Trends, global searches for “buy bitcoin” have overtaken “buy gold” after previously exceeding searches…

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Argentina’s Biggest Futures Market Plans to Join Bitcoin Party

Argentina’s Biggest Futures Market Plans to Join Bitcoin Party

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Argentina, one of the fastest nations to adopt bitcoin, wants to stay at the forefront of the cryptocurrency market. The most important futures market in the country, the Mercado de Termino de Rosario, known as Rofex, is considering offering services for investors in digital currencies. Conversations, which started six months ago, and preliminary drafts include offering custody services for the digital asset and the possibility for clients to use bitcoin…

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