Mnuchin Says U.S. Wants G-20 Crackdown on Bitcoin Secrecy

Mnuchin Says U.S. Wants G-20 Crackdown on Bitcoin Secrecy

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he will work with the Group of 20 nations to prevent cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin from becoming the digital equivalent of an anonymous Swiss bank account. Speaking to the Economic Club of Washington on Friday, he said wants to ensure “bad people cannot use these currencies to do bad things.” Under U.S. law, “if you have a wallet to own bitcoins, that company has the…

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Bitcoin Fund’s 91-for-1 Share Split Is Another Dot-Com Flashback

Bitcoin Fund’s 91-for-1 Share Split Is Another Dot-Com Flashback

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Here’s one more way Cryptocurrencies are mimicking the dot-com frenzy as they capture popular attention: massive stock splits. Greyscale Investments announced that its Bitcoin Investment Trust — an open-ended fund that provides the purest exposure to owning the most popular currency short of owning the underlying asset — will undergo a 91-for-1 spliton Jan. 26. That’ll turn the 1.9 million shares currently outstanding into a whopping 174.4 million. Based on…

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Goldman Says Cryptocurrencies May Succeed as Form of Real Money

Goldman Says Cryptocurrencies May Succeed as Form of Real Money

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin may seem like a solution in search of a problem in the U.S., where transaction costs are already low and the dollar stable. But in developing countries, digital currencies could succeed as a real form of money, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says. Many currencies in sub-Saharan Africa have lost value due to high inflation and supply mismanagement. As a result, foreign money makes up more than 90 percent…

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Bitcoin Is Teaching Libertarians Everything They Don’t Know About Economics

Bitcoin Is Teaching Libertarians Everything They Don’t Know About Economics

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin changes prices too quickly to be a currency and processes transactions too slowly to be a payments system, but it is juuust right for teaching libertarians everything they don’t know about economics. Not that they’re paying attention. If you listen to bitcoin’s biggest backers, it’s supposed to be our gleaming future, one where we can make money just by holding it, move it anywhere in the world for…

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Cryptocurrencies Slide as Regulation, Demand Concerns Linger

Cryptocurrencies Slide as Regulation, Demand Concerns Linger

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin slumped as much as 17 percent, helping to drag down smaller rivals such as ripple and litecoin, as the world’s largest cryptocurrency continues to be whipsawed by concerns about regulation and demand from Asia. “The fuss about regulators tightening screws in South Korea is pushing the price of bitcoin,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at TF Global Markets in London. “This and the Chinese news is going to bring…

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IBM, Comcast Ventures Back Fund for Blockchain Business Startups

IBM, Comcast Ventures Back Fund for Blockchain Business Startups

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – International Business Machines Corp. and Comcast Corp.’s venture arm will become the largest supporters of an investment fund for startups that help corporations use blockchain, the digital ledger that’s become a hot technology. The startup accelerator, called MState, plans to invest $25,000 to $50,000 apiece in five or six companies over the next six months, co-founder Rob Bailey said in a phone interview. MState, with locations in New York and…

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Bitcoin Loses Dazzle as Second-Tier Crypto Coins Catch Up

Bitcoin Loses Dazzle as Second-Tier Crypto Coins Catch Up

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin alternatives are closing the gap with the market leader after names like stellar and cardano became red hot as 2017 was closing. The biggest cryptocurrency’s share of market value has fallen to a record 36 percent from 56 percent a month ago, according to CoinMarketCap prices for coins and tokens. Stellar, designed for cross-border payments, has more than doubled in the first trading days of this year, achieving…

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