Bank of England Steps Up Research on Digital Currency Effects

Bank of England Steps Up Research on Digital Currency Effects

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Central-bank issued digital currencies could help the transmission of monetary policy, according to a Bank of England report. “Monetary policy would be able to operate much as it does now, by varying the price or quantity of central bank money, and that transmission may even strengthen for a given change in policy instruments,” said the working paper, published on Friday and written by researchers including Jack Meaning and Emily Clayton. A…

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Cryptocurrencies Under Pressure After Bitcoin Dips Below $6,000

Cryptocurrencies Under Pressure After Bitcoin Dips Below $6,000

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The rout in cryptocurrencies rolled on, sending Bitcoin to its lowest level since October, as worries over tighter regulation by U.S. authorities and central bankers elsewhere gave traders fresh reasons to exit after a brutal start to 2018. The selloff has now knocked about half a trillion dollars from digital coins since early January. That’s shaken a nascent market whose core attraction — anonymity and decentralization — is being challenged as never before…

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UBS Chairman Weber Sees `Massive’ Potential Drop in Bitcoin

UBS Chairman Weber Sees `Massive’ Potential Drop in Bitcoin

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – UBS Group AG Chairman Axel Weber said the Swiss bank won’t trade Bitcoin or offer it to retail clients as increased regulation could lead to a “massive” drop in value. “This is something where the price is really unclear,” Weber said in an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg TV at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We fear that in the future if these investments implode and the market corrects, then…

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These Digital Coins Soar (or Fall) With Bitcoin: QuickTake Q&A

These Digital Coins Soar (or Fall) With Bitcoin: QuickTake Q&A

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – It was astounding enough when bitcoin soared more than 14-fold over the course of 2017 to reach a peak of more than $19,000 on Dec. 16, giving it a total market cap of $329 billion — greater than the gross domestic product of South Africa or Ireland. Equally astounding, perhaps, is that bitcoin’s value has now been eclipsed by the combined market caps of the next biggest four cryptocurrencies,…

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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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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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