Blockchain | - Part 4

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…

IBM, Comcast Ventures Back Fund for Blockchain Business Startups

Posted on by The Editorial Team

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…

Bitcoin Loses Dazzle as Second-Tier Crypto Coins Catch Up

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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…

Criminal Underworld Is Dropping Bitcoin for Another Currency

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin is losing its luster with some of its earliest and most avid fans — criminals — giving rise to a new breed of virtual currency. Privacy coins such as monero, designed to avoid tracking, have climbed faster over the past two months as law enforcers adopt software tools to monitor people using bitcoin. A slew of analytic firms such as Chainalysis are getting better at flagging digital hoards linked…

Bitcoin Is the Most Perfect Bubble Possible

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LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – What else would you call something that, as of Tuesday morning, has gone up 47 percent the past week, 181 percent the past month, and 2,119 percent the past year? Not to mention the most remarkable part of this all: It has happened for no discernible reason. People haven’t started to actually, you know, use bitcoins much more than they did a year ago, but that hasn’t stopped its…

Mystery Shrouds Tether and Its Links to Biggest Bitcoin Exchange

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Among the many mysteries at the heart of the cryptocurrency market are these: Does $814 million of a digital token known as tether really exist? And what is tether’s connection to Bitfinex, the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange? This is the state of crypto in late 2017, where questions about the companies behind the currencies are multiplying with the profits. While cryptocurrencies appeal to people who lack faith in governments and banks, the…

Online Fantasy Games Pay Real Money for Desperate Venezuelans

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – They start arriving even before the security shutters at the west Caracas storefront roll up at about 8:30 a.m. For 11 hours a day, they’ll hunch over old-fashioned cathode-ray tube monitors and bang on greasy keyboards in a dim space with a boarded-up window and a blanket of dust. They pause just long enough to smoke cigarettes in the stairwell. And if someone lingers too long, another eager person claims their seat and…

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