Bitcoin News Roundup – 28 Mar.2015

Posted by: DeepDotWeb

March 28, 2015

Recapping the week’s biggest Bitcoins stories from around the web.

The British Banking Association (BBA) sees the bitcoin as a serious threat to the traditional banking system. Gola Yashu of NewsBtc reports that, according to the latest UK Treasury Report, Chancellor George Osborne highlighted the need to accelerate the efforts to control criminal activity with the use of digital currencies. On the upside, the UK Government plans to spend GBP 10 million to research and understand how the blockchain technology works and how UK startups can comply with consumer protection laws by capitalizing on the bitcoin technology.

The NASDAQ OMX Grouphas joined forces with Noble Markets to enable cryptocurrency trading by institutional investors. Maria Santos of 99bitcoins reports that, Noble Markets, the New York-based cryptocurrency startup will be provided with NASDAQ’s core trading technology as well as NASDAQ’s X-stream trading systemand marketing support in order to allow institutional investors to trade bitcoins and other digital currency assets.

Safello, Atlas Card and Blocktrace have been selected to join Barclays Accelerator Program that will take place in London. Philip Schawillieof Coin Buzz reports that the three blockchain-related startups are enrolled in the 90 day program, along with another seven companies that were selected among startups of more than 60 countries. The selected companies will be funded with $20,000 from Techstars and will attend an intensive schedule of networking, mentoring and development.

Regulation

New regulations are announced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow crowdfunding for small and medium companies, including bitcoin-related startups. Nuno Menezes of Bitcoinistreports that startups and companies that are short on capital will be able to gain financial access to alternative sources, including crowdfunding. The new regulations strengthen the legitimacy of the bitcoin and allows bitcoin-related startups to raise capitalby registering with the SEC to comply with legislation.

Effective April 1st, bitcoin-related businesses will have to comply with the Isle of Man’s anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. Leon Pick of DCMagnates reports that the Proceeds of Crime Act 2008 have been amended to include digital currencies. The new measures address businesses involved in “issuing, transmitting, transferring, providing safe custody or storage of, administering, managing, lending, buying, selling, exchanging or otherwise trading or intermediating convertible virtual currencies, including crypto-currencies.” If any of such company is used for money laundering, it should be reported in the Isle of Man’s authorities.

The Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT), the latest addition to a series of bitcoin trading platforms that seek to expand cryptocurrency investment, is formally approved for listing on the OTC Markets Group’s OTCQX exchange. As Giulio Prisco of Bitcoin Magazine writes, the BIT will go live with the ticker GBTC, most likely within the next week. Barry Silbert announced that the BIT fund is welcoming eligible shareholders to trade their shares.

The Hong Kong Government sees no reason to regulate the bitcoin.According to Allcoins News,KC Chan, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, does not consider the bitcoin currency, and therefore potential regulation is out of question for now as there is no immediate threat to the country’s financial system. Responding to lawmakers’ questions, KC Chan stretched that the digital currency is not widely accepted in Hong Kong as a legal form of payment and their use in the business transactions is limited.

Payments

Neteller adds bitcoin option to its platform. According to the Bitcoins Channel, the global payment solutions provider has integrated the bitcoin deposit option to its system through a partnership of mother company Optimal Payments with BitPay. Neteller already allows merchants and customers to use the digital currency for their transactions. The move was the result of a fundamental adjustment in the company policy as until this announcement, the use of bitcoin at Neteller’s platform was prohibited.

CardinalCommerce is accepting bitcoins. As Pete Rizzo of Coin Desk writes, the Ohio-based payment authentication provider has entered a partnership with Bitnet to enable merchants to use CardinalCommerce’s platform for their transactions. Currently, the company proceeds to all necessary adjustments in its platform to accept the digital currency and facilitate refunds through Bitnet.

Updated: 2015-03-28