Issue #74

25 April - 1 May 2015

Wall Street is definitely getting involved with Bitcoin. This week, Circle announced they have raised US$50 million from Goldman Sachs and IDG Capital Partners. This follows NYSE's participation in Coinbase's US$75 million round a few months back.

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Latest News

Circle has closed a $50m funding round and announced the launch of new account features that enable customers to hold, send and receive US dollars.

Bitcoin wallet, exchange and merchant services provider Coinbase has launched in the UK.

Hedgy, a graduate of Boost VC announced that they closed a US$1.2 million seed round led by Tim Draper, Marc Benioff, Sand Hill Angels and eight others.

Market

The Financial Times went to great length to understand what secretive Bitcoin startup, 21 Inc. business plans are after receiving US$116 million in venture funding.

The New York Times explores how Argentina, with its volatile currency and dysfunctional banks, can be the perfect place to experiment with a new digital currency.

Alex Batlin, the head of Swiss bank UBS’s new financial technology lab, tweeted the following message: “decrypt('frnepu sbe n punyyratr ng HOF ba gur oybpxpunva')”. Decrypted, the message reads: Search for a challenge at UBS on the blockchain.

Ecosystem

Swarm is pivoting toward decentralized governance, a decision that finds the project shifting away from its prior focus on distributed crowdfunding.

Global remittance giant Western Union is reportedly working on a pilot program with decentralized payment protocol provider Ripple Labs.

Legal

Fred Wilson: Oppressive bitcoin regulation could make Silicon Valley the 'next Wall Street'

Like many other countries, Canada has been wrestling with the issue of whether to regulate digital currencies and, if so, how and to what extent.

Learn

Tim Swanson explores how the community reacted to his recently-released report “Consensus as a service”. The majority of views on /r/bitcoin and Twitter seem to take the maximalist, one-size-fits-all approach: that Bitcoin is the only way, the truth and the light. But this is certainly not the only view.