This Week In Digital Currency | BTC:$400.42 (15.73%) | LTC:$4.24 (21.19%) | DOGE:$0.00029 (17.14%) | VTC:$0.081 (19.80%) | | NXT:$0.030 (21.05%) | PPC:$1.47 (79.44%) | BLK:$0.056 (00.00%) | DRK:$2.96 (2.49%) | Tweet Share +1 The price of Bitcoin has fallen over 15% in the last week, but a specific cause is not immediately apparent.



Bitcoin Magazine made the argument that the price drop is due to individuals selling their Bitcoin in order to buy in to the upcoming Alibaba IPO. This claim seems to be a bit of a stretch. For one thing, I'm not sold on the idea that the same people actively investing in Bitcoin are also interested in Alibaba shares, or at least not in significant numbers.



Alternatively, Michael Casey, of the WSJ, argues that Chinese investors are using Bitcoin mining to bypass capital controls. The investors then immediately sell their Bitcoin for dollars, leading to increased sell pressure and a declining price.



The price decline is most likely due to a combination of factors: sell pressure from miners covering their overhead, miners skirting capital controls, merchants instantly converting accepted Bitcoin for USD and investors selling either to cover their losses or due to a lack of faith in the currency. Bitcoin is still trying to reach a price equilibrium after the massive spike in price this year. Put simply, the price rose way too quickly, and now it needs to fall, until the demand between buyers and sellers levels out. Let's not forget that this time last year, the price of Bitcoin on Bitstamp was around $120, the ecosystem has come a long way since.



Until there is desperation among the majority of Bitcoin holders, we will have yet to see the bottom, and the price will continue to decline. During the stagnant period last year, where price hovered in the mid $100s, and then when the Silk Road bust happened and plummeted the price to the $70s, people throughout Bitcoin communities were becoming extremely desperate. "Price is not what's important," was the often cited mantra. We haven't reached that level of desperation yet. Coin Center, a new non-profit research and advocacy center for Bitcoin, was introduced to the public on Thursday. It aims to be a think tank, as well as lobby organization, for all things digital currency. Coin Center joins the Bitcoin Foundation and the Chamber of Digital Commerce in advocating for digital currencies in Washington.



"Coin Center is still getting off the ground, but we are incredibly lucky that we will have a great group of initial board members including Marc Andreessen, Balaji Srinivasan, Jeff Garzik, Alex Morcos, and Prof. Susan Athey. We are also very fortunate to start with an annual budget of over $1 million thanks to the generous initial support of companies and individuals including Andreessen Horowitz, Hudson River Trading, Union Square Ventures, RRE Ventures, Emil Woods of Liberty City Ventures, Charles Cascarilla of itBit, Barry Silbert, BitPay, Coinbase, BitGo, and Xapo." -- Jerry Brito, Executive Director of Coin Center

The price of Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Vertcoin, and NXT all fell by more than 15% over the past week, but the Peercoin price surged by nearly 80%.



The surge in price can be attributed to speculation and excitement over a new addition to Peercoin, called NuBits, that is set to be released tomorrow. Jordan Lee, one of the Peercoin core developers, is the main architect of NuBits, a derivative of the Peershares concept that he first announced last September. Lee has been short on specifics, but it appears that NuBits will be a decentralized finance platform, applying blockchain technology to publicly traded companies. We will know more tomorrow, when he releases it to the public. The newly released TxtPay service allows merchants in the Philippines to begin accepting Bitcoin payments with only a cellphone. No longer do merchants need to buy Point of Sale systems, cash registers, or even a smartphone, all they need to accept payments is a cell phone that can send and receive text messages. Bitmarket.ph handles the rest.



Innovations such as this, continue to showcase the disruptive potential of Bitcoin technology, especially in less developed nations where traditional payment networks have struggled to gain market share.

On Wednesday, the Daily Beast released an exclusive interview with Mark Karpeles, the disgraced former CEO of failed Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. This was Karpeles' first interview since Mt Gox abruptly closed its doors due to bankruptcy. He has consistently claimed that Mt Gox was the victim of theft, but many in the Bitcoin community believe he was complicit in fraud and stole from his customers.



The interview is light on any details regarding the collapse, but our major takeaway is that he seems entirely unrepentant. He gives off this perception that even the mere suggestion that he had any fault in Gox's collapse to be a crazy suggestion. Karpeles was Mt Gox's CEO, primary owner, and lead developer, so even if he didn't commit fraud, the responsibility for the well being of customer funds ultimately resided on his shoulders.



"I think we will see another Mt. Gox next year, and the next year. And my opinion is that each time we will see that, the losses will increase. In 2012, you had the collapse of Bitcoinica [after a massive hacking incident]. After that you had Mt. Gox. The next collapse could be even worse." -Mark Karpeles Still News... Constantly Updated... Last week, Coinbase released their response to the Bitlicense Guidelines. Also this week, the Bitcoin Foundation released a new response, in which they expressed their disappointment in regard to an alleged backtracking on promises by the NYSDFS and Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky.



We have compiled all public responses to the Bitlicense at our easy to follow Bitlicense Hub. It will be constantly updated as new responses are released. Let us know if we missed any.



The New York State Department of Financial Services' Bitlicense Guidelines are meant to be the model for future federal Bitcoin regulations and are now under a community review period

