Last summer, news that federal agents had seized a combined $5M from accounts owned by Mt. Gox roiled bitcoin markets. The warrants enabling the action cited improper filings when the company opened its bank accounts, including unlicensed operation of a money service business. Yet, written testimonies from federal regulators for the recent Senate hearings on digital currencies indicate the seizures were actually part of the much larger crackdown on online narcotics marketplace Silk Road – insight that presumably had to remain hidden at the time of the seizures due to the ongoing investigation. Experienced market participants will recall that before …

Read More →

The digital currency markets have seen a host of industry-specific news over the past weeks, including events like the closure of Silk Road and announcement that Baidu would accept bitcoin for some services. While such micro events continue to play a large part in the bitcoin markets, the reaction to the agreement over the US debt limit illustrates the clear impact macroeconomic events increasingly have on bitcoin. After weeks of debate and a partial government shutdown, US legislators reached an agreement to extend the United States’ borrowing capacity. In doing so, a default by the world’s largest debtor was avoided …

Read More →

The last week has seen dramatic upwards price action in the bitcoin markets, driven by a series of macro and micro events across the globe. The fallout from Silk Road’s closure turned out to be but a blip in bitcoin’s price history, with significant gains since then. Turmoil in global financial markets and recent news of leading global websites accepting bitcoin may have bolstered enthusiasm for digital currency, but most interesting may be CNY’s definitive recent price leadership. Compared with prices before the brief Silk Road drop, bitcoin exchange rates have climbed 14% in the last two weeks. At $145/BTC …

Read More →

Silk Road, the online drug bazaar that has eluded authorities and been ingrained in the bitcoin narrative for years, was shut down yesterday. Ross Ulbricht was named in the court documents outlining Silk Road’s activities, as were a number of key data points that offer insights into the impact the world’s most infamous retail website has had on bitcoin. Ulbricht was caught as a result of human error and excessive risks related to physical delivery of false identification being delivered to his home address in San Francisco from Canada. After tracking the package, authorities found their way to Ulbricht and …

Read More →

Bitcoin price volatility has declined considerably since early July and recently reached lows not seen since early January. Trading volume on exchanges has similarly declined over the same period. The stability may be attributable to a number of factors, ranging from uncertainty around the withdrawal delays from Mt. Gox to quiet summer trading typical of many financial markets. What may be more interesting are the recent events that have not affected stability. In particular, bitcoin prices have withstood recent news about significant impacts to confidence in the security of Tor – the only way to access the infamous Silk Road …

Read More →
1 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 1 Google+ 0 LinkedIn 0 Email -- 1 Flares ×