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Bitcoin Securities Exchange BTC-TC Shutters $12M Operations, Cites Regulatory Environment

BTC Trading Corp (BTC-TC) announced that it will close all trading by October 7, two weeks from today. BTC-TC is one of the largest bitcoin securities exchanges, responsible for 101,000 BTC ($12M) in deposited securities and 2,900 BTC ($350K) in daily volume. The company’s notice cited “recent changes in the virtual currency regulatory environment” as the reason for shuttering operations. Also closing is LTC-Global, a litecoin-denominated securities exchange also run by Ethan Burnside, the same operator as BTC-TC. Closing Process All trading was temporarily halted and order books were cleared after the announcement was made at 5am EST. After trade …

Sep 23, 2013 Posted by Jonathan Stacke In Businesses, Featured, News, Trading Tagged Active Mining, GLBSE, LTC, Regulatory Pressure, SEC, trading, volume Comments 8

$300M Credit Card Fraud Case Highlights Role of Regulators and Bitcoin’s Unique Security Advantages

Yesterday, U.S prosecutors charged six foreign nationals with the largest cyber fraud case in U.S. history. The men allegedly orchestrated more than $300 million in credit and debit card thefts by illegally accessing computers at Citigroup, Nasdaq, PNC Financial, Visa Jordan, an additional Visa Inc licensee, Discover, Dow Jones, and retailers including JetBlue, Carrefour, Hannaford Brothers, 7-Eleven, J.C. Penny and more. The group executed its spree over nearly a decade, even landing one of the members in jail in 2008 on a 20-year prison sentence. The other five members included four Russian nationals and one Ukrainian, all between the ages …

Jul 26, 2013 Posted by Jonathan Stacke In Businesses, News, Regulatory, Security Tagged Counterparty Risk Highlighted, Dow Jones, Hannaford Brothers, SEC, SQL, Visa Inc Comments 2

SEC Charges Operator of Bitcoin Savings and Trust with Fraud

Today, the SEC charged Trendon Shavers of McKinney, Texas, known to many in the bitcoin community as “pirateat40″ with defrauding investors in a Ponzi scheme known as the Bitcoin Savings and Trust. The SEC also issued an investor alert titled, “Ponzi Schemes Using Virtual Currencies.” The Bitcoin Savings and Trust, an infamous fraud in the bitcoin community, was suspected of being a Ponzi scheme long before its final closure. By limiting initial investments, promising 3,300% annualized interest and establishing trust over a long period of time on the bitcointalk forums, Shavers was able to con more than 700,000 BTC from …

Jul 23, 2013 Posted by Jonathan Stacke In Businesses, News, Regulatory, Security, Trading Tagged investment, SEC, Securities Act, Trendon Shavers Comments 3

No, Mr. Keiser, Bitcoin Should Not Peg Itself To The Dollar

The following is a response to Max Keiser’s piece in the Huffington Post titled “Should Bitcoin Peg Itself To The Dollar?” Mr. Keiser is a smart man. He knows bitcoin as well as anyone. We would like to believe he posed this question not as a suggestion, but as a catalyst for thoughtful discussion. So, let’s discuss. No person or entity has the power to enact such a policy The entire proposition of a currency peg for bitcoin falls apart when you consider the actual implementation. There are unavoidable hurdles such as decentralized authority and limited issuance intentionally implemented by …

Apr 27, 2013 Posted by Jonathan Stacke In Economics, Featured, News Tagged Bitcoin, payment, SEC, trading Comments 13