Brokers Minutes

German Bank Fidor Plans Expansion in US

German-based internet bank Fidor recently expressed its plans to enter the US markets. The bank has already been in rumors to have tied up a deal with a US company to launch its web-based payment platform Web 2.0, backed by Ripple protocol. And now with the announcement, it has become further concrete. Fidor officials meanwhile are sure to receive a flexible and supportive regulatory environment in the US. You can read the full report here.

CNN Money Integrates New Bitcoin Ticker on Its Platform

Business news website CNN Money recently launched a brand new and intuitive Bitcoin Ticker XBT on its platform. The integration ultimately brought Bitcoin further towards mainstream level, where potential investors could easily notice it. CNN, which itself have published a series of well-researched articles on this digital currency, might have seen its futuristic potentials in payment technology; and therefore, decided to add its ticker. You can read the full report here.

Documentary on Ross Ulbricht to Release Next Month

Entertainment network EPIX announced the premier of their upcoming feature-length documentary Deep Dot Web, based on the aftermath of Silk Road’s founder Ross Ulbricht’s arrest and conviction. The production house meanwhile released a roughy 1 minute 30 seconds long teaser to explain the documentary’s backdrop. You can read the full report here.


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Bayside Corp. launches Vault 51, secure offline storage for Bitcoin

When Bitcoin storage is becoming risky thanks to several hacking attempts, the users are worried about the security of their deposits, Bayside Corp. has announced through its subsidiary company Bitcoinz USA, that it has launched Vault 51. It is offline storage for Bitcoin which according to the company is safer than online Bitcoin wallets.

The announcement from Bayside Corp. says that the offline Bitcoin wallet is a part of the initial steps in the company’s Vault 51 international expansion plans. According to the company the Vault 51 website will also now be available in multiple languages including French, German and Italian; thus, it will customer a wide segment of customers from Europe.

The press release from the company says that previously, Vault 51 was only available to consumers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company says that the latest industry figures, over 100,000 merchants worldwide now accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the demand for safe and secure Bitcoin wallet has gone up.

To cater the requirements from the increased number of customers, Bayside Corp. came up with the idea to expand its operations to the new region. Gordon Johnson, CEO of the company says that the international launch of Vault 51 is happening at the right time in order to take advantage of the growth in the Bitcoin eco-community.

Several Bitcoin hacking cases in the past have generated threat among the users. Earlier when Mt. Gox, the biggest Bitcoin exchange lost the valuable investments from the customers, lots of users did not suspect the security. However, as several other Bitcoin exchanges started losing their Bitcoin from the wallets, the real question of Bitcoin security came up.

Offline Bitcoin Wallet are Safer than Online Wallets

Now that Bayside Corp. has brought in the offline Bitcoin wallet, customers can stay assured about the security of Bitcoin deposits. Also, not just Bitcoin wallet, the company says that the sale of Bitcoin will also be available to consumers in Switzerland through its Vault 51 website. Thus, the company has tried to provide complete solution for the Bitcoin customers.

Nonetheless, Bayside Corp. also announced the expansion of Vault 51’s social media presence with the launch of the Official Vault 51 Twitter and Google Plus Pages. The company assures the customers that offline storage system for Bitcoin users is safe and secure and the best option than online Bitcoin wallets that have history of being hacked.

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New Hampshire representative Eric Schelen recently proposed the inclusion of Bitcoin for state tax purposes.
The statement quickly influenced the New Hampshire state legislature to hold a couple of meetings to discuss the new bill, which was attended by a number of Bitcoin veterans and politicians, including Ziftr CEO Bob Wilkins and former gubernatorial candidate Andrew Hemingway.

During these meetings, Schelen briefly described the benefits a taxpayer and government could receive from Bitcoin as a payment mean. He further stressed on New Hampshire to be the first state to implement Bitcoin-based tax payments. “If New Hampshire can lead the way in the primary process, and we can lead in other ways, why don’t we lead the way to being the first state to actually implement a process,” Schelen told the committee.
“It’s going to happen, all 50 states are going to do this. Why don’t we be the first?”

State Won’t Hold Bitcoin

For obvious reasons, many members of the committee were concerned about the Bitcoin’s volatility. Some even were worried in case there is not even a Bitcoin market to exchange cash from. At first, Schelen neatly gave an example of a businessman paying $1,000 as state tax through Bitcoin. “Whatever the conversion rate will be,” he said, “the state get a $1,000 in US dollars.”

During his testimony, Zift CEO Wilkins also agreed to the troubles related to Bitcoin’s volatility but also suggested that the exchange process would take place between a taxpayer and third party company. The government therefore has nothing much to do but to receive the due tax without delay.
In simple words, the bill, if passed, would rely on payment processors like BitPay to forward the transactions in fiat money.

Mixed Reaction from Committee

There were all kinds of mindsets available in that room that judged Bitcoin upon their strict understandings. There were members who wished to try out this new payment technology, while there were also many who simply opposed the idea of such an integration. For instance, New Hampshire Liberty Party co-founder Darryl Perry argued about the conflicts with Federal Laws once the Bitcoin tax bill is passed.

“I don’t want it to be easy for the collection of fees,” he commented.


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In a recent study, the Bank of England recognized Bitcoin technology to cause skeletal changes in payment industry.
The study was part of the central bank’s One Bank Research Agenda, a report that investigates the current central polices and their interaction with the ever-changing international polices, regulations, market structures, and none the least, the fundamental technologies. In it, the Bank of England clearly recognized Bitcoin as an obstructive and adoptive technology, the one they could use in future.

“The emergence of private digital currencies (such as Bitcoin) has shown that it is possible to transfer value securely without a trusted third party,” the central bank said while questioning whether they could issue its very own digital currency.
“It could be used as a new way of undertaking interbank settlement,” it predicted, “or it could be made available to a wider range of banks and NBFIs.” The bank meanwhile also noted the negative impacts such a obstructive technology could have on the current payment system.

The report further routed through more issue a normal bank could face while implementing the Bitcoin technology. It first spoke of challenges in making a separate protocol for bank’s digital currency. It meanwhile also raised the economical and regulatory issues that will need an overlook before implementing a new distributed ledger system.
But overall, the Bank of England raised some really important queries that could be resolved in a timely manner, once the payment technology veterans sit around and discuss them in detail. The report finally came us a positive signal for Bitcoin technology as a whole.

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Ex-Goldman Sachs ED Timo Schlaefer Launches of Bitcoin Derivatives trading platform



Timo Schlaefer, who worked as the executive director at Goldman Sachs and then founded Crypto Facilities Ltd., a London-based brokerage firm, has announced the launch of Bitcoin derivatives trading platform. The announcement has been received by the trader community well as they realize that it will give impetus to Bitcoin’s popularity.

Nonetheless, the availability of mature financial products such as Crypto Facilities derivatives shows that Bitcoin is taken more and more seriously by the financial establishment. Talking to media professionals Schlaefer said that the Bitcoin space still lacks professional, reliable marketplaces, and this is what we provide.

However, he admitted that his company applies the same standards in terms of risk management, compliance and reporting as traders would see in the traditional finance space. According to him the firm has a number of additional financial products in the pipeline and plans to expand its range of services.

Schlaefer is of the view that the real potential in the technology behind Bitcoin the Blockchain which is a publicly-distributed ledger system that makes sure all transactions are verified in a transparent, decentralized and secure fashion, can pivotal role. With Crypto Facilities Ltd traders would not trade financial products such as Bitcoin options and futures.

The company says that Bitcoin derivative trading platform will allow the traders go long and bet that the price of Bitcoin will rise, or go short and bet the price will fall. Here, the first derivative offered by Crypto Facilities is a forward contract – a contract to buy or to sell an asset at a specified future time at a price agreed upon today – on the U.S. dollar price of Bitcoin.

Special Features for Traders

Moreover, as the forward contract serves to hedge against Bitcoin volatility, or to benefit from future swings in the Bitcoin price, the company expects it will gain popularity among traders. The forward contract comes with different maturity months, and traders can choose from the nearest three in the March, June, September and December cycle.

Crypto Facilities Ltd. informs that once a forward reaches maturity, it will be settled automatically. Additionally, as traders do not have to wait until maturity to get out of their position, they can trade out at any time.

Crypto Facilities Co-Founder and COO Jean-Christophe Laruelle said that their forward is probably the simplest and most effective tool out there to protect traders against Bitcoin volatility and if they want to lock in the value of one Bitcoin, they sell one forward.


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Google shares have been on a strong rally at the start of the month but retreated upon testing resistance near the $580/share level. Price has pulled back to the 200 SMA on its daily time frame and might find support at this area, which is near the $550/share level.

MACD just reached the overbought level and is turning lower, indicating that a selloff might take place. RSI is also showing a pickup in selling pressure, as the oscillator is heading south from the overbought area as well.

Google Shares Outlook

This could offer buyers a good price to get in their long trades, as Google shares could bounce off the longer-term or shorter-term moving averages, which have acted as dynamic inflection points. If so, the stock could continue with its climb and possibly break past the recent highs around $580/share.

A sharper decline, on the other hand, might lead to a move towards the key support area at $500/share, which has held as support early this year. Risk sentiment is playing a role in determining price action for Google shares recently, as speculations of Fed tightening in June have weighed on higher-yielders and equities.

A pickup in risk appetite would support more gains for the stock price, which might make its way closer to the $600/share major psychological resistance level in the near term. For now though, the retirement of Google’s CFO has weighed on the share price and might continue to do so until a significant catalyst allows the rally to resume.

Google CFO Patrick Pichette is set to retire soon and that transition will occur over the next six months. This could lead to some concerns on company revenues and profitability, probably dragging share prices much lower for a*few months. Apart from that, the recent Apple announcement has weighed on the outlook for Android devices and led to a drop in Google shares.


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In a Great Move, RedditMarket Now Accepting Bitcoin




In a huge development, RedditMarket has announced that it is now accepting Bitcoin payments. It is a merchandise store of Reddit which has been playing vital role in bringing the Bitcoin supporters at one place. The company says that Coinbase will process users’ payments on the platform, which sells a variety of Reddit paraphernalia.

The Bitcoin users came to know about Reddit’s decision which was communicated to them via Twitter. Later on it made a huge buzz in /r/Bitcoin wherein the users showed their happiness about the decision; however, some users expressed their wish for RedditMarket to accept other altcoins such as dogecoin as well.

Needless to say when the announcement was posted on /r/Bitcoin it attracted a positive response from seemingly excited Bitcoin aficionados who have been asking for this for quite some time. The news comes a couple of months after Reddit’s cryptocurrency engineer, Ryan X Charles, was let go from his post after a brief four-month stint at the company.

Reportedly, he had made plans to enable peer-to-peer payments on Reddit. This according to him allowed users to register their Bitcoin address and receive payments from others. Interestingly, these were shelved following the resignation of CEO Yishan Wong. The website has thousands of Bitcoin supports as users who have been active for a couple of years.

Though the news has come, it is unclear whether Reddit plans to pursue this functionality at a later date. Reddit was founded by University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. After its initial success, the founders sold it to Condé Nast Publications which acquired the site in October 2006.

A Wide Range of Goods and Items Available for Bitcoin

Later on, the website became a direct subsidiary of Condé Nast’s parent company, Advance Publications. Currently, it operates as an independent entity, although Advance is still its largest shareholder. Based in San Francisco, California, the company received $50 million in funding from Snoop Lion and other investors.

Now, paying Bitcoin, customers can buy Plushes and Toys, Apparel, Magnets, Stickers, and Buttons, Gift Cards, Limited Edition Tees, etc. amongst others. The products sold at RedditMarket assure the buyers of the great quality and the right prices. Now that Bitcoin has been added as a payment option, lots of users with Bitcoin will have additional use.

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Bter Promises to Payback All Its Users despite losing $1.75 million in crypto-currency to hackers



Though Bter lost $1.75 million in crypto-currency to hackers, it is promising that it will payback its valuable customers. The China-based Bitcoin exchange has announced that it will continue to operate its services as well. Looks like unlike other Bitcoin exchanges like Mt. Gox that never looked back to pay the investors once they lost their money, this is an honest effort.

When in August the last year Bter lost $1.75 million in crypto-currency to hackers, the observers had thought that it was an end to the operation of the Bitcoin exchange. However, now it is trying to emerge from the ashes like Phoenix as it says that it managed to trace the stolen 7,170 BTC to a Bitcoin mixer, a crypto-currency laundering service called Bitcoin Fog.

It was indeed tough for Bter to operate after losing $1.75 million in crypto-currency to hackers; however, later on it did a course-correction and partnered with Jua.com, a Bitcoin wallet service that claims to offer enterprise-class storage, to review the security code on its platform and to rebuild the back-end.

As online Bitcoin wallet have been unsafe for Bitcoin users and even for the companies, Bter has entrusted its cold (offline) wallets to Jua.com and plans to eventually hand over its hot wallet services for deposit and withdrawal to the latter as well. The release from the firm says that Bter has learned a lot from its past experience.

For instance, to compensate its customers for losses that arose due to the recent breach, Bter will make payments in batches and additionally offer them half a year’s trading fee in proportion to their Bitcoin loss. The announcement says that all users will be allowed to trade Bitcoin for free for a month on Bter as a show of thanks.

Honest effort to Compensate Customers by Bter

Nonetheless, the reports are also ripe that the company says it will use all its future profits from its Bitcoin exchange and upcoming businesses to first pay back users. Additionally, Bter claims to have had 230,000 registered users, including 130,000 from China. The large user base is definitely prompting the Bitcoin exchange to stay in the services.
The last two years have seen several hacking attempts on Bitcoin exchanges. Some exchanges like Mt. Gox could not sand up after hacking; however, from the experience of Bter, it looks right to claim that there is huge space for Bitcoin exchanges that are honest and think of their customers who lost their valuable investments Bitcoin hacking.

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Aiming Promotion of digital currency and Blockchain technology WSBA Launched




The Wall Street Bitcoin Alliance (WSBA) has been launched to promote digital currency and Blockchain technology adoption in the financial markets. The news regarding the formation of the advocacy group came when it circulated a press release that says the founders are pleased announce the launch and willing to work towards greater interest of disruptive technology.

The WSBA says, “WSBA, an organization comprised of business and technology executives and leaders within the financial industry, including banks, broker-dealers, institutional investors and hedge funds. The WSBA mission is to guide and promote comprehensive adoption of digital currency*and Blockchain technology across financial markets.”

The founders of the advocacy group believe that it will execute on the strategy to expand the reach of virtual currency and Blockchain technology by engaging with regulators, policymakers and*technology innovators. They will guide the public dialogue about Bitcoin and*Blockchain technology, so that the financial markets can realize the full potential of the same.

The press release from the group says that the formation of the advocacy group is to address the issues Bitcoin is facing despite its potential. Talking to media professionals Ron Quaranta, Executive Director of WSBA said that Bitcoin and Blockchain technology and*protocols represent a seismic shift in how financial markets.

This according to him is visible in all aspects of the global*economy. He says, “As we work to incorporate and adapt these powerful*technological advances to the world of ‘Finance 2.0

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Last 24 hours in the cryptocurrency market encountered Bitcoin regain its lost upside momentum after successfully testing 281 as its primary bottom level. The impact of its recovery could also be seen on other cryptocurrency, including Litecoin and Dogecoin, that also moved 1-2% north inside the USD markets.

BTC/USD BitFinex 4H Chart

After breaking apart from the downward sloping channel at the start of this week, the BTC/USD is making impressive upside recoveries and is sighting 293 as its next resistance area with upside risk towards the previous higher high near 298 fiat. As can be seen in the chart above as well, the price is regaining the bullish bias by trending right above its 50-H MA, while its RSI at 58 is also indicating a notable buying pressure in the market. The MACD has surged above the normal line and the saffron signal curve, validating the near-term bullish bias.

From the look of it, the upside momentum seemed to have slowed down near 293. Trader thereby are recommended to set their short positions near 290 to ensure a timely exit in case the uptrend invalidates. However, if the price picks up momentum in next few hours, setting a long position near 297 would ensure a decent profit. Don’t leverage.



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