By CCN: Gold investor Peter Schiff unleashed yet another savage takedown of bitcoin at this weekend’s SALT Conference. Schiff touted the same usual criticisms of bitcoin, calling it a “pump and dump scheme” that has “no value to hold.” But in a particularly aggressive statement, he managed to criticize an entire generation: “A bunch of young inexperienced kids are going to be dumb enough to buy...
One of the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency investors has thrown even more weight behind bitcoin, claiming virtually all other cryptocurrencies will die a painful death. Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group and Grayscale Investments, says the flagship cryptocurrency has already won the race to become digital gold. In a phone interview with CNBC, Silbert, who reportedly bought into...
Bitcoin tanked in 2018, but the future of cryptocurrencies remains bright because you can’t stop progress. That’s the assessment of Travis Scher, a vice president at crypto investment firm Digital Currency Group. “2019 will be volatile, entertaining, and full of surprises,” Scher wrote in a Medium post. “But I am confident that the stress caused by the 2018 crash...
According to Barry Silbert, the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), many venture capital funding deals in the crypto sector have fallen apart in the past few months as a result of the 12-month bear market. Silbert, who oversees the operations of one of the largest venture capital firms in crypto with investments in Coinbase, bitFlyer, Blockchain, Chainalysis, Coins, ErisX, Etherscan...
The ICO market is dead, but that won’t hamper the inevitable growth of the cryptocurrency market, says Barry Silbert, the founder of crypto investment fund Digital Currency Group. Silbert said the frenzy for initial coin offerings in 2017 fueled the meteoric spike in bitcoin prices, but now the ICO market has been decimated, resulting in the mass sell-off we’re seeing now. “The...
Retail brokerage giant TD Ameritrade and high-frequency trading firm Virtu Financial have invested in a cryptocurrency exchange that seeks to bridge the gap between Wall Street and the burgeoning cryptoasset ecosystem. Futures Market Relaunches as Cryptocurrency Exchange Originally launched as a traditional futures market in 2010, The Wall Street Journal reports that this exchange — ErisX...
Seven months into a severe cryptocurrency market downturn, the bears have finally run out of steam, leaving the bitcoin price primed for a breakout. That’s according to Barry Silbert, founder of the Digital Currency Group (DCG), perhaps the cryptocurrency industry’s most prolific investment fund. Speaking with CNBC on Tuesday, Silbert said that the recent surge above $7,000 likely indicates that...
Chile’s largest bitcoin exchange, SurBTC, recently announced through a blog post that users in Peru can now trade bitcoin and ether. To welcome Peruvian customers, the exchange offered them feeless trading until September 30. The move is part of the company’s goal to help give every South American citizen access to cryptocurrencies. The exchange secured a $300,000 investment last year, allowing...
More than $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency was raised through ICOs in the first half of 2017, far outstripping venture capital investment in blockchain and Bitcoin firms. About $600 million was raised in last 30 days alone. A 78-page “Token Mania” document from Autonomous NEXT summarizes ICOs and explores many of the issues that have surrounded them, including similarities to the dotcom bubble, the...
Grayscale Investments LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, Inc., recently filed to list its Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in a $500 million initial public offering, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. Shares of the trust, which have traded over the counter, have traded at a premium to the bitcoin price...
Indian bitcoin exchange Unocoin has raised $1.5 million in a Pre Series-A funding round, the highest amount raised for any digital currency venture in the country. Unocoin, an Indian bitcoin startup that offers a trading platform for Indian customers to buy, sell and store bitcoins has raised a record $1.5 million in a round of funding, the company announced on Thursday. Founded in December 2013...
Satoshi Citadel Industries (SCI) has acquired the bitcoin-powered Keza app which allows users to invest in mainstream U.S. stocks, and has relaunched it. The Keza app closed in April shortly after launching, CCN reported. The project had received $357,000 in funding backed by Digital Currency Group and Jason Calacanis of HOF Capital. Keza also promised an application for the growing remittance...
Amazon Web Services will partner with Digital Currency Group (DCG) on a platform that will allow companies to experiment with blockchain technology, according to Forbes. Blockchain providers in DCG’s portfolio will be able to work in a secure environment with financial institutions, enterprise technology companies and insurance companies. A blockchain can make financial services more efficient...
Frequent bitcoin- and blockchain-focused investment firm Digital Currency Group now sees Western Union as an investor in a new funding round. Money-transfer giant Western Union is Digital Currency Group’s newest investor, in a new funding round. Digital Currency Group (DCG) is also welcoming new investors to the firm in Beijing-based HCM International Co., a subsidiary of Foxconn Ltd., focused on...
Custos Media Technologies, a Stellenbosch, South Africa-based company that uses the blockchain to fight media piracy, has raised $265,000 USD in seed funding from Digital Currency Group (DCG) and a South African private investor, according to Ventureburn.com. The company uses technology that watermarks bitcoin into a piece of media that it tracks in the blockchain to identify infringements. The...
Update 16:30 GMT: Bitwala CEO Jörg von Minckwitz reached out to CCN and his comments about the seed-funding are included below. Netherlands-based Bitwala, a crypto-to-SEPA service that enables fiat-currency transfers toward settlements from users who pay in bitcoin has announced the closure of its first seed funding round, raising €800k in the process. Bitcoin startup Bitwala, a Bitcoin services...
By raising $1 million in seed funding, blockchain startup RSK Labs will develop Rootstock, a smart contracts platform that will be deployed as a sidechain on the bitcoin blockchain. In a funding round led by bitcoin mining hardware company Bitmain Technology, RSK Labs has raised $1 million in a successful initial seeding round to develop Rootstock – a smart contracts platform secured by the...
Keza, a New York-based startup, launched an iOS app that allows users to invest bitcoin in stocks and fixed incomes, according to Nasdaq. There are moderate, conservative and aggressive portfolios. The company has raised $357,000 and is backed by Digital Currency Group and Jason Calacanis of HOF Capital. The riskier the portfolio, the greater the exposure to volatile assets like foreign stocks...
CoinDesk first published Bitcoin-related content in May 2013. The website, launched by Spotify angel investor Shakil Khan, came to fruition in just four weeks. “I was just sitting there and I literally had five e-mails that day from very seasoned entrepreneurs asking me, ‘What do you know about Bitcoin?’” said Khan. “There’s a lack of transparent information. Where do you go to read...
SurBTC.com, Chile’s largest bitcoin exchange, recently secured a $300,000 USD investment which will allow the company to improve its customer experience and serve the remittance market in addition to other services, the company announced. The investors include Digital Currency Group (DCG), which has funded more than 60 bitcoin companies in 25 countries. The new investment, which complements...
Trading in the Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT), an open-ended trust invested exclusively in bitcoin, may have contributed to the November spike in bitcoin’s price, according to The Wall Street Journal. On Oct. 21, for the first time, the spread between publicly-traded shares in the fund and the bitcoin price became negligible. On Nov. 3, 71,000 shares traded and the bitcoin price surged. A...
MasterCard is backing Barry Silbert’s newest initiative, Digital Currency Group, his first since selling SecondMarket to Nasdaq last week. Many believe this marks a major development in the Bitcoin space as the digital currency flirts with the $300 level. Silbert has gained the support of big-time backers for the new conglomerate focused exclusively on Bitcoin and other block chain technologies...
Founder and CEO of SecondMarket Barry Silbert announced last July that he would be stepping down after nearly 11 years to focus solely on Bitcoin-related projects. Friday morning Silbert tweeted the name, Digital Currency Group (DGC). Marking its launch as an important step in separating his focus from SecondMarket. Digital Currency Group is only the latest of Silbert’s Bitcoin ventures...