Bitcoin is a form of currency that is tied directly to the Internet and is the world’s first free market, decentralized global currency. It is operated through an open-source software so there is no central control unlike the US dollar or Euro. Similarly to gold, only 21,000,000 Bitcoins will ever be created so the value of the Bitcoin continues to rise as time goes on. Bitcoins can be exchanged for goods and services as well as currencies such as the US dollar and the Euro. As long as people trust that Bitcoin has value, people will continue to invest in it.

Brokerdealer.com’s database has many qualified brokerdealers who are prepared to help you navigate the world of Bitcoin and how you can use it to your advantage when it comes to investing. 

Overstock is an American online retailer headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. It initially sold surplus and returned merchandise on an online e-commerce marketplace but in recent years has expanded to sell new merchandise as well. 

This brokerdealer.com blog update is courtesy of Finextra News’ article, “Overstock looks to issue Bitcoin-style stocks” with an excerpt below.

Last year Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne hired developers and lawyers in an effort to create a platform – dubbed ‘Medici’ – that could use the core blockchain technology to create a cryptosecurity trading system, in which computer algorithms are used to trade virtual stocks issued by public companies.

The firm has now filed a prospectus related to the sale of securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission, adding: “We may decide to offer any of the securities described in this prospectus as digital securities, meaning the securities will be uncertificated securities, the ownership and transfer of which are recorded on a cryptographically-secured distributed ledger system using technology similar to (or the same as) the distributed ledger technology used for trading digital currencies.”

The prospectus says that these digital securities would not be traded on any existing exchange but on a specific system registered with the SEC as an ATS open only to subscribers that agree to trade exclusively through vetted broker dealers.

To continue reading about the brokerdealer-only Bitcoin exchange plan for Overstock, click here. Additional coverage on this story can also be found at MarketsMuse.com .

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Brokerdealer.com blog has done extensive coverage of the emerging bitcoin market. Just last month a New York City public official proposed accepting bitcoins as a form of payment for fines and fees, while the Winklevoss twins prepare to launch a bitcoin ETF.

Stealth bitcoin startup 21 Inc, formerly 21e6, has announced new information about its funding history, staff members and investors, revealing it has raised $116m in fundraising over multiple rounds.

In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, 21 CEO Matthew Pauker indicated that Andreessen Horowitz, Data Collective, Khosla Ventures, RRE Ventures and Yuan Capital are among the firms that have participated in the company’s funding rounds.

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston; eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll; Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi; PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin; and Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus have also invested in the startup.

Perhaps most notable is the involvement of Qualcomm Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of the global semiconductor company that designs and markets wireless telecommunication products.

Pauker told the news source that 21 aims to leverage Qualcomm’s production capabilities to develop a suite of undisclosed products to be released in the coming months.

Co-founder Balaji Srinivasan, a partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, compared the ambitions of the project to the development of 56-kilobit Internet modems and wireless Internet towers, suggesting a long-term vision that helps bring bitcoin to consumer households.

The figure would top the $106.7m raised by Coinbase to date through its four public funding rounds. 21 raised $5m in venture capital in 2013 as 21e6.

For the entire article from CoinDesk, click here.

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New York City Councilman, and Bitcoin Supporter, Mark Levine

Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of Pete Rizzo from CoinDesk.

Over the past few months, brokerdealer.com has covered the growing trend and interest in the mystery that is the electronic currency, bitcoin. With the anticipation of the Winklevoss twins’ launch of a bitcoin ETF and brokerdealers studying the trade of bitcoins, it is inevitable they will soon become widely accepted in all parts of life. Now a New York City Councilman is proposing that the city accepts bitcoins as a form of payment for fines and fees as a way to save the city more money.

Last Thursday New York City councilman Mark Levine introduced a bill petitioning for the city to accept bitcoin as payment for fines and fees.

Levine opened up about the bill, which he says could be passed as early as June, in a new interview with CoinDesk, indicating that he believes New York City has a pressing incentive to begin accepting the payment method due to its cost advantages when compared to credit cards.

The democrat from the 7th District in northern Manhattan recalls that it was this benefit that led him to introduce the bill, one that will now go through a process of gathering co-sponsors, before heading to a vote with the city’s technology committee and finally a full vote in the city council.

Levine told CoinDesk:

“It started with realizing how much money the city of New York is losing on transaction fees on credit cards, ultimately it’s several million a year because of all sorts of fees and fines.”

Levine added that if the city were to partner with an intermediary in accepting bitcoin, it would bear some costs, but that these would still be less than those charged by payment card providers.

While Levine is optimistic about an expedited timeline for the bill, he indicated that the end-of-June estimate is far from concrete.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty in the process,” he said.

Message to entrepreneurs

Yet another benefit to accepting bitcoin, Levin said, is the message that New York City is an innovator that deserves the attention of entrepreneurs considering Silicon Valley as the hub for their endeavors.

Levine framed New York City as “in competition” with areas like Silicon Valley and Boston when seeking to attract top tech talent, and framed bitcoin as a key differentiator that could provide value to city.

“I think that being the first major city in the US to make this move sends a clear signal that we’re innovators here,” Levine said.

New York has already positioned itself as at the forefront of developments in the bitcoin space, with its introduction of the proposed ‘BitLicense’, the first state-specific bitcoin regulation in the US.

Further, the city was home to the first physical bitcoin center, Bitcoin Center NYC, opened at the start of 2014.

Negative reactions

Though excited and optimistic about his proposal, Levine indicated that some of his peers in the New York City council have taken issue with the bill and the idea of accepting bitcoin.

“Some of the reactions I’ve gotten in the last few days are concerns that bitcoin is the ‘Wild West’ of currencies,” he said.

The councilman indicated that he countered such claims as ill-informed, arguing to his colleagues that the city accepts cash, the “ultimate untraceable financial instrument”.

Levine, however, framed the ongoing discussion by the New York State Financial Services Department (NYDFS) over its BitLicense proposal as one that would likely help “calm the nerves” of those in the state government, though he indicated it would not directly affect the outcome of the bill.

For bitcoin community members, he also clarified a provision of the bill that would enable the city to accept fees for bitcoin transactions, arguing that, while the city would be looking to pass on the cost of the transaction to payees, the fee would likely be less than 1%.

Issue of legal tender

Given the uncertain status of bitcoin in the eyes of US courts, there are also questions about whether the city could accept the payment method, given that bitcoin the currency is not considered legal tender in New York state.

Levine indicated, however, that the bill was fully vetted by the city council’s legal team, and that he believes having a financial intermediary accept bitcoin, thereby providing the city with US dollars, would help the city circumvent potential legal issues.

The issue is one that remains murky for the number of proposals introduced in US governments over the last few weeks.

Levine’s bill in New York City notably follows others recently introduced to state legislatures inUtah and New Hampshire.

For the original article, click here.

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In December, Brokerdealer.com covered the emerging bitcoin market and in January, MarketMuse profiled the Winklevoss twins’ plans to launch a bitcoin ETF. The bitcoin market is still emerging and was on track to be a booming business but the market now is taking a step back. In fact, UK International Business Times is saying that the bitcoin market is dying off, now with the supposed bitcoin scam occurring in Hong Kong, the bitcoin market seems to be even more hopeless.

Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange MyCoin has allegedly shut its doors and stolen HKD 3 billion ($386.9 million) in the process.

The South China Morning Post reported Monday that 30 MyCoin clients approached a local lawmaker with complaints that the company had fled with funds from up to 3,000 investors.

The reports coming out of Hong Kong would seem to indicate that there may have been a Ponzi scheme at play.

“No one seems to know who is behind this,” a woman surnamed Lau, who said she lost HKD 1.3 million, told the paper. “Everyone says they, too, are victims … but we were told by those at higher tiers [of the scheme] that we can get our money back if we find more new clients.”

One warning sign of a pending collapse could have been that when the company changed its trading rules to bar people from exchanging all of their bitcoins unless they solicited new investors for the firm.

As bitcoin-focused site CoinDesk reasons, the incident may lead to new regulations for the cryptocurrency industry in Hong Kong, “which has so far operated with little scrutiny.”

According to the SCMP, MyCoin had hosted events at luxury hotels and a roadshow in Macau in 2014.

MyCoin did not immediately return a request for comment.

For the entire article from CNBC, click here.

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Bitcoin, the crypto-currency that initially became infamous as the tender of choice for drug traffickers and mercenaries, may be coming to a trading desk or institutional portfolio near you – and sooner than you think.

“2014 is going to be the year Bitcoin hits Wall Street,” said Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of SecondMarket, a capital-raising platform for private companies and investment funds. Indeed, there is a growing consensus in some corners of Wall Street and the buyside community that the $7.8 billion  Bitcoin industry is going to become the new, flashy darling of investors, with dedicated digital currency funds, venture capitalists and asset managers all chasing after those 12 million bitcoins currently in circulation.

“Digital currencies like Bitcoin are not going away,” Silbert explained. “And Wall Street and the regulators know this, they’ve studied how to deal with it, and now they are starting to understand its potential.” SecondMarket has gone heavy into the Bitcoin phenomenon, launching the Bitcoin Investment Trust, a $70 million open-ended trust that invests exclusively in bitcoins, as well as a dedicated desk of 10 traders who buy and sell bitcoins for the trust and other institutional clients. SecondMarket is also creating what it hopes to be the largest, best-capitalized and well-run Bitcoin exchange in the U.S., and is enlisting banks and Bitcoin-related firms to be exchange members.

“The number of inquiries and requests from finance industry professionals for us to prepare compliant investor offering documents for crypto-centric funds is certainly keeping us busy”, said Paul Azous, CEO of Prospectus.com. “We don’t see this as some type of anomaly that is connected to a short-term fad, many of the funds we are working with are forward-thinking folks who realize that blockchain applications will be expressed in nearly every business process.”

In addition to preparing investment fund offering documents, Prospectus.com helps blockchain-based startups craft white papers, presentation decks that resonate with accredited investors and through a captive network of crypto industry consultants, the firm guides those advancing Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

Alec Petro, managing partner at Bay Hill Capital Management LLC in Duxbury, Mass., shares Silbert’s passion for Bitcoin. “We’re betting that the market is going to be there, maybe not next month, but soon,” Petro told Traders. “Institutional players are going to want to be in this space.” Petro almost single-handedly plays the role of market-maker in Bitcoin options on the Atlas ATS exchange, the only Bitcoin exchange currently offering options on the digital currency. He also runs a small fund, consisting entirely of Bay Hill Capital partners’ money, that invests in Bitcoin.

Everything Bitcoin needs to break into the mainstream of trading and investing is achievable and starting to happen, according to Petro. “More merchants are taking it and that means more liquidity, more stability in price and, ultimately, more confidence,” he said, checking off the events that will ultimately lead to the Great Bitcoin Revolution that he, Silbert and others are working toward.
The Revolution on Hold
Before the revolution can really begin, of course, Bitcoin has myriad issues to address.

Still, not everyone is convinced. Fitch Ratings threw some cold water on the Bitcoin buzz in an April report, noting that although total Bitcoin consumer transactions averaged $68 million per day in February, a more than tenfold increase compared with the year before, it was still minimal compared with other payment processors and credit card companies. In trading, Bitcoin ranked better, according to Fitch, citing an average daily transaction volume in Bitcoin in February equaling approximately 1 percent of Bitcoin’s total market capitalization. Over the same period, a sample of the largest U.S. equities showed that daily trading volumes were approximately 0.6 percent of total market capitalization, according to Fitch.

Supporters of Bitcoin are unshakable in their faith, however, saying the crypto-currency will play a big part in the future of payment processing, and that future will see an increasing number of trading platforms and investment funds dedicated to Bitcoin.

The Early Adopters
Brett Stapper, co-founder of Falcon Global Capital, a Bitcoin investment fund, is one of those faithful. But he got an early lesson in how hard Bitcoin’s bad past may be to shake. Speaking at a conference in Washington, D.C., about Bitcoin, Stapper thought he’d also reach out to some legislators about issues surrounding Bitcoin. He was stunned at how negative the reaction was to it.

“They had a very bad view of Bitcoin,” Stapper said. “And that worried me because these were the people that were basically in control of the future of Bitcoin in the U.S.” Resolving to rehabilitate the image of Bitcoin in the minds of these doubters, Stapper registered himself as a lobbyist and began to educate people about Bitcoin.

Now, he said, he spends his days on the phone as a Bitcoin evangelist, talking to lawmakers and potential investors. Of course, he’s got skin in the game – Falcon Global Capital runs a $7 million SEC Regulation D Private Investment Fund and is launching a second fund, for offshore investors, later this summer. The funds operate similarly to a gold-holding hedge fund, offering investors exposure by purchasing bitcoins on their behalf, with investments ranging from $25,000 to $10 million, according to the firm’s Website. The bitcoins are then stored in Falcon Global Capital’s digital vault, providing investors easy access and protection from theft.

Fund firms like Falcon Global, SecondMarket and Bay Hill aren’t the only ones to have fallen under Bitcoin’s spell. The Winklevoss brothers, best known for their legal face-off with Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, are awaiting final approval from the SEC for the first-ever ETF that tracks the price of bitcoins. Hedge funds and trading firms such as Fortress Investment Group, Sun Trading, Tradebot Systems, Coin Capital, Pantera Capital Management, Cedar Hill Capital and Havelock Investments have launched Bitcoin funds, or have gotten involved in trading or acquiring bitcoins. Venture capital firms such as Liberty City Ventures and Core Innovation Capital are investing heavily in Bitcoin start-up support companies, like wallet companies (which allow users to hold and store bitcoins) and Bitcoin-focused tech companies that are helping set up exchanges. Tech exec heavyweight Marc Andreessen also is a Bitcoin fan, supporters like to point out.

Still, the number of Bitcoin fan club members who are actually willing to put up their dollars in terms of investment or trading infrastructure development is small, albeit growing. “We are on the front lines of Bitcoin, paving the way for others to get involved,” Stapper said, adding that Falcon Global Capital is anticipating its funds will grow to a combined $100 million in assets by the end of the year.

SecondMarket’s Silbert is also expecting to have a very busy summer. SecondMarket is planning to launch its large U.S. Bitcoin exchange in a few months, and is spinning all of its Bitcoin operations – including the exchange and the Bitcoin Investment Trust – into a yet unnamed separate company.

For the entire story, please visit Traders Magazine via this link

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