The price of the Chinese yuan against the U.S. dollar has gained more attention from bitcoin enthusiasts and speculators lately. They’ve held on to their belief that the bitcoin price is in close correlation with the value of CNY. How does bitcoin and CNY correlate in a quantitative term? Could it be a sheer coincidence?
The financial markets have been a rollercoaster ride in the past months. Historical events like the ‘Brexit’ and the IMF’s addition of Chinese yuan into its SDR basket of reserve currencies have shaken up the world of economics.
The U.S. presidential election also brought very pleasant surprises for bitcoin enthusiasts — bitcoin value has gone from strength to strength. CNY has also broken new floors now and then, as President-elect Donald Trump plans to renegotiate trade deals with China.

http://www.nigeriatoday.ng/2016/11/do-bitcoin-and-chinese-yuan-values-correlate/

Agency wants identities of all U.S. traders from Coinbase exchange.
As first reported by Motherboard, the Internal Revenue Service is seeking the personal data of all U.S. Coinbase users who transacted between 2013 and 2015. In a statement, a Coinbase spokesman said the exchange site was “very concerned with the indiscriminate breadth of the government’s request.”
The subjects of the data request are identified in court documents simply as an indeterminate number of “John Does.” The IRS filing further states that “There is a reasonable basis for believing that such group or class of persons may fail, or may have failed, to comply with one or more provisions of the internal revenue laws.

http://fortune.com/2016/11/20/irs-bitcoin-tax-evasion-case/

Bitcoin.com, Bitmain Technologies and several bitcoin companies have announced a $1.2 million Bitcoin Development Grant for bitcoin protocol development. There is to be no “official” bitcoin.
The statement announcing the grant acknowledged there has been a “deep rift” that has distracted the bitcoin community.
The grant is to support teams working on bitcoin protocol, foster the greater diversity of innovation and improve freedom of choice for bitcoin users.
By finding common ground in the above statements, all developers seeking to contribute to bitcoin’s development can begin to mend the rift that has divided and distracted the industry.
Bitcoin.com and Bitmain are listed as contributing signers. Supporting signers include Blockchain.info, Xapo, Purse, Mycelium, chbtc.com, Vaultoro, Coin ATM Radar, Jaxx, BitPays, Airbitz, bitbank, ANX International, ViaBTC, Bitcoin Knots, Lamassu, Blockchain Australia, Crypto Facilities, Bitcoin Suramerica, Luxstack, Coinut, Epiphyte, CoinSource, Stash, Coinucopia, BTC Ghana, Cryptomatic and more.
Several individuals have also signed the statement.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-development-grant-allocates-1-2-million-protocol-development-establishes-no-official-bitcoin/

The characterization of India as a spiritual place by most tourists is not wrong, considering that it is the birthplace of multiple religions including Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Religious institutions play an important role in daily life and receive a lot of money - including small bills - as donations. The Ministry of Finance has requested religious institutions to deposit their cash donations into banks, which can then redistribute these small bills into the economy.
In the southern state of Kerala, the Martin De Porres church has opened its collection box to help the needy. The church normally opens its donation box once every six months.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/indias-demonetization-cash-is-not-holy-cow-in-bitcoin-blockchain-we-trust

President-elect Donald Trump often decried how China sucked jobs out of the U.S. and he offered up the solution of prosecuting trade cases against China for its “unfair subsidy behavior” and currency manipulation. He suggested tariffs as high as 45 percent on its exports.
“We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country, and that’s what they’re doing,” he told supporters in May.
“We have the power over China, economic power, and people don’t understand it,” Trump also said during the campaign.
If Trump pursues a such path, then China would fight back – it’s even said so itself. It would move China closer to a regional ally, Russia. Russia’s anti-Bitcoin stance could spread to China’s leaders, who could crack down on China’s Bitcoin miners (70% of Bitcoin transactions go through four Bitcoin miner pools) and currency traders, as it has already pledged to do earlier this month.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/us-trade-war-china-bitcoin-miners/

Bitcoin’s price history has followed Gartner Inc.’s “Hype Cycle” model, a branded geographical presentation of a 5-step process by the well-respected computer research firm, noted Zafar Khan, CEO of RPost, a provider of electronic communications, in a recent blog.
This gives some legitimacy to the idea that bitcoin and blockchain are maturing and it might be a good time to consider investing in the technologies. The blog also goes into what Khan thinks is really new about blockchain — namely that it is an open source technology — something that is useful in some situations but not others. Some things hyped as new are not really new in his view.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/encrypted-services-exec-bitcoins-price-history-follows-gartners-hype-cycle/

Transaction records of Coinbase users, specifically bitcoiners, have been targeted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), according to a federal case filed in the U.S. District Court in the California Northern District Court.
First revealed by ZeroHedge on a late Thursday night November 17, the civil petition was filed in the federal court in California the same day.

With a “John Doe” summons, a summons issued by the IRS to a third party to provide information on unnamed, unknown taxpayer(s), the filing reads:
"Based upon a review of the Petition and supporting documents, the Court has determined that the “John Doe” Summons to Coinbase, Inc., relates to the investigation of an ascertainable group or class of persons, that there is reasonable basis for believing that such group or class of persons has failed or may have failed to comply with any provision of internal revenue laws…"

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/irs-targeting-bitcoin-transaction-records-coinbase-users/

In looking to follow the legal frameworks set by the United States and Japan, Korea is set to become one of the few countries to regulate Bitcoin and its use.
The country’s financial regulator, The Financial Services Commission, said on Thursday Nov. 17 that it would introduce regulatory guidelines for digital currency exchanges by the first quarter of 2017, in response to the growing popularity of Bitcoin and other digital currencies traded online in Korea.
The Commission notes that the average monthly transactions in 2016 increased by six percent compared to last year, and the top three Bitcoin exchanges in the country processed around 1.5 trillion won - $1.3 bln - between January 2015 and October 2016.
Since the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, who currently oversees the registration of Bitcoin operators within the country, does not offer financial regulatory guidelines, the Commission has launched a task force that will discuss the regulatory status of digital currencies and seek to create licensing rules for exchanges.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/korea-dubai-move-to-regulate-bitcoin

Roughly three to four percent of Bitcoin’s overall hashrate is now pointed at a mining pool in India, putting it in the top ten of mining pools in the world. This Indian mining pool, known as GBMiners, recently received an undisclosed amount of funding from Amit Bhardwaj, who is also a co-founder of the the new venture.
The vast majority of mining hardware currently pointed at the GBMiners mining pool is owned by Bhardwaj.
Although other news outlets have reported GBMiners is the largest bitcoin mining pool outside of China, both BitFury and Slushpool, which aren’t based in China, still have a greater share of the overall network hashrate.

http://coinjournal.net/new-indian-mining-pool-gbminers-gains-3-of-network-hashrate-views-bitcoin-unlimited-positively/

Trading on the Forex market gives an opportunity to be a part of the largest market in the world. Investors value high liquidity and stability of their investments and Forex provides these features. This aspect of the world’s largest currency exchange, draws the attention of bitcoin users, who want to avoid excessive volatility of the cryptocurrency market.
There are many trading platforms available on the market that offer bitcoin trading accounts. One of them is SimpleFX. The broker’s offer includes over 60 fiat currency pairs (from major currencies like: USD, EUR, JPY, to exotic currencies like Mexican Peso, which is attractive nowadays due to U. S. Presidential Elections), over 10 cryptocurrency pairs (most popular: BTCUSD, LTCUSD), commodities, precious metals (the newest addition: Gold to Bitcoin – XAUBTC), equities (US, JP and the latest addition: German stocks).

http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/11/18/simplefx-offers-plethora-trading-instruments-including-bitcoin/

60,000 rupees. That’s $881. You’ll need more than that to buy a Bitcoin in India, a country which just nixed much of its cash. The rupee-based Bitcoin price, thanks to skyrocketing demand, now includes a $140 (20%) premium upon Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to demonetize 500 and 1000 rupee notes.
After last week’s announcements that the notes were no longer valid, bitcoin sales increased across several exchanges, according to The Hindustan Times. Internet searches in India for the term “bitcoin” and “buy bitcoin” have increased in popularity, says Google Trends data.
“Queries for bitcoins have gone up by 20 percent to 30 percent in the past couple of days,” Zebpay’s CEO, Saurabh Agrawal, told the Hindustan Times.


https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/india-bitcoin-premium-reaches-20/

The Bitcoin price is spiking in India as we speak. UnoCoin, one of the country’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, marks the price at RS 59,148. That is well above the current US value per Bitcoin, indicating the demand for alternative financial solutions is huge in India right now. But is this a sign of things to come, or just a temporary price boost?
Ever since the vast majority of cash in India was suddenly declared “illegal”, the country has been a mess. Financial turmoil is affecting everyone, and capital outflows are becoming more prevalent. Interestingly enough, a lot of people are flocking to Bitcoin as a way to hedge against future financial instability.

http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/11/17/indian-bitcoin-enthusiasts-pay-us125-premium-buy-cryptocurrency/

In the past 24 hours the price of the world’s top digital currency nearly reached $30 within one hour of trading, raising it above the $740. In doing so, Bitcoin has reached a three year all time high in Europe, rising to €699.50, according to the charts of two European exchanges - Kraken and Bitstamp.

A €699 price tag beats its 2016 highs in Europe - in June 2016, it failed to pass the €652 range before being brought further down by the hack on the Bitfinex exchange - to be the highest value the digital currency has had since November 2013, when the USD rate rose to over $1,000 and the EUR value stood at €772, according to a Bitstamp history chart. 

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-beats-three-year-record-in-euro-jumps-4-percent-in-one-hour

The Supreme Legislation Committee in the Emirate of Dubai (SLC) has announced that it will discuss the present and future of the legislative and legal frameworks related to cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin during an upcoming workshop.
In cooperation with the Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC), the workshop on ‘Virtual Currency: Fact and Law’ will be held on November 20 amid high-level attendance of local and federal government entities. The workshop will be held to enrich knowledge and spread awareness among community members about rights, duties and legal obligations in line with the SLC General Secretariat's commitment to strengthen the legal system to keep pace with the developments of the 21st century.

http://www.tradearabia.com/news/BANK_316832.html

Some websites and online destinations just have that “it” factor. BitConnect seems to be one of those places this year. This popular Bitcoin community is now preparing to go from the latest Bitcoin news, local meet-ups and Bitcoin lending to their first-ever Initial Coin Offering with their innovative new BitConnectcoin.

BitConnect coin uses a special algorithm based upon both Proof of Work and Proof of Stake to secure the BitConnect Coin network. The moment you acquire BitConnect Coin it becomes an interest bearing asset with 120% return per year through PoS minting. All you have to do to earn with this method is to hold coins in your Bitconnect-QT wallet. In addition to PoS minting, BitConnect coin can be mined with CPU/GPU and does not need an ASIC miner like Bitcoindoes.

http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/11/17/bitcoins-fastest-growing-community-issues-innovative-bitconnect-coin-ico/

The latest edition of KPMG and CB Insights report “Pulse of Fintech Q3’16” shows a dip in investments going into blockchain and digital currency startups.
The report anticipates that in the forthcoming quarters, artificial intelligence (AI) will gain more investor attention in addition to RegTech, InsurTech and data and analytics. It also expects fintech areas that have emerged over the past year, particularly blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT), may be scrutinized more as investors assess when and if investments will deliver returns.

“Related companies looking for additional funding will need to show real results in order to gain investment”, it said.

http://www.econotimes.com/Bitcoin-and-blockchain-investment-activity-drops-in-Q3-2016-407235

Blockchain will soon provide users of their highly popular wallet with the option to buy bitcoin. After eight months of development, the service launches in the UK on Monday for a short period of testing. The company plans to push it out across the entire Eurozone by December, and across the US and some parts of Latin America early next year.
Bitcoin can then be purchased with debit and credit cards, as well as bank transfers, although wallet funding through the latter method will only happen as fast as the banks themselves are able to settle.

“This announcement represents a giant step forward in making bitcoin, still a nascent currency, a more compelling and efficient financial solution for new users.”

- Peter Smith,  Blockchain CEO

Blockchain is one of the industry’s best funded startups, having raised US$30.5 million early in 2014. The London-based company has about 25 employees, spread between their home office, New York, and Luxembourg.

http://bravenewcoin.com/news/blockchain-wallet-adding-bitcoin-buying-option/

In today’s financial circles, there is quite a bit of buzz around “blockchain” technology and its myriad of possible future applications. Is blockchain here to stay or is it just hype?
Bitcoin, a crypto-currency built on “blockchain” technology, gained its following among the niche techie crowd that was interested primarily in transacting across borders anonymously. With Bitcoin, the hype cycle began in late 2013, with marketplace technology that made the crypto-currency available to mainstream users. With this, the price of a Bitcoin jumped in a few months from a few dollars to a thousand, fueled by the hype that Bitcoin may become a mainstream world currency. Soon after, when the users realized there were limited ways to spend Bitcoin, with inflated expectations falling short, the price per Bitcoin crashed

https://www.equities.com/news/are-bitcoin-and-blockchain-hot-or-hype

Bitcoin has proven a few things true over its relatively short existence in human history. One, it has proven that it is not going anywhere, regardless of how many times the mainstream media pushes it into the cornfields. Two, the inherent value of Bitcoin’s currency and underlying technology are so strong and undeniable that the world’s largest nations, banks, and corporations are building their future business models around it. Thirdly, Bitcoin is the world’s newest financial “safe haven,” as market turmoil means great gains can be made in the world of digital currency like Bitcoin.
This truth may come into play once again, as the year comes to a close. Reports out of Italy indicate another European Union member nation is beginning to implode, and a banking “bail-in,” or “debt conversion” are starting in earnest. Is another Bitcoin “bull-run” in the offing?

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-bull-run-alert-italy-to-begin-banking-bail-in

Bitit, a Paris-based startup company, is teaming up with distribution network specialist Neosurf and plans to expand its network to up to 150,000 retailer stores, CoinTelegraph reported.
Bitit is a prepaid Bitcoin gift card from €25 to €250 that can be redeemed into bitcoins. The company has also partnered with Flexepin to launch cash-for-Bitcoin buying in over 15,000 convenience stores in Canada and Australia. Earlier in March, it launched a new initiative to enable consumers purchase bitcoins from 100,000 physical stores across the globe.
The startup has also collaborated with Cashlib, currently available in France, and is now enabling bitcoin purchases through Cashlib vouchers.
“Bitcoin by cash market is only just beginning. Vouchers payment methods allow us to better mitigate risks and reduce costs. By using our network, thousands of users can now buy Bitcoin over the counter as easy as any other product”, Bitit CEO Nicolas Katan told CoinTelegraph. “Now French users will have the choice to obtain Bitcoin either through Neosurf or Cashlib. Until now, there have only been limited opportunities to purchase Bitcoin with cash in France.”

http://www.econotimes.com/Bitit-seeks-to-expand-cash-for-bitcoin-buying-to-50000-more-outlets-404550