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Bitcoin Average Exchange Price For The Week

Monday 23 started with the price at around $923 for the low of the day, followed with a slight increase to $928 for the high of the day and got in a slow decline at $925 at the end.

Tuesday 24 got going with dip to $906 , followed with a bounce to $921 that served as the high and ended with a low to $896

Wednesday 25 went with a low of $896. With the day following with a tiny increase to a high of $904. Then just retraced back $896 yet again and finished with small bounce to $899.

Thursday 26 showed up with a low of $900 and jumped to a high $918.

Friday 27 continued holding $918, had a little trip to a low of $914 and finished at a high of $924.

Saturday 28 slid in at $921, bumped to a high of $924 and tripped to a low of $920.

Sunday 29 glided in at $920, got to a low of $917 and then ended the week at $920.

Overall a calm week to end January where the BAEP settled in as the final effects of the PBOC intervention on Chinese Exchanges were reflected in the price per Bitcoin. But also in trading volume balancing out worldwide in a way that had not been seen in years. These effects came from the news that Chinese Exchanges started charging trade fees. Which of course stopped the indiscriminate abuse of wash trading that had been going on.  This summed up with the end of loans and crazy amounts of leverage in Chinese Exchanges made Trading volume fall up to 90% at one point. But all in all at least 70% less than the usual figures before POBC actions.

This don’t means things will stay this way. But it sure will be a change of pace from what had been the usual for over 2 years now.

News

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Third annual Satoshi Roundtable took place in Cancun, Mexico

Where known Bitcoiners of all around the scene meet together to talk frankly and more or less privately as long as they get invited once a year. 

Read the quick retell of this third edition by Justin Connell at news.bitcoin.com and if you want to know what has happened in past editions of it. He also also wrote about that days before. Click in.

BitFury struck a deal with Hong Kong’s Credit China Fintech for $30M USD

The deal was for an undetermined investment in Bitfury itself but mostly for the creation of a Joint Venture that will focus on the Chinese Market where BitFury will hold 20% of said venture.

Via Diana Ngo at Coinjournal.

Four Bitcoin Miners Arrested By Venezuelan Authorities

They have been charged with Electricity Theft and Cyber Fraud. Even if Bitcoin itself is not illegal. In Venezuela, Electricity at almost free can only be for residential use and not business use unless you have clearance for it. This is of course not clear at all from the outside. But it is what I have been told. Then, when it comes to the Cyber Fraud. The charge is also in reference of they not having a registered business. Or at best, a “cleared to operate” business.

Via Samburaj Das at Crypto Coin News

Fiverr Stops Accepting Bitcoin

PR guy said it was because of Lack of Interest. In my case, I don’t believe him. I think that the change had also to do with the bad attention Fiverr got after #1 YouTuber PewDiePie made a video where he paid some guys in Fiverr to say an Anti-Semitic statement as a crude joke. The guys in question didn’t even knew what they were saying and got banned too. Bringing in even more bad publicity. From that, apparently some inquires where made in how this was even possible to have happened in the first place.  Considering that the YouTube Video has close to 10 Million views alone. This was probably the most attention Fiverr has ever got in its history. I think that the timing cannot be coincidence and they removing it is just a PR move. Just as it was to unban the guys in the video in question after the outrage it caused for them to be banned.  I just don’t see how that didn’t had something to do with it too. After all, when they added the option, it was also a PR move in the first place as Fiverr didn’t had full support of Bitcoin. Just partial support.

Via Stan Higgins at Coindesk

Xapo granted a license to operate in Switzerland

The License in question was provided by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). This allows Xapo to operate without worries from now on and offer all its services to Switzerland citizens.

Xapo for those that need a reminder on what it is, is more or less like a Private Bitcoin Fund for a group of very wealthy individuals that got into Bitcoin back in 2013, that also happens to operate as a Bitcoin Wallet and Solutions Provider.

Via Joseph Young at Cointelegraph

The Story of IRS vs Coinbase and IRS vs Berns continued with the IRS arguing they have the legal edge

How so? In this case the IRS argues that because of how their case was filed, it can be considered ex parte, which would make the pleas from Coinbase and Berns irrelevant. As the District Court the IRS asking to issue and blanket order to authorize the IRS to just ask for all the data of all Coinbase USA customers in the past 3 years can be judged by the court on its filing merits alone. Meaning that the district court can just decide to ignore Coinbase and Berns cases on it.

Technically, that’s 100% correct. That don’t means the District Court have to do just that either. But unless the District Court is actually interested in dispensing what is right and not just what is technically legal first. It is likely Coinbase and Berns will lose the case.

Via Stan Higgins at CoinDesk

Washington State Liquor & Cannabis Board are OK with Bitcoin being used for Pot Purchases

After a bill that called for the ban of Bitcoin for Pot Purchases in Washington State, the state senate had a hearing about it. In the end rationally arguing that is OK, since there is already a regulatory framework that regulates Bitcoin, they can just follow that instead of they having to rule something on it. Based on that, they found nothing wrong about the way Bitcoin was being used to support pot purchases.

Of course that’s the simplified version of the news. To read more on it, click in.

Via Justin Connell at News.Bitcoin.com

Interpol and Europol Recommended To Regulate Bitcoin More and Ban Bitcoin Mixers at their recent conference

How exactly they would want to ban Bitcoin Mixers when they are becoming distributed and are looking to become decentralized in the long term future is anybody’s guess. When it comes to Bitcoin itself. Hard times in regulatory terms could be faced by Bitcoin Exchanges located in Europe later during the year if even more regulation is introduced. Finally, one also has to wonder what they could had commented or thought about if immediately after recommending this someone reminded them about Brexit.

Via Aaron van Wirdum at Bitcoin Magazine.

CJS CD Keys Now Accepts Bitcoin

CJS CD Keys is a Game Key Reseller that competes with the now two more known players in that niche which are G2A and Kinguin, who also accept Bitcoin. The key difference with its competitors is that it resells ALL kinds of game keys.  This makes it a good addition to the Bitcoin Adoption in the PC Gaming space. Where now pretty much only GOG, Uplay and Origin have yet to accept Bitcoin. This when it comes to Big Game Marketplaces.

Via Tom Clancy at Crypto Coin News

Unicode Support for Bitcoin debuts on Ubuntu and OS X.

Still to come for Windows 10. Probably for the Creators Update. As previously seen, Excel will also have Bitcoin support later in the year.

It is also good to remember Cortana and Bing have full Bitcoin Price Look Up support.  It can be used directly from the start menu too by just writing: 1 BTC USD or other currencies combinations like  0.092 BTC MXN. Both will give the conversion result without the need to click enter.

Via Joseph Young at Cointelegraph

Some Bitcoins from Bitfinex Hack moved

It was bound to happen, it was just a matter of when. Person or Persons in possession of the coins are probably starting to check how to best to move them. In response to this, Bitfinex is now offering a 5% bounty per Bitcoin returned from the hack.

If you want to remember more on the Bitfinex hack and how exactly they are still operating. Clink in to read the news report.

Via Andrew Quenston at CryptoCoinNews

This edition of BWNS is brought to you thanks to www.CryptoSteel.com . The coldest Bitcoin Hardware Wallet there is. But also the most hardened way to back up and preserve any kind of password safe and secure. Which is offline and pressed into a case of steel.

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