Shares Of Bitcoin Investment Trust Surge After Much Anticipated Debut Grayscale Investment’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) began trading in May with the ticker GBTC. Over the last few days, the price of BIT surged, and at one point traded at US$133.70 per share. "A share of GBTC is equivalent to approximately one tenth of a bitcoin. As of today, GBTC on major exchanges is traded at US$49 per share, which means that bitcoins in the Bitcoin Investment Trust are being sold at $490 per BTC." SpectroCoin Integrates Bitcoin Payments At Lukoil Gas Stations SpectroCoin has integrated with mobile payment network …

Israel Is at the ‘Leading Edge’ for Bitcoin Startups Cointelegraph reached out to a few Israeli Bitcoin startups to get an idea of the local ecosystem, and according to many, the country is a "forerunner." Mathematician Meni Rosenfeld said: "I think the Bitcoin community in Israel is more coherent than in many other places in the world, which can be attributed to the small size of the country. Everyone is in driving distance from anyone else, so its much easier to breed communities that actually meet up and cooperate." BitGo Bug Reveals Bitstamp Deposit and Withdrawal Information Earlier this week, …

1. Greece’s Varoufakis: Bitcoin Can Be Used in Eurozone ‘As Weapon Against Deflation’ Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has hit back at criticism resulting from his appraisal of Bitcoin in a blog post last month, calling Bitcoin “too deflationary to work” while continuing to support its underlying technology. He writes: “[A]lmost paradoxically, the technology of Bitcoin, if suitably adapted, can be employed profitably in the Eurozone as a weapon against deflation.” 2. Robocoin Relaunches to Become ‘Android of ATMs’ BTM developer Robocoin has unveiled its hotly rumored new direction in the form of a software development kit (SDK), which will …

1. SEC Investigates Crowdsales, FinCEN Takes Aim at Exchanges On Tuesday, Cointelegraph reported on a couple of the US government’s activities in the cryptocoins space. Most controversial, at this point, seems to be the report that the SEC has sent out letters — with gag orders — to organizations that have held crowdsales, asking them to divulge documents related to those sales. Many from the crypto 2.0 community such as representatives from Mastercoin and Counterparty are on record as dismissing the reports, but Coin Fire — which broke the story — stands by its reporting. Cointelegraph has found no reason …

1. US PayPal Merchants Can Now Accept Bitcoin On Tuesday, William Suberg reported on another big piece of news from PayPal, this time announcing that the payment network itself had partnered with a handful of BTC exchanges to allow bitcoin payment processing. “‘Today we are announcing PayPal’s next step in helping merchants accept Bitcoin payments. PayPal has entered into agreements with leading Bitcoin payment processors BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin,’ a senior PayPal exec stated in a press release. ‘Starting today, these agreements let PayPal digital goods merchants accept Bitcoin with a simple integration through the PayPal Payments Hub.’” 2. Spain …

1. PayPal Acquisition Braintree Partnering with Coinbase, Will Accept BTC On Monday, PayPal pre-empted Apple’s big day by announcing that Braintree would soon roll out Bitcoin payments. “Braintree merchants using Coinbase will receive all the benefits associated with accepting bitcoin payments, including 1% flat transaction fees (waived for the first $1M in bitcoin sales) with no additional costs, all while avoiding exposure to any currency volatility risk thanks to Coinbase’s Instant Exchange feature,’ Coinbase posted on its blog.” 2. Satoshi Nakamoto’s Email Account Hacked On Tuesday, Diana Ngo reported on a hacker who somehow got access to Bitcoin creator Satoshi …

1. KnC Miner Close $14 MM Funding Round Diana Ngo reported Thursday that Sweden’s KnC Miner had raised millions in a Series A funding round. “[L]ed by Nordic-based venture capital firm Creandum and advised by technology investment bank GP Bullhound, the funding will be dedicated to expand operations from hardware design into software, app and cloud services, as well as accelerate KnCMiner's growth in general.” 2. Students in Switzerland Unveil NFC Bitcoin Payments Device Alyssa Hertig reported Wednesday on a near-field communication tool for Bitcoin payments created by students at the University of Zurich. “Swiss doctoral students released an open …

1. Bter Hacked, 50M NXT Stolen More than 50 million NXT, one of the most popular and more powerful alternative digital currencies on the market, has been stolen from the popular Chinese based exchange Bter, as reported on Ian DeMartino on Friday. At current rates, 50 million NXT is worth 3355.73 BTC or roughly USD $1,701,015. 2. Wall Street Journal Reports eBay and PayPal in Talks with Coinbase Ian DeMartino reported Friday that PayPal and its parent company, eBay, were talking with Coinbase to begin adoption of cryptocurrencies, according to the WSJ. “According to the Wall Street Journal's report, this …

As many in the cryptocurrency community prepare for this weekend’s Bitcoin in the Beltway conference in DC, we wanted to take a look back at some of the week’s big stories. 1. 1-800-Flowers to Accept Bitcoin Carlo Caraluzzo reports that a company that built its name with flower-delivery orders over the phone will soon begin processing Bitcoin orders via Coinbase. “There are currently more than 30,000 businesses worldwide that are accepting cryptocurrencies, mostly Bitcoin, for payment and others who are also making payroll and paying for expenses with Bitcoin. The latest of these to join the lineup is 1-800-Flowers. ... …