- Bitcoin sets a record high of $1623.01 as of 3:20pm ET on Thursday.- The factors that driving this rally and how long they could last.- Read DailyFX latest trading guides for of the U.S.Dollar in the second quarter.To receive reports from this analyst,.Bitcoin soared over +5% as of 3:20pm ET on Thursday, climbing above $1600 for the first on record; it also broke above a key resistance level, the top line of a parallel.Bitcoin’s rally has been driven by two major factors: A) Japan’s official recognition of Bitcoin as a method of payment, and B) the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s decisions on Bitcoin ETFs.In terms of the outlook of Bitcoin, these two factors could have different impacts.On one hand, the prospect of Bitcoin in Japan looks bullish.On April 1, Japan announced officially to approve Bitcoin as a legal payment method.Just a few days later, two Japanese retailers told that they will soon allow customers to use Bitcoin to pay at their stores.Looking forward, more Japanese retailers are expected to accept the digital currency and in turn, further increase the use of Bitcoin in Japan.

On the other hand, the pending decision from U.S.SEC on Bitcoin ETFs adds a great deal of uncertainties to the market.usb bitcoin mining device priceOn March 10th, the regulator denied the petition of the Bats BZX Exchange to list Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust as an ETF.cara join bitcoinThe disapproval sent Bitcoin tumbling more than -6.0% on that day.bourse bitcoin franceHowever, on April 24th, a review on the disapproval decision was granted by SEC, opening the door for the petitioner to submit additional evidence till May 15th.hyip using bitcoinMarket participants then began to bet on a likelihood of a reversed decision on the Bitcoin ETF proposal.bitcoin mining pro pdf

Let’s take a close look at the issued by SEC initially.Two major reasons that the regulator rejected the petition are: Bitcoin markets are unregulated and they are exposed to high risk of manipulation due to insufficient liquidity.bitcoin china baiduTo prove these statements to be wrong could be very hard.bitcoin birmingham ukFor instance, the Chinese Central Bank shared similar concerns on Bitcoin’s lack of regulation, and therefore, launched on Chinese trading platforms over the past three months.etf auf bitcoinThe Chinese regulator told two weeks ago that it will continue to strengthen oversight on digital currencies.bitcoin ticker widgetFor investors who are in long positions or plan to long, they will want to be aware of two risks in Bitcoin.

One is the likelihood of the SEC remaining the disapproval decision after the review.This could lead to a worse crash in Bitcoin than what was seen following the initial denial.The other risk is a reversal even before the decision, led by investors cashing out profits when prices are at high levels, such as what was seen on January 5th, 2017.It’s called the SolidX Bitcoin Trust and its S–1 was filed with the SEC today.The most interesting contrast between the two proposed funds is what happens if their bitcoins are lost or stolen.In its S–1 filing, the Winklevoss explained that: The Trust will not insure its bitcoin.… Therefore, Shareholders cannot be assured that the Custodian will maintain adequate insurance or any insurance with respect to the bitcoin held by the Custodian on behalf of the Trust.Furthermore, Shareholders’ recourse against the Trust, Custodian and Sponsor under [New York] law governing their custody operations is limited.… Consequently, a loss may be suffered with respect to the Trust’s bitcoin which is not covered by insurance and for which no person is liable in damages.

In a recent filing with the SEC, the fund’s Bats Exchange explained that: The Custodian has evaluated different insurance policy options and determined not to obtain coverage at this time due to insurers’ lack of understanding and sophistication with respect to Digital Assets, which has led to a thin marketplace of policies that are (i) not priced in an actuarially-fair manner and (ii) don’t properly model relevant loss vectors.Unfortunately, an efficient and effective marketplace for bitcoin insurance has not yet developed.Despite all that, in its S–1 filing today, SolidX reports that it has secured insurance for its bitcoin holdings: The Trust will maintain crime, excess crime and excess vault risk insurance coverage underwritten by various insurance carriers.The purpose of the insurance is to protect shareholders against loss or theft of the Trust’s bitcoin.The insurance will cover loss of bitcoin by, among other things, theft, destruction, bitcoin in transit, computer fraud (i.e., hacking attack) and other loss of the private keys that are necessary to access the bitcoin held by the Trust.

That’s quite a stark contrast.Coin Center has previously worked with Lloyds of London to help it and its insurance market participants understand the challenges and risks of securing bitcoins.You can read our report for Lloyd’s here.Link / Tweet Recently a small conference called “Token Summit” brought together the growing community of developers that are interested in the red hot area of tokenized crowdfunding.Through the new mechanism, millions of dollars are pouring into projects from the excited cryptocurrency community.This promising new model could hold the key to funding public goods such as open blockchain networks, but raises significant regulatory questions that must be answered first.On the first day of the conference, Coin Center’s Peter Van Valkenburgh led a panel entitled, “Is Grey the New Normal in Legal & Compliance?” that called attention to the regulatory concerns for this fundraising model.The panel of legal experts shared their views on how regulators might evaluate a token sale project and laid out some of different approaches to designing and implementing a sale in a way that properly navigates those concerns Read more: Could your decentralized token project run afoul of securities laws?

The Bank Secrecy Act, Cryptocurrencies, and New Tokens: What is Known and What Remains Ambiguous You can watch the full panel below: Link / Tweet National Public Radio’s Morning Edition stopped by the Coin Center offices to admire our “hipster vibes” and update their listeners on the status of Bitcoin.The short segment covers basics like why Bitcoin works like cash for the internet and why that’s important.We even took a trip to a nearby Bitcoin ATM, which worked flawlessly.Listen to the whole segment here: Link / Tweet The weekly briefing from Coin Center.Everything you need to know about cryptocurrency and public policy in one entertaining read.In an editorial for Fortune, Coin Center executive director Jerry Brito lays out three things that the government can do to reduce regulatory friction on the growing open blockchain network ecosystem: First, some Bitcoin businesses fall under the definition of money transmitters and rightly need to get money transmission licenses, which are handled by the states.

The problem is that there are 47 different state money transmission licensing regimes and they all have their own rules.It’s a nightmare for a digital currency companies to navigate, with compliance costs easily reaching into the millions of dollars a year.If a federal alternative, like the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s proposed special purpose fintech charter, were adopted, then Bitcoin businesses would have a more streamlined alternative.Another issue with money transmission licensing is that it shouldn’t apply to every application of Bitcoin.Some types of Bitcoin businesses never take custody of a customer’s funds, which means they can’t run away with or lose them.Those businesses should not need licenses.To protect those companies, Congress could create a federal safe harbor for non-custodial digital currency companies.Finally, Bitcoin taxation is broken.Since it’s not technically a foreign currency, it is treated as property by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for tax purposes.

This means a user needs to calculate capital gains tax every time they buy a cup of coffee.That’s pretty difficult to manage.If the IRS amended the tax code to treat online currencies like foreign currencies, they would become much easier to use day to day.These are the type of sensible policy proposals that we advocate for.During a congressional testimony last week, Coin Center director of research Peter Van Valkenburgh directly called on Congress to enact these solutions to the problems with money transmission licensing.He explained why, if left unaddressed, the inhospitable climate in the United States would likely drive drive financial innovation overseas to jurisdictions with more easily navigable regulatory regimes."/7qON1ysb5z — Coin Center (@coincenter) June 9, 2017 Link / Tweet Coin Center, in collaboration with Digital Currency Group and the Illinois Blockchain Initiative, hosted an event in Chicago this week to help interested banks become more familiar with the technology and what they can do to support it.

Digital currencies companies have a hard time establishing banking relationships with traditional financial institutions.Rather than risk navigating the complex regulatory considerations around the technology, many banks have chosen to avoid servicing the industry altogether.This makes it that much harder for startups to operate, even putting aside regulatory burdens.During the daylong event, Coin Center executive director Jerry Brito presented the conclusions of our report on banking, laying out the obstacles that digital currency companies face when attempting to get banked, what banks perceive as the risks, and how they can be overcome.The banks also had an opportunity to voice their concerns and offer suggestions for measures that companies could take to help potential banking partners feel more comfortable with digital currency business models.Following the bank briefing, Coin Center and Digital Currency Group headed over to Chicago’s Bitcoin & Open Blockchain Community meetup to share their views on regulation and the ecosystem, respectively, and take questions from the audience.

The packed event was a great time for all.If you are interested in hosting Coin Center at your local meetup, be sure to reach out.Fantastic @BOBmeetupCHI tonight w/presenters @jerrybrito & @Melt_Dem.Such a thrill to meet them in person!/l2z2EZiAxl — UASFMom (@bitcoinmom) June 6, 2017 Link / Tweet In a letter sent today to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, Reps.Jared Polis and David Schweikert asked the IRS to take action on recommendations the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration made last year, which dinged the IRS for not providing sufficient clarity to tax payers and digital currency exchange.We encourage the IRS to consider the recommendations of the TIGTA and take action based on those recommendations to increase taxpayer compliance with Notice 2014–21.Further, we encourage the IRS to engage with virtual currency exchanges to better understand their ability to engage in information reporting, including recordkeeping to track realized gain or loss and identify the amounts of virtual currency used in taxable transactions.

Had the IRS made tax reporting clearer and simpler, as the letter suggests it consider, perhaps they would not have felt the need to issue its incredibly overbroad John Doe Summons of a million digital currency users.Polis and Schweikert for taking leadership on this issue, and we look forward to working with them on other important tax issues, like creating a de minimis exemption for digital currencies.Link / Tweet Government interest in digital currencies and open blockchain networks such as Bitcoin continues to mount, as evidenced by the unusual circumstance that two different Congressional committees are holding hearings about the technology at exactly the same time.Coin Center will be testifying in both hearings and they will be live streamed.First will be a hearing entitled “Virtual Currency: Financial Innovation and National Security Implications” in the Terrorism and Illicit Finance Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee.This follows a full-member briefing Coin Center put on last week on the topic, and our executive director Jerry Brito will be testifying.

It starts at 10 a.m.You’ll be able to watch at this link.The second is a hearing entitled “Improving Consumer’s Financial Options With FinTech” in the Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Coin Center research director Peter Van Valkenburgh will be testifying.It will start at 10 a.m.as well and his testimony is to be focused on the barriers to innovation that cumbersome state regulation presents.Not only are concurrent hearings on the same topic not typical, but it’s also unusual to have two persons from the same organization invited to testify at the same time by two separate committees.It’s a testament to Coin Center’s hard work over the past few years laying a foundation of credibility on Capitol Hill.Link / Tweet The Chicago Bitcoin & Open Blockchain Community meetup has invited Coin Center’s Jerry Brito to give an overview of the regulatory challenges facing these technologies, what we are doing to address them, and what you can do to help.