The Bitcoin Tracking Thread

[1970 silver art]

I have been following BTC and I have been "nibbling" (i.e. making small purchases) on it via Coinbase each time that it went down by a certain amount. It looks like it will break $400 on the downside. The low so far is right at $400. I suspect that China is spooking Bitcoin at the moment with some sort of "announcement" about Bitcoin. We will see.

It looks like one of the 4 big China banks is already starting to tell Bitcoin exchanges about their upcoming policy (i.e. halting RMB "recharges" (i.e. no BTC/RMB transactions) by next Tuesday. The story is here..............http://thebitcoinnews.co.uk/2014/04/...by-april-15th/

[1970 silver art]

Because of China, Bitcoin did break $400 on the downside to a low of $382.70 today (so far). I managed to "nibble" again on Bitcoin. I bought 0.10 BTC at Coinbase at $384.90 (costs of $39.02 including fees). If BTC continues to drop further and if it results in a price that it is well below $375 (based on Bitstamp quote), then another "nibble" is possible. I will see.

[Neuro]

Once China bans it the Bitcoin should skyrocket. Nothing stimulates demand like outlawing it!

[Neuro]

I think a likely downside target is the high of April last year (around $250). Not much in terms of resistance before that...

http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/char...&ps=0&l=0&p=0&

[Horn]

Once China bans it the Bitcoin should skyrocket. Nothing stimulates demand like outlawing it!

Russia already tried that in the beginning of February and it didn't work.

[Shami-Amourae]

Russia already tried that in the beginning of February and it didn't work.

Did Horn just say something remotely positive about Bitcoin?
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...03_964x531.jpg

[Horn]

Did Horn just say something remotely positive about Bitcoin?

Reaching your head with the cold, sudden fury of a divine messenger
Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of god
Wandering, wandering in hopeless night

Out here in the perimeter there are no stars
Out here we is stoned... Immaculate.

[Horn]

Regulators line up to crack down on bitcoin


It’s not so much a question of whether bitcoin and other virtual currencies should be regulated.

Rather, it’s more a question of which government agency or agencies should regulate bitcoins and when it will happen. These are just some of the questions that must be answered if virtual currencies have any hope of becoming a mainstream and trustworthy way of paying for goods and services, according to experts who participated recently in a MarketWatch panel discussion about bitcoin in New York.

“There has to be regulation,” said Mark T. Williams, a Boston University professor and critic of bitcoin who was joined by Todd Harrison, the present and founder of Minyanville, and Barry Silbert, the creator of the Bitcoin Investment Trust and the founder and president of SecondMarket, on the panel. “We have to have more regulation. We have to have, in particular, focus on consumer protection.”


Silbert took issue with the notion that bitcoin is not regulated. For instance, Silbert said, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) had released guidance, which, in essence, says: “if you are operating basically as a money-changing business, an exchange, you have to register as a money services business (MSB).” And there are rules for MSBs, Silbert said.
According to that guidance, a user of virtual currency is not an MSB under FinCEN’s regulations and therefore is not subject to MSB registration, reporting and record-keeping regulations. However, an administrator or exchanger is an MSB under FinCEN’s regulations, specifically, a money transmitter, unless a limitation to or exemption from the definition applies to the person. Read Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to Persons Administering, Exchanging, or Using Virtual Currencies.
Williams, however, disagreed with Silbert’s point of view that bitcoin is regulated. “I will tell you bitcoin is unregulated,” Williams said. “And that is the problem.”
Part of the problem, according to the panelists, is that few know which agency or agencies should regulate bitcoin. And many federal government agencies have taken a pass on proposing regulations, for one reason or another.
According to Silbert, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are unlikely to regulate bitcoin. The CFTC might propose regulations if derivatives of bitcoin are created, said Silbert.
Consider:
In late February, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said the central bank doesn’t have authority to regulate bitcoin. Read Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate It in Any Way.
And then there’s this conundrum The SEC, the nation’s top stock cop, says bitcoin is not a security and issued an alert to investors about the dangers of investing in bitcoin.Read Ponzi schemes Using virtual Currencies. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra), which regulates broker/dealers for the benefit of investors, issued a similar release: Bitcoin: More than a Bit Risky.
Meanwhile, the IRS in late March said it would treat bitcoin and other virtual currencies like property such as stocks, and not currency. Read IRS Virtual Currency Guidance: Virtual Currency Is Treated as Property for U.S. Federal Tax Purposes; General Rules for Property Transactions Apply.
So which entity or entities will regulate bitcoin? Williams suggested that state banking departments and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are in the best position and the most likely to regulate bitcoin. “State bank commissioners are going to regulate it,” said Williams. He noted that a committee of nine state bank commissioners including those from Massachusetts, Washington, California and Florida has been formed to address the bitcoin regulation question.
According to Williams, state banking regulators are the “boots on the ground” needed to put in place regulations. “These are folks that actually have been working with money transfer companies,” he said. “They go through the whole chain of distribution. When you think about the payment system, it’s handled at the state level. So these bank examiners, in particular the state bank examiners, are perfectly aligned for that.”
Williams said several state banking regulators, including David Cotney, the commissioner of banks in Massachusetts, and Benjamin Lawsky, the head of New York’s DFS, are among those taking a leadership role.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/reg...oin-2014-04-09

[1970 silver art]

Once China bans it the Bitcoin should skyrocket. Nothing stimulates demand like outlawing it!

I think a likely downside target is the high of April last year (around $250). Not much in terms of resistance before that...

http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/char...&ps=0&l=0&p=0&

I agree with this. Banning bitcoin is not going to make it go away and the people who live in a country that banned Bitcoin, a person in that country will just try much harder to find a way to get it IMO. As for where the BTC $ price goes from here, it is certainly possible for it to go down further before it bounces back. It appeared that BTC slightly bounced up to a current level of $390 after it got down to the $382 level.

[1970 silver art]

$339 seems to be the low for the time being which Bitcoin seemed to have bounced off from that level and it is back to the $400 level. I did not take another "nibble" when BTC was in the $340's range when I had the chance to. However, I do not trust the current "rally" from the $339 low and I suspect that there will be a retest of that $339 low very soon since the China's crackdown on Bitcoin is still fresh news. If I am wrong on this and Bitcoin truly continues to recover and go up from the current $400 level, then at least I can say that I took the opportunity to "nibble" on it when the $ price was under $400. It is a win-win situation for me as far as I am concerned. Perhaps if Bitcoin goes back down to between the $330 - $340 range then I might "nibble" again on it and perhaps another "nibble" on BTC if/when it goes down to under $300. Just thinking out loud here. For the time being, I am just waiting for the next good opportunity to "nibble" on it.