Bitcoin roundup: despite the downers, Coinbase is on the up

The alignment of the stars has not been kind to bitcoin of late. No sooner had crypto-coinwatchers finished bemoaning the headlong fall in the bitcoin price than it fell lower still, breaking through the $200 (129) floor to as low as $170 on 14 January.

Other unwelcome celestial alignments - probably related to the price fall - came in the news of more bitcoin exchange implosions.

Our heavenly trinity of bitcoin downers was neatly rounded off when the digital currency's role as a facilitator of criminal activity was resurrected by the trial of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road underground website that built a hugely profitable business as a marketplace for illegal goods and services.

But it was not all bad news. News and data provider CoinDesk's 'State of Bitcoin' report found that despite the price collapse in 2014, trading volumes rose 50 per cent last year and venture capital funds flowing into the industry jumped 342 per cent to $433 million.

The bitcoin services company US-based Coinbase secured $75 million of funding from investors. Among the ranks of the investors were the New York Stock Exchange and former chief executive of Citigroup Vikram Pandit. This latest round of funding means Coinbase has publicly raised at least $112 million to date.

Hot on the heels of that deal, Coinbase secured approval from financial authorities in a number of US states - including New York, where authorities have been holding consultations with a view to introducing a Bitlicense, and California - to open the country's first regulated bitcoin exchange. The doors opened on 2 February.

Coinbase has exchanges outside the US in 19 countries, including the UK. The US Coinbase exchange is now the third-largest exchange in the world, measured by volume. The US exchange is not charging fees for its first two months of life.

On 4 February the US trial of Ross Ulbricht ended in his conviction on seven counts, ranging from narcotics trafficking to money-laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to aid and abet computer hacking, after the jury concluded that he was indeed the owner and operator of the 'dark web' online marketplace the Silk Road.

The trial centred on whether Ulbricht was Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR), the moniker of the mastermind behind the site.

All transactions on the Silk Road, which grew to become a $200 million business, were conducted in bitcoin. Buyers and sellers were able to make use of the anonymity aspect of the digital currency.

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Bitcoin roundup: despite the downers, Coinbase is on the up