We’ve written a good bit, including just last week, about one of the obscure corners of crypto – bitcoin ATMs. Back in the early teens when they first started appearing, we assumed they’d be ubiquitous in no time — an AOL-like easy and familiar on-ramp to a promising new technology. And then, even as crypto enjoyed the wide adoption we expected, bitcoin ATMs just didn’t really take flight. To the degree you can even find one, it’s usually in a gas station next to the vending machine for live bait. Not a setting that conveys “the future of fintech.” Bitcoin Depot was founded in 2016 and has been a public…
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Hong Kong Grants Its First Two Stablecoin Licenses
HSBC and Anchorpoint grab the coveted permissions
As the US debates legislation to normalize crypto, China isn’t sitting still. Today, Hong Kong granted its first stablecoin licenses, with HSBC and Standard Chartered JV grabbing the coveted permission. Hong Kong has granted stablecoin issuer licenses to HSBC Holdings and Anchorpoint Financial, which is a joint venture between Standard Chartered, HKT, and Animoca Brands. This is a meaningful signal that Hong Kong, despite China’s on-again off-again relationship to crypto, seeks to become a regulated hub for stablecoins. These formal licenses set guidelines for reserve requirements, audits and other regulations aimed at consumer protection, bringing the wild west of crypto into something looking more like traditional banking. As more and…
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Los Angeles Slated for Bitcoin ATMs
Bitcoin Bancorp sees growth potential in the Golden State
In February, 2014, I trekked down from my office in Midtown to a little boutique on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. The goal was to visit New York City’s first bitcoin ATM. I purchased about 1/10th of a bitcoin – a couple hundred dollars back then, if I recall correctly. I had bought my first bitcoin in 2012 and was one of the first ever to mention the words “cryptocurrency,” “bitcoin” and “ripple” in the mainstream press when I wrote about it all for Esquire (the George Clooney cover, Dec 2013). Still in its infancy, bitcoin was only just beginning to move beyond money hobbyists and doomsday preppers. There in…
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Russell Starr, Head of Capital Markets at DeFi Technologies, which has launched a new ETP that allows inverse tracking of bitcoin.DeFi’s Valour Engineers a Hedge for Bitcoin
New ETP provides convenient way to establish inverse position
Bitcoin investors looking for ways to lock in their gains without having to sell their beloved HODL stash have a new option. DeFi Technologies, via its subsidiary Valour, has an innovative Exchange Traded Product (ETP) that trades inversely to the coin. They’re calling it Valour Short Bitcoin (SBTC). Maybe you’ve ridden up from 26K in October to 73K in mid March, and then agonized on the recent fall back to the high 50s. If so, you’ve probably thought about how great it would be to lock in the gains at 70 without having to sell, since you’re dead certain Bitcoin 100K is right around the corner. Well, now you can.…
