THE BITCOIN price is still bouncing back despite a billionaire investor warning that digital currencies are “nothing but a unfounded fad”. Here is the latest Bitcoin price, live updates and breaking news.
Investor Howard Marks, who predicted the financial crisis and dotcom bubble implosion, warned that cryptocurrency is a nothing more than a fad or pyramid scheme style scam.
He said: ”In my view, digital currencies are nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it.”
The co-chairman of Oaktree Capital, compared cryptocurrencies to the Tulip mania of 1637, the South Sea bubble of 1720 and the internet bubble of 1999.
In an investor letter, he said: ”Serious investing consists of buying things because the price is attractive relative to intrinsic value.
Friday July 28
11.52am: The value of Bitcoin is rising. Today's high is $2,785.22 and today's low is $2,682.87, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin opened at $2,697.47.
8.30am: Hong Kong-based digital currency exchange Bitfinex claims that a minority of Bitcoin miners will be "forking" to create a new blockchain called Bitcoin Cash on August 1.
A "fork" is when a blockchain splits into two potential paths. Bitfinex said the fork does not impact Bitcoin balances, but it creates a new token.
Thursday July 27
Midnight: Thursday's high was $2,715.69 and its low was $2,541.71, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin opened at $2,550.18 and closed at $2,697.47.
9.15pm: The provider of a publicly traded bitcoin exchange-traded note (ETN) has been fined more than £93,000 ($120,000) by Nasdaq Stockholm for infractions of exchange rules and financial regulations.
The stock exchange's Disciplinary Committee announced that it had levied the fine because the company, XBT Provider, violated provisions in its Internal Rule Book and certain regulations of the Financial Instruments Trading Act.
Among those violations, according to the statement, were "failing to ensure that the risk function reports to the board" and "failing to implement an audit of the company's internet and IT security."
The release also pointed to infractions related to annual reporting requirements.
Bitcoin price graph
CoinDesk
Bitcoin LIVE news: Latest Bitcoin price graph for the month as of 9.23am on July 28
8.20pm: Bank of America Managing Director Francisco Blanch thinks that Bitcoin cannot successfully expand around the world without being subjected to some regulatory guidelines.
He says: "A key step for Bitcoin would be for it to become pledgeable collateral.
“However, large inherent risks to digital tokens such as fraud, hacking, theft, new protocol adoption, limited acceptance and that it is not legal tender many places in the world make it an unlikely development."
Mr Blanch’s position is supported by other financial services industry players like Morgan Stanley.
However, the efforts by several governments around the world to regulate the digital currencies have been relatively unsuccessful so far.
Bitcoin price graph
CoinDesk
Bitcoin LIVE news: Latest Bitcoin price graph for the past three months as of 9.24am on July 28
11.30am: Bitcoin briefly fell below $2,500 on Tuesday and Wednesday. Last Thursday the price rose sharply after most developers backed BIP 91, a upgrade to the bitcoin system.
The BIP 91 lock-in was hailed as a victory as miners agreed to cement the first part of a larger effort to upgrade bitcoin, called Segwit2x.
Alex Sunnarborg, research analyst at CoinDesk, told CNBC: "I believe the market is currently somewhat torn between the optimism around BIP 91 locking in, which could lead to SegWit activating if all goes smoothly, and the fear of the second half of SegWit2x proposal, the 2MB block size hard fork, still being contested.”
9am: A US jury has indicted a Russian man as the operator of a digital currency exchange he allegedly used to launder more than $4 billion for people involved in crimes ranging from computer hacking to drug trafficking.
Alexander Vinnik was arrested in a small beachside village in northern Greece on Tuesday, according to local authorities.