Bitcoin Isle is starting to take shape, the domain Bitcoins.com is for sale and the hashrate of Litecoin and Dogecoin is skyrocketing. Here are the cryptocurrency highlights of week 28:
- Institutions will soon be able to invest in Bitcoin. The world’s first regulated Bitcoin fund, Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment (GABI), has been certified by the Jersey Financial Services Commission and will commence operations on the first of August, 2014. Earlier a campaign was launched to make Jersey a world leader in digital currencies, and the current news will certainly contribute to this goal.
- Despite this, Europe is now the fastest-growing region for Bitcoin venture capital funding. Investments have doubled in the second quarter of 2014, while North American growth was limited to 21 percent.
- In the meanwhile, the French police has dismantled an illegal Bitcoin exchange. The operation is the first of its kind in Europe, and has led to the confiscation of around $270,000 worth of cryptocurrencies. North America does hold on to the largest share of the market, currently 78 percent.
- Mt.Gox founder Mark Karpales is auctioning the domain Bitcoins.com. The current highest bid at Heritage Auctions is at $185,000, but is expected to go up to at least $750,000. Karpales stated the auction is meant “to provide some relief to the people impacted by the Mt. Gox bankruptcy.” As the exchange lost 650.000 Bitcoins (currently valued at more than $400 million), Karpales still has a long way to go.
- With a new generation of Scrypt ASIC miners arriving, Scrypt coin hashrates are going through the roof. In one week time, Litecoin’s hashrate has increased by more than 20 percent (100 GH/s) while Dogecoin even added 50 percent (30 GH/s). Compared to the start of the previous month, both coins have seen their hashrate more than double.
