The sale of Bitcoins.com has been halted, Ecuador has banned Bitcoin and Google buys Twitch. Here are the cryptocurrency highlights of week 30:
- The rumored deal between Google and Twitch has been confirmed. Google will pay $1 billion for game-streaming service. The acquisition could be good news for Dogecoin, as it was reported in May that Twitch would start supporting Dogecoin tipping. It is, however, possible that Google will scrap Dogecoin integration or turn to Bitcoin instead now that is has acquired Twitch.
- Ecuador has banned Bitcoin and similar decentralized digital currencies. At the same time, the government is launching its own electronic money backed by the Banco Central del Ecuador, the nation’s central bank.
- The Chamber of Digital Commerce is calling for an extension of the 45-day comment period for the proposed BitLicense regulation. To give the industry sufficient time to review and respond to the proposal, it is suggested that the comment period should be extended through the end of 2014.
- The sale of the domain Bitcoins.com has been halted following a U.S. court order. The domain is owned by Tibanne, the parent company of bankrupt exchange Mt.Gox, which had a failed partnership with CoinLab. As a result, CoinLab has sued Mt.Gox and has a vested interest in Tibanne’s assets because of its suit. If the sale of Bitcoins.com would go through it could cause “immediate and irreparable damage to CoinLab” according to judge Marscha Pechman. The auction was scheduled for July 24, and was expected to raise up to $750,000.
- The trustee overseeing the bankrupted Mt.Gox is leaving the door open for the revival of the fallen exchange. Several investors have expressed interest for the exchange’s remaining assets. Mt.Gox founder Mark Kapeles earlier expressed concern that such a revival could come at the cost of the customer’s surviving funds.
