It was an interesting last seven days in bitcoins. Leading the news was an announcement that BTC China was temporarily suspending CNY deposits. The news led prices on the exchange to plummet in dollar terms from over $800 to a low of around $350, before stabilizing in the $600 area.
The fall led to a debate about whether prices were destined to fall further or not. Discussing the decline and if sub-$100 prices are in sight was a panel bitcoin roundtable on This Week in Startups. In addition, the panelists discussed their views about the future of bitcoins, why China was restricting the digital currency, as well as their thoughts on how the recent $25 million investment into Coinbase would turn 2014 into the year of bitcoin investing from venture capitalists. Read it all on Digital Currency Magnates
Also occurring this week was a post on Payment Magnates about the future trends of retail in 2014. Recent surveys pointed to another year of positive momentum in terms of the amount of firms accepting bitcoin. The fuller report on Major Retailers to Accept Bitcoin in 2014.
Other recent interesting articles you may have missed:
eToro launches bitcoin trading in beta – part of an emerging group of Forex and CFD brokers launching the product (stay tuned as another major broker or two appear ready to offer it to start the new year).
Leverate announced it was adding a bitcoin feed – the big news here was that the technology provider was looking to add an STP version of bitcoin Liquidity for its broker clients.
Are Bitcoin CFDs safe? Also in Digital Currency Magnates was a discussion on the pros and cons of bitcoin CFDs. Do they replace the real thing, or are they inferior clones?