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Bitcoin Businesses United States

Bitcoin Dives After SEC Says Crypto Platforms Must Be Registered (bloomberg.com) 81

Bitcoin slumped after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reiterated that many online trading platforms for digital assets should register with the agency as exchanges. From a report: The largest cryptocurrency dropped as much as 8.6 percent to $9,864 after the SEC statement boosted concern that tightening regulation may limit trading. [...] "If a platform offers trading of digital assets that are securities and operates as an 'exchange,' as defined by the federal securities laws, then the platform must register with the SEC as a national securities exchange or be exempt from registration," the SEC said in the statement Wednesday.

Some of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms, like Coinbase's GDAX, aren't registered as a national exchange with the SEC, and instead have money transmission licenses with separate states. In the case of Gemini, it's regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services as a trust company, according to its website.

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Bitcoin Dives After SEC Says Crypto Platforms Must Be Registered

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  • Tank them all (Score:5, Interesting)

    by meta-monkey ( 321000 ) on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @01:57PM (#56222909) Journal

    Please please please let this tank all the cryptocurrencies so I can finally buy a new GPU for less than $200 over MSRP!

    • Well, SOMEONE is forgetting about the GDDR5 shortage
      • AMD's high end Vega cards use HBM2.

        • ...which is way more expensive anyway.
          You're forgetting that all chips are made by a few players, and that's the bottleneck.
          So it really doesn't matter in the end.

    • Unfortunately financial matters (even sketchy financial matters) will trump Video Games. So I want a cheap graphics card to play video games isn't going to win the hearts of the general public as being a real issue. That said, I don't see any real good in cryptocurrency either. Almost all the news sounds like a get rich fast scheme, black market trading / gambling and crimes aside from burning up a lot of good resources too all in the name of making some fictional buck.

      • by gnick ( 1211984 )

        Almost all the news sounds like a get rich fast scheme, black market trading / gambling and crimes aside from burning up a lot of good resources...

        That's all I can see Bitcoin being used for right now. Blind speculation and crime. The only products I know that can be readily traded for Bitcoin come from dark markets. It works just fine if all you want is drugs. Has anyone had experience using Bitcoin to purchase "normal" products? I mean product-for-bitcoin, not product-for-dollars-that-debit-a-Bitcoin-wallet.

      • No games require the latest cards, and few even have options to take advantage of it.

        You can buy the previous gen of cards for cheap, and play all the latest games well, and get a new card every year or two, and save a ton of cash.

    • Please please please let this tank all the cryptocurrencies so I can finally buy a new GPU for less than $200 over MSRP!

      It's too late in the game for that. Even if Ethereum crashes (it's the only coin impacting GPU prices in any meaningful way), you're not going to want to buy an existing new GPU.

      The smart money will try to buy the new generation of GPUs as soon as they're announced. Good luck.
      I recommend nowinstock.net for alerts for when preorders go up. And don't hesitate to pull the trigger - you can always cancel or return unopened (or resell) if you later decide the price isn't worth it.

      Another option would be to bu

      • Nvidia does not seem to be in any huge rush to replace to the 1000 series cards though, so who know when the next gen will be released.

        • Nvidia does not seem to be in any huge rush to replace to the 1000 series cards though, so who know when the next gen will be released.

          GTX 980 9/18/2014
          GTX 980 Ti 6/1/2015
          GTX 1080 5/25/2016
          GTX 1080 TI 3/10/2017

          With that cadence, the successor would come out around now. Yet we've heard nothing for anything on the consumer end.
          So we get to sit and spin, I guess!

          AMD has nothing to show after the flop that was Vega. Hopefully they can recovery quickly from the disaster that was Raja Koduri.

          • by Cederic ( 9623 )

            Yet we've heard nothing for anything on the consumer end.

            Nothing? So you haven't heard of Ampere or Turing as codenames for new Nvidia card series?

            They haven't announced models or availability but there's plenty of discussion about what's coming down the track. It just may not be quite the same cadence as their older releases. What's a couple of months over a couple of years though..

      • before prices start coming down... maybe. Also cell phones are apparently using GDDR5 now which isn't helping.
    • The problem is bitcoins are too expensive and currently too volatile to actually spend for products. The price needs to go back down to the $100.00 mark. And stay consistent with its growth more or less in tune with inflation. So people are not going crazy to mine for it, and are not hording their coins, but spending and trading them for goods and services, like they were intended for.

      • It doesn't matter what they were intended for. What matters is what they actually get used for, and it's not buying and selling goods and services. And some of the reasons for this are unfixable because they're baked into the technology: the transactions are slow and costly.

        Other currencies may do better, but these are the ones I want to tank, anyway, because Bitcoin is mined with ASICs, and all I care about is a new GPU, damnit.

        • by gnick ( 1211984 )

          ...it's not buying and selling goods and services.

          Some goods are most easily bought with Bitcoin unless you know a street-dealer who trades in your particular poison.

    • ROFL!

      I decided last year it was time to finally upgrade my aging i3 2120 rig and went about collecting the parts to build a new one as I have for the last 30 years. I had already gotten a new case and was looking at power supplies when I realized how much memory and GPUs had gone up. I started perusing all the deal sites looking for something reasonable and coming up empty. It's been getting harder and harder to get current games to run and now I'm getting desperate. I actually broke down today and ordere
      • Yeah, I was unaware of the GPU/RAM shortage until I bought Kingdom Come: Deliverance a few weeks back and said, "ya know, it's time to upgrade the GTX 760." Now I'm just really angry and want to burn cryptominers at the stake.

  • "Dives" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sexconker ( 1179573 ) on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @01:58PM (#56222917)

    Anyone who knows anything about Bitcoin will tell you that such movement isn't even a fart in the wind.

    https://www.coinbase.com/chart... [coinbase.com]

    $9760.00
    +0.05% Past hour
    9.08% Since yesterday
    6.12% Since last week
    +40.08% Since last month
    +695.05% Since last year

    • Don't know how, but Slashdot at the minuses.

      $9760.00
      +0.05% Past hour
      -9.08% Since yesterday
      -6.12% Since last week
      +40.08% Since last month
      +695.05% Since last year

      • Looks like - other than the value - it has the same volatility of most penny stocks, where a whisper can whipsaw the price tens of percent in a matter of minutes.
        • Yep.

          Stocks took a hit when Cohn said goodbye, and BTC took one with this announcement.

          "I picked a bad week to stop smoking." ~ Lloyd Bridges, Airplane

    • Indeed, plus or minus ten percent is nothing. Maybe they tried to time their announcement with the usual wednesday drops?

      In any case, "If a platform offers trading of digital assets that are securities and operates as an 'exchange,' as defined by the federal securities laws"...

      So what are "digital assets that are securities"? What do they define as being "assets" and "securities"? What's the difference between the gold coins in World of Warcraft and a dozen Dogecoins?

      • Indeed, plus or minus ten percent is nothing. Maybe they tried to time their announcement with the usual wednesday drops?

        In any case, "If a platform offers trading of digital assets that are securities and operates as an 'exchange,' as defined by the federal securities laws"...

        So what are "digital assets that are securities"? What do they define as being "assets" and "securities"? What's the difference between the gold coins in World of Warcraft and a dozen Dogecoins?

        The difference is nobody will trade you US dollars for wow gold. Well, maybe chinese gold farmers - but nobody of consequence.

    • Anyone who knows anything about Bitcoin will tell you that such movement isn't even a fart in the wind.

      That is kind of the problem with bitcoin. The "wind" is a frigging category 5 hurricane.

    • Anyone who knows anything about Bitcoin will tell you that such movement isn't even a fart in the wind.

      https://www.coinbase.com/chart [coinbase.com]...

      $9760.00
      +0.05% Past hour
      9.08% Since yesterday
      6.12% Since last week
      +40.08% Since last month
      +695.05% Since last year

      - 13% Since two weeks ago
      - 55% since three months ago

      But "anyone who knows anything about Bitcoin" doesn't much like publicizing those numbers.

      And I don't know where in your ass you're pulling your numbers from, because they don't match the numbers on the chart

    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Anyone who has a clue about what is going one will tell you a new energy backed crypto is waiting to join the market and it will not tolerate anything what so ever that will affect it's value as a global exchange mechanism, unbacked crypto just for marketing reasons alone is, well, dying and hanging on until the end, will lose you a lot and leave you associating with hardened criminals who think your crypto wallet is worth much more than your life or the 'er' unpleasantness of getting your passwords. Flip s

    • It's a fairly hefty change given the relative stability over the past few of weeks. Although I agree. If the SEC sneezes, the market tends to overreact; possibly due to bots selling.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    If you read anything from the CFTC or SEC from the last year on the subject (include the statement this article is based on [sec.gov]) you will see this is applicable to ICOs (which they view as securities) and not to Bitcoin, Litecoin or other "normal" cryptocurrencies (which they do not consider securities).

  • by slashmydots ( 2189826 ) on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @02:07PM (#56222957)
    Tradehill was shut down after it reached the volume of trade that required it to register as an exchange or whatever. This happened around 2011. This is not news to ANYONE. Once again, clueless people who don't do their research are overreacting. This is why we didn't want Wall Street traders with very high opinions of themselves entering the bitcoin world.
  • Some of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms, like Coinbase's GDAX, aren't registered as a national exchange with the SEC, and instead have money transmission licenses with separate states.

    In other words its largely a non-issue for various US based exchanges. These exchanges are already trying to operate in a reasonable manner with governmental oversight and reporting.

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      The US will go after the bank and banking services the non US based exchanges use.
      The non US bank found to be supporting "exchanges" will be given an option.
      1. Keep the codes to do banking in the USA, international banking, not be on an international watch list.
      2. Keep working with exchanges and have a US investigation started on the bank. Not able to do any banking with any other bank that is in the USA.
  • Gold and Silver (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Zorro ( 15797 )

    NOT registered anywhere.

    • Bad analogy, you don't have to register your bitcoin either. The exchanges just have to register. So it's the same as if you were buying GLD through Fidelity or whatever.
    • NOT registered anywhere.

      Indeed it isn't. That doesn't mean it isn't subject to huge amount of regulation, incredibly difficult to trade outside of restricted and monitored exchanges, and isn't even able to be easily physically moved without registering it with governments. Seriously people get arrested for travelling with gold between countries without registering them on a pretty much monthly basis.

    • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

      I don't know about the US but in the UK you don't have to buy much gold before it gets registered with the gov probably for anti money laundering purposes.

  • by bobbied ( 2522392 ) on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @02:25PM (#56223043)

    But subject to government regulations none the less....

    Image that... LOL

    • by Anonymous Coward

      But subject to government regulations none the less....

      Image that... LOL

      I've been saying this for years now: if you think simply saying Bitcoin isn't regulated because it's magical and special, you're a delusional fucking moron.

      Did people really think they could just create a financial market which was outside of government control?

      Either it is regulated, or it is outlawed. And if it's outlawed, they're going to hit you for tax evasion, money laundering, and pretty much everything else they can think of.

      B

      • End game was obvious from day one. Regulated out of existence, but unenforceable, so mostly ignored, except by law abiders.

      • by PPH ( 736903 )

        Did people really think they could just create a financial market which was outside of government control?

        Yes [nymag.com].

  • The vast majority of ICOs are scams. Whether or not they're "regulated" by the state is immaterial to bitcoin. Bitcoin has nothing to do with ICOs, and vice versa.

    I understand it's a new and confusing concept to understand, but the new way forward is decentralized governance, and the sooner everyone understands it the sooner we can dispense with this sort of poppycock. The government cannot touch bitcoin. They can buy it and survive, or resist it and die. There's no two ways about it.

    • by Mr307 ( 49185 )

      Nope, people want reliable things, and inspite of all the problems Governments are far and away more reliable than anonymous untraceable 'things' where you have zero recourse in the event of a problem or outright theft.

      https://thebitcoinnews.com/201... [thebitcoinnews.com]

      • by Mike ( 1172 )

        Wow, so many misconceptions in one sentence!

        But you're right, people don't want to be free. Most want to be controlled.

        • by Mr307 ( 49185 )

          If there are so many then it ought to be easy to point a few out.

          Otherwise, completely wrong again.

          Most people want to be free and they only 'care' when outside things intrude upon their life. When the Government mostly stays out and just gets on with keeping things running without too much kerfuffle, then the average citizen probably doesn't have a clue about this policy or that policy or probably 99% of new policies unless they impact them directly.

          Every so often some issue rises above the pile and stink

    • I gotta admire your bravery in the face of reality - but you're full of shit. The FUD here is coming from your keyboard.

      The vast majority of ICOs are scams. Whether or not they're "regulated" by the state is immaterial to bitcoin. Bitcoin has nothing to do with ICOs, and vice versa.

      Nobody is talking about ICO's - they're talking about exchanges, and a large number of exchanges deal in Bitcoin. This has everything to do with Bitcoin.

      I understand it's a new and confusing concept to understan

      • by Mike ( 1172 )

        Hahaha, neckbeard.

        Unfortunately, I couldn't grow a beard if I wanted to. Not much of one anyway.

        It always amazes me how so many on slashdot these days are anti cypherpunk. The same technology that gives you so many of the tools you take for granted today are the stepping stones for bitcoin.

        Your arguments remind me of those of Cliff Stoll and Bill Gates back in the early 1990's - how the internet would never amount to much.

        Exchanges like Coinbase and others are only temporary on-ramps until bitcoin has abs

        • by jwymanm ( 627857 )
          I think its just a small but vocal part of /. - basically ones that want to buy video cards cheaper but don't care about all of the good it can be doing by open sourcing money flows, entire business structures, micro lending, poor building enough wealth using low power solar devices on their own to stake. Getting around free speech barriers, even getting put up in space and allowing open projects to operate. Nope, they say "I want to game! ALL CRYPTO MUST FAIL"
        • Exchanges like Coinbase and others are only temporary on-ramps until bitcoin has absorbed all the world's fiat.

          Because of it's limited total number, it can't absorb the world's total economy. In that, Bitcoin suffers from the same flaw as any hard currency... the maximum size of the currency limits the economy it can support to that size. That's why there are no more hard currencies. The modern world basically wouldn't exist if we were still on the gold standard. Not to mention that even if it did repl

          • by Mike ( 1172 )

            > they're talking about exchanges, and a large number of exchanges deal in Bitcoin. This has everything to do with Bitcoin.

            FALSE. centralized exchanges (e.g. banks) that offer storage and trading are not bitcoin. they're vestiges of an old system; they're temporary bridges between the old and they new. They can go away completely and bitcoin itself is not affected.

            > Because of it's limited total number, it can't absorb the world's total economy

            FALSE. Your ignorance is on display. The number is i

  • I'm asking because I wonder if in-game gold or other items in multiplayer games would count as digital currency?
  • If the government wants to regulate cryptocurrencies, then it sort of has to admit they're currency. And that's tricky, given you're buying strings of bytes.

    My thinking here is that I could setup a cryptocurrency, let's call it CatCoin. I setup an exchange, which allows you to buy CatCoins for BitCoins and vice versa. At no point do I handle any "real" (aka. official government) currency. I make millions of BitCoins, so I trade them for dollars, pounds, euros or whatever at whatever exchange I decide is wor

    • by crtreece ( 59298 )
      Why would anyone trade their bitcoins (which have some value) for your catcoins (which have no value)?

      Anyone can fork bitcoin and create a new cryptocurrency. They could do it 10 times a day. That doesn't mean the coins they created have any value, or that anyone else wants to acquire those coins.

      • Those new coins have the exact same valuation as Bitcoin: whatever any fool will pay for it. That happens to be a hell of a lot more for BTC than for catcoins, but plenty of new coins have attracted sufficient interest to be traded for and in significant amounts. If people think catcoins will appreciate in value, or think that it will attract enough suckers to drive up the price, then some of them will buy them in hopes of getting in at the ground floor of a rollercoaster ride.

        You don’t need to cre
    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      Or I set up a Bitcoin wallet and do my own trading for gold, AK-47s, hours of software develpment labor, etc. And I buy food, gasoline and Ferraris with my Bitcoin.

  • by Mike ( 1172 )

    Bitcoin's price is dropping because there have been a lot of big SELLs today. Nothing to do with unrelated US "regulation" nonsense.

    See: https://twitter.com/matt_odell... [twitter.com]

  • by jetkust ( 596906 ) on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @04:23PM (#56223627)
    Somehow a hacker bought a bunch of viacoins and pumped the price of it by automating sell orders on people's accounts and buy orders to viacoin. Binance haullted withdrawals because of it.
    • There's a Reddit thread here [reddit.com].

      It sounds like some people "logged in" to a look-alike website which enabled a third-party to login to the real website with their credentials/MFA and create an API key to allow trading. People are reporting their coins had been sold to buy viacoin.

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