How to buy Bitcoin: Crypto currency making a comeback with investors
Ever wondered what $50,000 looks like in cash, gold and silver? While piles of $100 notes or ingots of silver might make the money hungry salivate, the equivalent value in gold is a paltry #g bar and almost doesn’t seem worth acknowledging. But spare a thought for those who invest their hard-earned money in an item that delivers even less of a visible return but which has rapidly grown in popularity around the world: Bitcoin. A $50,000 “piece” of the crypto currency is rendered physically as a mere printout of a QR code on a piece of card. Hardly inspiring stuff. Yet, the way Australians invest their hard-earned cash seems […]
Bitcoin Cash just exploded in value
Bitcoin Cash is the latest major cryptocurrency to surge in value, with prices more than doubling over the past two days. Following Bitcoin’s split on August 1, the alternative Bitcoin Cash traded consistently at around $US300. Demand then spiked and a short time ago, prices had shot up to more than $US700. The price surge means that Bitcoin Cash is now the world’s third biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, behind Bitcoin and Ethereum. Prices for Bitcoin were holding steady this morning at just over $US4,100, but down from their record highs earlier in the week above $US4,400. Amid the recent surges in both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum prices have […]
Blockchain in race to remake one of the world’s oldest markets
The blockchain revolution is gunning for the gold market. Public online ledgers that emerged from the explosive markets for bitcoin, a virtual currency, already have drawn the attention of businesses from banks to retailers who see blockchain systems as a revolutionary way to verify and record transactions. Now, companies including exchange owner CME Group, IEX Group spinoff TradeWind Markets and financial technology firm Paxos are rolling out similar platforms to bring gold into the digital age. About $US27 billion ($34.1 billion) of gold changes hands every day in over-the-counter markets where settlements can sometimes takes days, leaving price risk for buyers and sellers. Using blockchain promises more transparency, security and […]
What directors need to know about fintech
Since all organisations rely on financial services in some way, directors will need to be cognisant of the changes fintech is bringing as it enters the mainstream. Until relatively recently fintech had been perceived as the esoteric domain of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, but two stories in Australian markets this week highlighted the increasing prominence and mainstreaming of the industry. Big four bank Westpac invested $40m in ASX-listed zipMoney, according to a stock exchange announcement on Monday (7 August). As part of the investment in the Fintech small cap, the bank committed to exploring the rollout of zipMoney’s ‘buy now, pay later’ services across its payments network. On the same day The […]
Bitcoin hits new record, bitcoin cash fades
Experts say the rally in bitcoin still has a long way to go, after the cryptocurrency reached a new all-time high of $US3525 this week. The latest price surge has been driven by the rise and fall of bitcoin cash – a secondary cryptocurrency – and an update in the underlying bitcoin software, which paves the way for an evolution of the bitcoin blockchain. The update – called SegWit – is the product of months of internal debate within the cryptocurrency community around how to handle the rapid increase in transaction demands. A byproduct of this debate was the creation of bitcoin cash, another coin, duplicated from the original, that […]
Locked out of property market? Five better places for Millennials to put money
By Clayton Howes – CEO of MoneyMe Life sucks for an aspiring property owner right now. You probably already know that the average price of a house in Australia ($656,800) is several (eight) times that of the average full-time yearly income ($78,832). You’ve probably already heard that in the past five years alone, wages have grown significantly slower (13 per cent) than house prices (41 per cent), especially if that house is in Sydney (70 per cent). It’s enough to make you want to drown your sorrows in the most expensive smashed avo and latte combo available! But honestly – enough, already. If you’re as bored as I am of […]
Sydney fintech Stake is starting its $0 brokerage US share trading service
Sydney startup Stake will launch its $0 brokerage US share trading service within the next few days, giving ordinary Australians a low-cost opportunity to invest in brands like Amazon, Facebook and Tesla. The fintech first revealed in June its plans for the new service but the details hadn’t been settled at the time. Now founders Dan Silver and Matt Leibowitz have revealed to Business Insider that the only user fee would be 70 basis points on the foreign exchange rate when loading up and withdrawing from the US dollar trading account. Stake had also previously flagged intentions to introduce paid services on top of the basic product, but Leibowitz now […]
Bipartisan push for the Reserve Bank to back Australian bitcoin
Labor and Coalition senators have crossed the political divide to call on the Reserve Bank to embrace bitcoins as an official form of currency or risk the future competitiveness of Australia’s $145 billion a year financial services industry. The push from Labor senator Sam Dastyari and Liberal senator Jane Hume comes after the digital currency soared to an all time high of $4070 per bitcoin on Monday, up from less than 10¢ per coin in 2010. Senator Dastyari said when he first raised bitcoin in the Senate, one of his colleagues came to him and said: ‘I don’t get what the issue is, don’t they just melt all the coin […]
