Bitcoin

Readers react to USAA teaming up with Amazon’s Alexa, how a new Wells Fargo’s scandal could affect arbitration rules, a digital identity startup’s ambitions, and more.

The three bitcoin wallets that are linked to the WannaCry malware, which hit hundreds of thousands of networks using Microsoft Corp.’s operating system in 150 countries, were emptied out Thursday morning, analysts have confirmed.

The bank agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle charges it didn't tell consumers why their checking account applications were rejected; Winklevoss brothers to supply bitcoin data to Chicago exchange.

Indonesian online payments company KinerjaPay has opened a gift card center enabling consumers to purchase gift cards with bitcoin from major U.S. merchants including Amazon, Starbucks and Barnes & Noble.

The regulatory agency is expected to start asking for public feedback on changing the rule on proprietary trading by banks; bitcoin offshoot is worth about a tenth of the original.

As an open network, bitcoin is in one sense the most inclusive financial system imaginable. But for now, transfers of the cryptocurrency are priced like a luxury good.

Digital blockchain tokens can be naked instruments for profit-sharing among investors, but other types are directly linked to building network infrastructure. Their creation and sale must be unimpeded by regulation.

Acting Comptroller Noreika says he will defer to Congress to determine whether the rule requiring mandatory arbitration should be killed; Bitcoin Cash to start trading but is causing confusion in the digital currency market.

The bank forced hundreds of thousands of auto loan borrowers to take out insurance they didn't need, putting some into delinquency; a Russian man is arrested and charged in $4 billion money laundering scheme.

The fine for BTC-e was the Treasury’s first action against a money-services business located in a foreign country, and the second against a virtual currency exchange.

American Express is giving its card customers an easy way to transact in cryptocurrency.

Digital currency investors and miners will be able to hedge the volatile assets under U.S. regulatory oversight for the first time in just a couple of months.

A recurring challenge for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is how to make them work in the real world. A Singapore-based startup says the answer is its Visa card.

Bitcoin fell below $2,000 for the first time since May amid anxiety its dominant status is under threat.

India is considering tracking digital currencies like bitcoin through the central bank and capital markets regulator along with intelligence agencies to monitor money laundering and terrorist financing, people with the knowledge of the matter said.

Retailers were already skeptical about letting customers pay with bitcoin before the cryptocurrency’s price underwent an astronomical rally this year. That rapid surge hasn’t made them any more accepting. In fact, it may have done the opposite.

Agency rule would make it easier to sue banks, but Congressional Republicans likely to fight it; Trump nominates Randal Quarles as Fed’s vice chair for supervision.

Apologies to those yearning for escapism, but it is hard to escape turmoil — in financial services, in the economy and in civilization — in this year’s reading list. That said, these weighty topics promise to stimulate the mind: How AI will disrupt employment; dystopian imaginings and real-life histories of societal shifts; the necessity of collaboration; bitcoin’s path from obscurity to relevance; the need for leaders to make sacrifices; and more. Recommendations are courtesy of American Banker readers, editorial staff and BankThink contributors.

Cash machine makers are working to make them work with, not against, smartphones; prices of digital currencies crashed on Monday, possibly sparked by a hoax that an Ethereum co-founder had died.

Host Brett King talks to Bill Barhydt of Abra and Shachar Bialick of Curve.