What the Blockchain Industry is Saying About Circle's Bitcoin Shift
You could say there was a certain feeling that went beyond the news. On the surface, Circle's decision to stop offering bitcoin buying and selling services might have precedent. The company had long talked about its drive toward social payments, and its belief in the bitcoin protocol as a foundational layer for finance, not a currency for consumers. It may not even be that impactful. Circle will continue trading (buying and selling) bitcoin on behalf of its customers to move money, and it will continue using the protocol as the base for a new hybrid blockchian platform called Spark. Yet,....
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Circle Internet Financial, once one of the best-funded early bitcoin startups, has announced it will no longer allow customers to buy and sell the digital currency. Confirmed today via an announcement in The Wall Street Journal and first revealed at last night in a customer update, Circle said it will now focus on using a soon-to-be-launched proprietary blockchain-based protocol called Spark. Customers can continue to store bitcoin using the Circle app, however, those who want to buy and sell digital currency will be directed to digital asset exchange service Coinbase, once one of Circle's....
An exciting partnership between Barclays and Bitcoin exchange Circle could lead to a slew of new features and innovations in the digital payment industry. Moreover, this is very positive news for Bitcoin as well, as the European bank is letting Circle use their existing infrastructure to provide real-time conversion from GBP and EUR to Bitcoin, and vice versa. Circle – A New Era Of Bitcoin and Banking? Up until this point, very few banks have been keen on the concept of Bitcoin, although they all seem to see high value in the underpinning blockchain technology. In fact, consumers have had....
Bitcoin brokerage Circle Internet Financial is said to be raising as much as $40m in new funding. As reported by Fortune, Circle is raising the funds at a valuation of $200m, citing persons with knowledge of the negotiations. A representative for Circle declined to comment. The move, if confirmed, would represent Circle's largest funding effort to date. Circle raised $17m in a Series B round last year, following an earlier $9m in Series A funding from 2013. The funding would raise Circle's total investment to $66m. Circle
If you needed another sign that we're living in a multi-blockchain world, Circle's latest product reveal might have been it. Overshadowed by the clamor surrounding the startup's decision to end consumer bitcoin services, it was almost lost that it announced it would soon open-source a smart contracts platform it described as an "evolution" of its core transaction processing. Called 'Spark', Circle's new tech isn't a blockchain or a new cryptocurrency. Rather, as explained by the company, it uses a combination of bitcoin, other blockchains and traditional settlement rails to....
Circle, one of the earliest and best-funded startups in the bitcoin industry has announced a curtain call on selling and buying the cryptocurrency. The former bitcoin startup hinted at folding as a bitcoin exchange in a blog late last night. An excerpt from that blog read: [W]e’re making payments more social than ever and diving headfirst into next-gen blockchain technology, rather than the buying and selling of bitcoin itself. While Circle will cease buying and selling of bitcoin, the company will continue to allow customers to hold bitcoin within their registered accounts, as well as....