Digital Currency

Already eyed with suspicion by various arms of the federal government and states, virtual currencies now are the subject of a warning issued Monday by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB released a six-page advisory about the risks consumers face when using new forms of electronic money. “Virtual …

  Bitcoin vault provider Xapo Ltd. is days away from sending debit cards backed by the digital currency to consumers with registered Xapo Bitcoin accounts. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup, which is incorporated in Hong Kong, also raised $20 million in a recent investment round, bringing its total investment bounty …

By Kevin Woodward Venture capitalist Timothy Draper wants to use the nearly 30,000 Bitcoins he won last week in an auction held by the U.S. Marshals Service to fund a Bitcoin trading platform targeting emerging markets, he said last week following the auction. He would not disclose the price of …

Online fraudsters are attacking a much wider variety of brands, including grocery stores and Bitcoin exchanges, showing a growing level of sophistication in their efforts to gull unsuspecting customers out of their money, according to the latest quarterly report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group Inc., an 11-year-old organization made up …

With Bitcoin ATMs now having been deployed in scores of locations around the world, merchants are starting to see how the machines could potentially drive traffic and sales—especially with a younger, hipper clientele. The latest merchant to install Bitcoin machines is Locali Conscious Convenience, a three-store deli and convenience-store chain …

One of the most unusual auctions ever is scheduled for Friday, but the event is largely shrouded in mystery. Beginning at 6:00 a.m. Eastern and continuing for 12 hours, the U.S. Marshals Service will take sealed online bids for 29,657 Bitcoins that the FBI seized in its bust last October …

Payment-gateway services provider Digital River Inc. announced Monday that it is adding Bitcoin as a payment option for its small and mid-sized U.S. e-commerce merchants. The Minnetonka, Minn.-based firm thus apparently becomes the first U.S.-based gateway to support the leading virtual currency. n “Bitcoin continues to attract more mainstream attention,” …

Bitcoin may remain volatile and controversial, but the digital currency holds enough potential that it is starting to attract seasoned payments professionals, particularly in the business of merchant acceptance. Witness Bitnet, founded in January by a pair of former executives with payments processor CyberSource Corp. to make it easier for …

Law-enforcement agencies and government regulators may be skeptical of, if not outright hostile to, the Bitcoin virtual currency, but at least a few investors have a different attitude. Witness this week’s announcement by BitPay Inc., a processor that provides Bitcoin services to merchants. Atlanta-based BitPay said it had raised $30 …

Less than a month after electronic gift card provider Gyft announced it was selling Wal-Mart Stores Inc. gift cards, they no longer are available. According to a report on Coindesk.com, a digital-currency news site, Gyft stopped offering Wal-Mart gift cards on April 13. Gyft provides electronic gift card services for …