If you’ve been monitoring the Bitcoin price this week, you’ve probably noticed that it has dropped below $600 USD (currently at $588). While it’s rarely possible to pinpoint an exact cause for a price change, there are a few good theories for the recent drop. People may be selling BTC for travel (it’s summer vacation), big Bitcoin holders (whales) may be selling, or maybe there simply isn’t any real reason for the price to go up at this time. You can read more theories as well as an in-depth analysis here.
Dogecoin isn’t really dead, but if things don’t change soon, Dogecoin may be on its way out. This week, the Dogecoin price continued to decline. The Dogecoin community is well-known for its strong community and impressive marketing (e.g. Josh Wise’s Dogecar), but that doesn’t seem to have helped the price, which has been on a downwards trend throughout 2014. At the time of this post, one Dogecoin is worth 37 Satoshis (compare that to 111 Satoshis just four months ago).
With 99 votes for and 22 against, Ecuador’s parliament has voted to ban Bitcoin. Instead of using Bitcoin, Ecuador will use its own state-run cryptocurrency backed by the Banco Central del Ecuador (Ecuador’s central bank). Although exact implementation plans have not yet been outlined, Ecuador’s Monetary and Financial Regulatory Committee will regulate the currency while the central bank will be responsible for development and implementation. The Bitcoin community in Ecuador has raised privacy concerns over the new legislation in this open letter to the government.