VENTURE CAPITAL POST

After the collapse of Bitcoin exchange, the government of Japan decided not to regulate Bitcoin transactions because they do not consider it a currency, but a commodity that will be subject to sales tax.

Just less than a week after Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy for losing 850,000 bitcoins on its website, Flexcoin is closing shop after its "hot wallet" got hacked.

Goxcoin is the proposal that Humint and the Mastercoin Foundation have proposed that could potentially help Mt. Gox recover the bitcoins lost on its platform, TechCrunch reported.

California, US-based Internet provider FreedomPop introduced Privacy Phone, a smartphone that promises fully encrypted voice and text communications that costs $10 a month and can be purchased using Bitcoin.

Japan will be setting out rules this week on how it would treat bitcoin under its existing rules. This is seen as the country's first step in dealing with the digital currency after the closure of Mt. Gox, Reuters reported.

As opposed to the move that other countries are taking, the British government is planning to ditch the tax levied on Bitcoin trading, but the cryptocurrency will still be subjected to corporation and other taxes.

Mt. Gox has posted a new statement which shed more light on the company's financial situation and validated the contents of a document leaked earlier, TechCrunch reported.

Tokyo, Japan-based Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox set up a call center to deal with the inquiries of Bitcoin users after it lost $473 million worth of the digital currency and filed for bankruptcy protection.

The shuttering of Mt. Gox did not only showcase the dangers of the crytocurrency, it also unnerved the more nascent Bitcoin derivatives market, Bloomberg reported.

After shuttering its operations this week, Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox told reporters that it will be seeking bankruptcy protection, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In her testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said that the Fed does not possess any authority to supervise the Bitcoin, The Wall Street Journal blog MoneyBeat reported.

Mt. Gox, once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange, went dark on Tuesday, with its website down, its Tokyo office empty, and a cryptic comment from its chief executive that the business was at "a turning point."

In a discussion document obtained by TechCrunch, it was shown that Goldman Sachs had a neutral stance about the Bitcoin. It does not actively recommend that investors invest in the cryptocurrency, the report said.

San Francisco, California-based crowdfunding firm Crowdtilt launched an open source crowdfunding solution called Crowdtilt n that supports Bitcoin and allows anyone to start a campaign on their own websites.

Robocoin will be opening the first Bitcoin ATM in the US at the HandleBar tavern located in Austin, Texas. The machine will be operational starting Thursday, February 20 at 2 PM, TechCrunch reported.