Virtual currency

Bulgarian police have seized enough Bitcoins to pay off a fifth of the country's national debt after the value surged by 600% in half a year, according to Daily Mail.

Officers are said to have confiscated hundreds of thousands of units of the virtual currency worth $500million from an organised crime gang in May.

The rate of cryptocurrency bitcoin increased by more than 23%, and for the first time in the history of auctions the threshold of 18 thousand dollars was passed, according to data from the auctions on the electronic exchange Coinmarketcap.

Bitcoin smashed through the $12,000 barrier for the first time Dec. 6, extending the virtual currency’s stratospheric rise to new records as it gears up to take its place on mainstream markets.

Russian cybercrime suspect Alexander Vinnik, who is wanted in the United States on charges of laundering billions of dollars' worth of the virtual currency bitcoin, appeared Wednesday before Greece's Supreme Court for a hearing into his extradition to the US.

The price of Bitcoin has plummeted in the last three days after the virtual currency hit record levels, according to The Telegraph.co.uk.

Values of other cryptocurrencies such as Ethererum and Ripple have also plunged, wiping billions off their combined values.

All eyes are currently pointed at Bitcoin because the cryptocurrency divided in two, reports Profit.bg

Kosovo will soon become the 57th country in the world - and the first in the Balkan region - to operate a virtual money ATM, according to Albvision Ltd, the company that delivered the machine.

In a press release distributed in Kosovo and Albania on July 17, the company said that Tirana and Skopje will be the next two destinations where these kinds of ATMs will be placed. 

After soaring nearly 65 percent in the last month, the digital currency bitcoin smashed the historic $2,000 mark on Saturday. The total market cap of the asset has likewise climbed to $32.92 billion.

The cryptocurrency has reached a new high on Monday, trading at $2,167.24 as of 10:15 am GMT.

Bitcoin, a virtual currency that allows users to exchange online credits for goods and services, will now be classed as a commodity in the U.S. along with gold and oil, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

This decision follows a clampdown on unregistered firms which trade derivatives of the crypto-currency.

Mark Karpeles, the head of defunct Bitcoin exchange MtGox, manipulated its computer system at least 30 times over a couple of years, a report said August 3, as Tokyo promised greater efforts to regulate the digital currency.