Bitcoin price LIVE: $8k BTC RISES as Cambridge Analytica shelves 'dystopian' crypto plans
BITCOIN is steadily inching north after falling slightly from its high of $8,379 last night. Confidence is also finding its way back to Ethereum and Ripple with the prices at $565 and $0.83 respectively.
GETTY
8.00am MORNING HEADLINES
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of all things cryptocurrency, including price, regulation, innovation and financial crime.
BTC is currently priced at $8,299, a rise of $25 on the day so far.
The New York Times report that Cambridge Analytica, the controversial firm at the centre of the Facebook data revealtions, was planning to release a cryptocurrency in the coming months.
Brittany Kaiser, a former Cambridge Analytica employee, told the paper that the firm was hoping to raise money that would pay for the creation of a system to help people store and sell their online personal data to advertisers.
Ms Kaiser said: "Who knows more about the usage of personal data than Cambridge Analytica?
“So why not build a platform that reconstructs the way that works?”
Jill Carlson, a consultant who has worked with several blockchain companies, attended meetings with Cambridge Analytica and told the NYT:
“The way that Cambridge Analytica was talking about it, they were viewing it as a means of being able to basically inflict government control and private corporate control over individuals, which just takes the whole initial premise of this technology and turns it on its head in this very dystopian way.”
Express.co.uk has contacted Cambridge Analytica for comment.
Updates below throughout the day....
GETTY
9.09am - UPDATE - BTC rising
Bitcoin's gains on the day hit $65.