Joseph Borg — the Alabama securities regulator famous for pushing for the formation of a multistate task force that shut down Stratton Oakmont of “The Wolf of Wall Street” fame — will issue an alert tomorrow warning consumers not to trade Bitcoin on exchanges that are experiencing irregularities until issues are resolved, MarketWatch’s Chuck Jaffe reports.
Borg, the head of the Alabama Securities Commission, tells Jaffe that the warning is prompted by complaints that some customers of the Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox have had trouble converting digital currency back into dollars.
Jaffe said he’s talked to a dozen regulators with similar concerns who have not taken action because they see Bitcoin exchanges as outside of their jurisdiction.
Cyberattacks prompted three Bitcoin exchanges to halt withdrawals this month, undermining the currency’s value. Today Reuters reports that a new “botnet” virus, “Pony,” is now believed to have infected “hundreds of thousands of machines” and stolen from 85 virtual wallets, according to security firm Trustwave.
Reuters also reports that the CEO of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, Mark Karpeles, resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation on Sunday.
A number of real estate companies have been experimenting with Bitcoin, including crowdfunder RealtyShares, residential brokerage Bond New York, property management software provider Rentalutions, and rental listings site RentHop. Source: marketwatch.com.
