- BitPay, the Paypal of the Bitcoin world, saw the number of new merchant additions to its platform increase by 50% M/M in November after the roll-out of a new pricing plan and integration with Shopify. Transaction volume tripled during the same period.
- The rapid rise in adoption on the merchant and consumer sides has prompted regulators to give more serious thought to how the nascent currency fits into monetary systems. The EU's top banking regulator has stated that "[t]rading Bitcoins could bleed you dry ... as it weighs whether to regulate virtual currencies," Boomberg reports.
- Benjamin Franklin coined the phrase, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." The European Banking Authority stated that people holding virtual currencies may be subject to value-added or capital gains taxes, with Norway already moving to levy a capital gains tax on Bitcoins.