:00:00. > :00:00.because of a legal mistake. John Downey denies the charge of killing
:00:00. > :00:19.four soldiers. Time for Asia Business Report. Shut down. One of
:00:20. > :00:23.the world's largest Bitcoin exchanges in Japan goes offline,
:00:24. > :00:29.raising concerns about the future of the virtual currency. Hong Kong's
:00:30. > :00:38.stock exchange gets set to unveil its 2013 results later this
:00:39. > :00:44.Wednesday. Welcome to the programme. One of the world's biggest exchanges
:00:45. > :00:49.of Bitcoin has gone offline. MtGox in Tokyo has been troubled lately by
:00:50. > :00:52.technical issues and recently stopped all customer withdrawals
:00:53. > :00:59.after spotting what it ascribed as unusual activity. `` it described.
:01:00. > :01:09.It's a big set back for supporters of the virtual currency, . In the
:01:10. > :01:13.world of the internet, there is a currency that does not belong to any
:01:14. > :01:17.nation called Bitcoin and like all currencies, it can be exchanged for
:01:18. > :01:23.any other conventional currency like dollars or pounds. Except, one of
:01:24. > :01:27.the biggest exchanges, MtGox, seems to have vanished, apparently losing
:01:28. > :01:33.its customers hundreds of millions of dollars. I had quite a few
:01:34. > :01:39.Bitcoin in their, which were worth $300,000. It looks like that has
:01:40. > :01:50.appeared. MtGox, based in Tokyo did a `` based in Tokyo, has been
:01:51. > :01:56.worried for some time. Do you think there has been fraud? The fact that
:01:57. > :01:59.they are not talking about what has been going on and have deleted their
:02:00. > :02:07.tweets from yesterday, something is suspicious. Other exchanges insist
:02:08. > :02:11.that MtGox's problems are an exception and they are robust.
:02:12. > :02:18.Bitcoin is money but not as we know it. You cannot hold it in your hand
:02:19. > :02:22.like this. It is bullets on a screen and the price is volatile. Look how
:02:23. > :02:28.much the exchange rate has fallen in just the last 24 hours. If the pound
:02:29. > :02:34.did that, Britain would be bankrupt. What is really interesting about
:02:35. > :02:38.Bitcoin is the way it poses a challenge to the big banks in that
:02:39. > :02:40.it has the potential to become a cheap global network for
:02:41. > :02:47.transmitting money anywhere, any time, so it could be dangerous to
:02:48. > :02:52.the traditional banks as Amazon has been to shops. It's interesting as a
:02:53. > :03:01.way of moving money around. It's faster and cheaper than any other
:03:02. > :03:04.kind of payment network. Bitcoin, an online revolution in global money or
:03:05. > :03:15.a bubble about to be popped? Perhaps, like the internet in its
:03:16. > :03:22.early days, both. Several months ago, MtGox stopped being able to
:03:23. > :03:26.withdraw money. In other words, if you had Bitcoin at that exchange and
:03:27. > :03:30.you wanted to cash it into dollars, you would not able to get your money
:03:31. > :03:37.out of MtGox. That was a red flag for me. You are basically a broker
:03:38. > :03:43.for Bitcoin based investors in Singapore. Did they get nervous
:03:44. > :03:49.after what happened to MtGox? What are you telling them? My clients
:03:50. > :03:54.have been rather good about it. Yesterday, many people were buying
:03:55. > :03:58.lots of Bitcoin because of the lower price. In general, they are
:03:59. > :04:08.confident in the long`term value of Bitcoin. We saw the price peaked at
:04:09. > :04:15.$1200. And then China clamps down at Bitcoin trading. It's now at $540.
:04:16. > :04:21.Gear think this will be regulated in Asia? At some point, most likely.
:04:22. > :04:27.Right now, we are under this fear of regulation. Many people talk about
:04:28. > :04:35.Bitcoin as being in a free market. That's not the case at all. I would
:04:36. > :04:37.call it a fear market. They are operating under the fear of their
:04:38. > :04:44.market being closed, not being able to get a bank account. There is a
:04:45. > :04:47.lot of talk about how consumers need to be wary of MtGox and that has
:04:48. > :04:55.repercussions throughout the financial industry. `` wary of
:04:56. > :04:58.Bitcoin. It's not truly a free market. If it was a free market, we
:04:59. > :05:04.would be able to get bank accounts and insurance product. What would be
:05:05. > :05:10.the right structure for the Bitcoin to operate on? A free market would
:05:11. > :05:14.be ideal if we did not have this fear of possible regulation in the
:05:15. > :05:18.future. We would have more venture capital flowing in and greater
:05:19. > :05:27.ability to do deals with established companies like insurance companies
:05:28. > :05:33.and banks. JP Morgan says it will cut 8000 jobs in its mortgage and
:05:34. > :05:37.retail banking businesses, as those units continue to shrink. The bank,
:05:38. > :05:41.which employs people across Asia, had already announced some of those
:05:42. > :05:46.cuts but said it was eliminating more positions to save costs. Last
:05:47. > :05:52.year, they laid off more than 16,500 tankers in these areas. In
:05:53. > :05:55.Australia, a drought package worth more than $280 million has been
:05:56. > :05:59.unveiled today by the federal government. The money will be used
:06:00. > :06:03.to help farmers restructure their debts and survived the drought. It
:06:04. > :06:09.will also help assist those in personal crisis. Many parts of the
:06:10. > :06:13.country's eastern states of Queensland and New South Wales are
:06:14. > :06:18.suffering extreme drought conditions often little rainfall over the last
:06:19. > :06:23.two years. What can China and the US teach each other about social media?
:06:24. > :06:26.Over the last 24 hours, we have heard LinkedIn is munching a Chinese
:06:27. > :06:46.service. And in the opposite direction, Sina Corp is looking at
:06:47. > :06:52.investing in America. Could Sina Weibo appeal to Western users? I
:06:53. > :06:56.think so. Sina Weibo is the only player that is like Twitter in this
:06:57. > :07:00.sector. I think that it's a good investment because right now, they
:07:01. > :07:14.can make profits thanks to the traffic from Alibaba. Now that the
:07:15. > :07:21.US stock market is doing well, all of the Chinese internet companies
:07:22. > :07:31.are seeing at least 20% growth. It's a good investment chance. The
:07:32. > :07:34.economic recovery is indeed gaining ground in Europe, according to the
:07:35. > :07:40.European Commission, which revised up its growth forecast for 2014 and
:07:41. > :07:47.2015. The region is expected to expand by 1.2% this year. The
:07:48. > :07:55.Commissioner for the economy said that the worst of the crisis may now
:07:56. > :07:58.be behind us. Hong Kong's economy is expected to have mainland momentum
:07:59. > :08:02.in the final quarter of last year, despite signs of slowing growth in
:08:03. > :08:08.mainland China full of the economy is likely to have grown by 3% in the
:08:09. > :08:14.last quarter. That is according to one economic poll will stop the
:08:15. > :08:18.financial Secretary will unveil the official numbers later this
:08:19. > :08:24.Wednesday. Staying with Hong Kong, its stock exchange is set to reveal
:08:25. > :08:30.its 2013 results. Analysts are expecting profits to be up by around
:08:31. > :08:36.15%. Its fortunes have largely followed that of China. However,
:08:37. > :08:44.it's still a far cry from the boom years when multibillion`dollar
:08:45. > :08:50.listings from China drove earnings. This is China's top internationally
:08:51. > :08:56.facing stock exchange. The Hong Kong stock market is home to some of the
:08:57. > :09:03.world's biggest companies, including oil giants and mainland banks. After
:09:04. > :09:07.years of headline grabbing listings, the market for initial public
:09:08. > :09:12.offerings has grown cooler. This market analyst says that is because
:09:13. > :09:19.of the Chinese government's efforts to moderate economic expansion. Much
:09:20. > :09:23.of the information indicates that China's economy is slowing down.
:09:24. > :09:30.It's not certain that China can maintain 7.5% economic growth this
:09:31. > :09:41.year. He says investors are hoping that Chinese internet giant Alibaba
:09:42. > :09:43.lists in Hong Kong this year. Its financial performance will also be
:09:44. > :09:50.affected by the London metal exchange. The world's largest
:09:51. > :09:56.commodities market is trying to win business in China. All of that would
:09:57. > :10:01.help boost Hong Kong's spot in line. For years, this was the
:10:02. > :10:05.destination of choice for the largest Chinese companies. As the
:10:06. > :10:09.economy stabilises, investors hope the flow of new listings will begin
:10:10. > :10:13.again. Asian stock markets have
:10:14. > :10:17.strengthened slightly in mid` Wednesday trading, despite US
:10:18. > :10:28.indices finishing low overnight. Thank you for joining us. And don't
:10:29. > :10:42.forget, you can follow us on Twitter. Sport is coming up next.
:10:43. > :10:44.This is BBC News. The