This week the bitcoin markets continue to recover from the crash from $266 unto $50 (although it didn’t linger there for long before gaining to near $100) recent trades have put the value around $130. Over the weekend, MtGox had a little bit of paranoia about DDoS attacks–as are becoming evermore common–but nothing came of that. Bitfloor ate the big one and bit the dust, vanishing in a puff of smoke and shuttering their doors. The VPs of MoneyGram and Western Union spoke up about eyeing Bitcoin (but said little beyond that.)

Finally, MtGox made their way onto Reuters TV.

Bitfloor closes its doors and shuts down permanently

The well-known BTC exchange bitfloor ceased indefinitely all trading on Wednesday, 2013 April 17 and shut down operations after having their US bank account was suspended. No explicit reason for this has been given, just a terse statement that appeared on their website citing, “Unfortunately, our US bank account is scheduled to be closed and we can no longer provide the same level of USD deposits and withdrawals as we have in the past.”

Friday, the exchange gave notice that funds held on the exchange were being returned to their owners in the fashion that they were stored—BTC would not be exchanged for USD. Accounts would be credited in the following week.

MoneyGram and Western Union idly notice Bitcoin exists

Monetary exchange and transmittance services, Western Union and MoneyGram, have noticed that the bitcoin economy exists. Vice presidents from the two services are quoted as speaking to the existence of the cryptocurrency and the potential future use of that currency via their services—however, neither VP said anything as to when or how it might be used.

In many ways bitcoins entirely circumvent the need for money transmittance services; however, brick-and-mortar locations that could exchange BTC for local currency would be a potentially good use for the sort of function that Western Union and MoneyGram already provide at their locations.

“I’m sure the executives at Western Union and MoneyGram are smart people,  so they realize that they will need to adopt Bitcoin or be left behind,” says Roger Ver CEO of BitcoinStore. “It isn’t a question of if they will adopt it,  it is just a question of how soon.”

MtGox CEO Mark Karpeles Interviewed on Reuters TV

If anything can make Bitcoin more of a mainstream concept, it’s going to be major news sources getting big-bad BTC CEOs onto the television. In this case it’s a YouTube video featuring none other than the CEO of MtGox talking about the Tokoyo-based exchange and its role in the Bitcoin economy.

More Businesses Jump on the Bitcoin Bandwagon

The Dallas, TX Ford dealership Sam Pack’s Five Star Ford Carrollton is now accepting bitcoin for car sales. “BTC can be for the entire purchase price (including any taxes or government fees), or just a down payment,” wrote SamPackFord in /r/bitcoin on Reddit. “We’ve got a transportation company that should be able to ship the cars, and we’d be happy to let you pay that in BTC as well.” The dealership has been approached by a handful of people about buying vehicles with bitcoins but no sales have happened yet. For transactions, BitPay has been picked as the payment processor of choice.

DIGIFuzz.com seller of “hand crafted active bookshelf speaker systems, designed and built by Riaz Missaghi,” is now accepting bitcoins for these really sweet looking speaker systems. Using one and half inch thick laminate Baltic birch panels and using what seems-to-be fairly audiophile speaker equipment, they’ll probably look good and sound good—and you can get them with cryptocurrency.

Interested in buying fashionable wear and accessories with bitcoins? BitFlash is looking to take that niche market by providing a 2nd generation proxy system to purchase from retail outlets such as Zara and Forever21 with the cryptocurrency.

Yesterday, TorrentFreak noticed that The Pirate Bay started accepting Bitcoin donations.

Psst. xkcd.com stealthily added a Bitcoin address to the front page (it’s tiny, like an Easter egg, but you can find it if you look!)