bitcoin prices fall bitcoin prices fell sharply after bitcoin prices fall sharply after china's second—biggest online exchange says it is shutting down domestic trading. and it is the end of the road for the cassini probe, but asia's space economy is about to ta ke but asia's space economy is about to take off. good morning asia, hello world. glad you could join us. i am rico hizon. we begin with crypto currency, and bitcoin is on the longest losing strea k bitcoin is on the longest losing streak in more than a year because ofa streak in more than a year because of a chinese government crackdown on crypto currencies. btcc china, one of the country's the largest exchanges, said it would stop handling trades by the end of the month. there has been a flow of media reports saying that china plans to shut down bitcoin exchangers soon. the central bank is also banned initial quoin offerings, which is used as a way for virtual currency start—ups to raise money.

given that a large portion of bitcoin trading is in china, what does this mean for other crypto currencies? i posed the question to the founder and ceo of change bank, a crypto currency start upholding an initial coin offering this saturday. i think everything new, if you are a government or a bank, is uncertainty. and you are afraid of that. people were afraid of airbnb and uber when they started, but nowadays you book your house with a airbnb, you book your taxi with uber. i think crypto currency as well, in a few years everybody will be using this. that is what app change bank is trying to bring to people, so they can pay with debit cards and use services with crypto currencies. this is more of a medium to long—term plan, but in the near term you are planning and ico. could this affect demand and your business? yes. if i was a chinese company, that would be the case, but actually, with change bank, our ico

was very successful. we actually broke records, we sold $10 million in an 2a hour period. broke records, we sold $10 million in an 24 hour period. of course, and ico is also called an initial coin offering. but it seems like regulators, not only in china but in other countries, are turning their backs on virtual currencies. even the ceo of jp backs on virtual currencies. even the ceo ofjp morgan, jamie guinan, has called bitcoin fraud. yes, we did note is comments. but 5 million people are using crypto wallets and crypto products and we would not agree with him. we at change bank also don't really agree with him because we think the future of crypto currencies, we think people wa nt to crypto currencies, we think people want to use this faster, cheaper means of transferring money, and we bring this to the people. so should it be more regulated now that there are so many it be more regulated now that there are so many regulators and governments complaining about bitcoin? yes, we believe that consumer protection is of the utmost importance. we think china did the

right thing to really, you know, stop the icos. but we don't think this would really innovate the good, innovative companies like change bank. we think the ico on saturday will be a tremendous success. let's talk about your future plans. will change bank be like the paypal of crypto currencies, where i canjust like, say, at pen, with a bitcoin? exactly, this will not be in the far future. already this year you can have a card, you can go to star bucks and use your bitcoin to pay for it. furthermore, you can get the best insurance credit services with the same bitcoin. that was the ceo of change bank. in other business news, south korean retail giant lotte is calling it quits in china because of tensions between the two countries. lotte ways to sell some 01’ countries. lotte ways to sell some or all of its supermarket stores on the mainland following heavy losses.

the firm has hired goldman sachs to manage the sale, still in its pulmonary stages. lotte is close 87 of its 99— mart stores in china since march. —— has closed. google is being sued by three female former employees over alleged gender dissemination. their lawsuit claims the incident giant pays women less than men. google says it is reviewing the charges but disagrees with the allegations. it has previously said that any pay differences are due to different levels of experience. sometime later today nasa will receive the final signals from the cassini spacecraft it plunges towards saturn and burns up it plunges towards saturn and burns up in its atmosphere like a meteor. cassini began its mission 20 years ago and a lot has happened since then. including the beginnings of a space race in asia. globally, the space race in asia. globally, the space economy was valued at around $323 billion in 2015, and 76% of thatis $323 billion in 2015, and 76% of that is in the commercial space. asia makes up a much smaller piece

of that. china's annual budget is estimated at $3 billion, and india only spends about $1.4 billion. but thatis only spends about $1.4 billion. but that is growing. earlier i spoke with lennart tong, of the singapore space technology association. she said governments in the region are now making space exploration priority. i think it is very interesting that these countries are using their own initiative. in china it isa using their own initiative. in china it is a very deliberate, organised, national to become a major space power by 2030. and that comes from the very senior level all the way down to the people and the engineers in the mission. in india, they leverage it with cost competitiveness. they were the first asian country, before china and japan, to send a mars probe successfully to mars. not only were they the first asian country, they did it at a fraction of the price that nasa paid. they paid only about

70 million us dollars compared to be maven project by nasa, which was about 700 million us dollars. lynette ta n about 700 million us dollars. lynette tan there. there are several private companies also taking part in the space race. perhaps the most famous one is elon musk‘s spacex. the technology entrepreneur uploaded a minute long video or bullet the real of failed rocket launchers onto his instagram account. —— video or blooper reel. he called it the sordid history of how the spacex fork and rocket eventually managed to land in one piece and stay that way. —— falcon rocket. (bombastic music) lots of hits and misses before you

become successful. russia says the us government decision to stop using softwa re us government decision to stop using software from kapersky lab undermines fair competition. a 90 day deadline has been given to us agencies to remove security software. the us department of homeland security said it was concerned about relations between company officials and the russian intelligence services. the bbc‘s technology correspondent, rory catherine jones, technology correspondent, rory catherinejones, got technology correspondent, rory catherine jones, got an exclusive interview with eugene this pesky and asked for his reaction. —— eugene kapersky. it is so easy for americans to point the finger at russians or russian companies. and u nfortu nately, russians or russian companies. and unfortunately, what we see is that someone unfortunately, what we see is that someone in is using this situation

to have an aggressive campaign against my company. one allegation over the summer was that if the russian government forced you to insert a malicious upgrade to your software, then you would have no choice but to do that. what happens if the british government sends the same if the british government sends the same order to a british software company? or if the americans ask an american company to do so? it is science fiction. doesn't the fact that we know that the russian government did interfere in last yea r‘s government did interfere in last year's presidential election, doesn't that actually harm your reputation as a russian company? everyone spies on everyone. we see espionage tools which speak native english, native russian, native chinese, many other lenders. —— languages. you can change the names

of the nation to many other names. what are you going to say to american customers who have heard about all of this and will be distrustful of you? what can you do to convince them that your product are safe to use? we don't have any secrets. we don't do anything bad against our customers or against governments. we are a cyber security company which has been known for more than 20 years. there have never been any allegations which were proved. only rumours, anonymous sources. all this bad news about us, it is not true. so please pay attention to the quality of the products and please stay with us. you can trust us. that was rory cellan—jones and his exclusive interview with eugene kapersky. before we go, a look at the markets.

there was another missile launch from north korea a couple of hours ago. but not much reaction from the asian financial markets. the nikkei is up, the all wards down. thank you for investing your time with us. —— the all ords. hello, i'm tom duncan. the top stories the sour. north korea has fired a ballistic missile overjapan from the vicinity of its capital, pyongyang. it flew over the island of hokkaido and fell into the sea. interest rates may rise in the coming months for the first time in more than a decade — that's the warning from the bank of england. it voted to keep rates on hold at 0.25%. but the suggestion that interest rates may go up sooner than expected has led to a sharp rise in the pound.

our economics correspondent andy verity reports. a new banknote with a famous writer on it. the hands of time are frozen as big ben gets a wash. not this year, but 2007, the last time interest rates rose. today, exactly ten years after worried northern rock savers queued to take their money out of the failing bank, we heard hints that interest rates may at last be about to rise. in order to keep inflation, or return inflation to that 2% target, in a sustainabable manner, there may need to be some adjustment of interest rates in the coming months. now, we'll take that decision based on the data but, yes, that possibility has definitely increased. after the banking crisis struck, the bank of england slashed the official interest rate to 0.5%, the lowest it had got in 300 years, an emergency measure. since then, interest rate setters have met 97 times. each time, the question, when will rates rise? but each time they've done nothing, until last august,

when they decided, in the wake of the brexit vote, to cut interest rates to a 0.25%. now the city thinks they'll go back up to 0.5% by december. a rise in the interest rate would help us greatly, thank you very much, because we don't have mortgages. if you've got savings, you want to see them maximise out and give you a good return, but for years obviously that's not happened. well, in some cases, you want it to go up, because of your savings, but then in other cases you don't, because we've still got a mortgage. so we don't want it to go up for that. after the bank of england's warning, the pound jumped to more than $1.34, the highest it's been for a year. if the bank of england's signalling that it could be raising interest rates in the autumn of this year, thatjust makes the pound a more attractive currency for investors to invest in. the higher pound won't help exporters, because foreign customers may have to pay more for their goods, but it should also mean imports are a little cheaper, slowing down price rises in the shops.

andy verity, bbc news. that is it from me and the team for now. i will be back at the top of a now. i will be back at the top of a now with all the day's news, including the crisis in north korea. well, if you're on twitter, i am as well, and if you want to get in touch i'm @tomdonkinbbc. time now for all the sports news in sport today. hello, i'm sarah mulkerrins and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up: after 37 fights, in 22 different cities, will the undefeated gennady golovkin topple canelo alvarez in his first las vegas fight? chaotic scenes in london as fan disorder delay's —— delays arsenal's europa league match with cologne.

and it's a washout — play was called off for the day at the final women's golf major of the year. on saturday, the three—belt champion gennady golovkin puts his titles and his undefeated record on the line when he takes on saul canelo alvarez in a hugely anticipated bout in las vegas. and, well, if mayweather mcgregor wasn't one for the boxing purists,