LONDON: Amid price volatility and impending regulation, Bitcoin startup Coinbase is launching in the UK.
Decentralised digital currency Bitcoin has had a tumultuous 2015, kicking off the year with a price drop of 30% in a matter of days. But there has also been an influx of venture capital cash into the space, with Coinbase being one of the key beneficiaries.
In January it raised $75 million — then a new record for the industry. Investors included the New York Stock Exchange and respected VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. (It was subsequently overtaken by the secretive “21”, which raised $116 million in March.)
Coinbase then went on to launch a Bitcoin exchange, and is now opening its doors in Britain.
So what exactly does Coinbase do? It has a number of products, include “wallets” which allow Bitcoin users to store and make transactions in Bitcoin, merchant solutions for businesses, and its new exchange for trading Bitcoin.
Coinbase’s services are already varyingly available in 24 countries, with 2.1 million wallet holders and 39,000 merchants. But the exchange has yet to expand outside of its native America, making the British launch a first.
