Coinbase, one of the largest bitcoin wallet firms in the US, is launching its services in the UK. Customers in the UK can now purchase and sell bitcoin with GBP using the Coinbase wallet. They will also have the opportunity to trade bitcoin on the Coinbase exchange.
Despite Coinbase offering a variety of services to 24 countries, the introduction of the exchange platform to UK makes Britain only the second country – after the US – to have this particular service.
The expansion into Britain is unsurprising considering the Government revealed in March its intention to support ‘digital currencies’ by regulating them under anti-money laundering legislation. The Government’s decision was welcomed by bitcoin industry experts.
“They’re really taking their time to understand the core technology prior to regulating,” stated Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase.
The expansion is carried out on the back of large capital investments made into the bitcoin sphere with Coinbase benefitting the most. In January it raised $75m from Series C funding. Investors included venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz and the New York Stock Exchange. Coinbase claim they have raised $106m from large investors, one of whom is bitcoin investor and fourth-generation venture capitalist Adam Draper.
To date, Coinbase has 2.1m users and 39,000 merchants.
“Expanding to the UK is an important step towards that goal and will make it easier to access bitcoin in one of the financial capitals of the world,” Coinbase announced.
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