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August 10, 2015 • Issue 15:08:01

Bitcoin gold rush continues

competes with bitcoin wallets like Blockchain, Circle and
Xapo, as well as the bitcoin exchanges Bitreserve, Bitstamp,
Bitfinex, BTC-e, BTCChina, Cryptsy and Kraken.

Digital wallet-agnostic bitcoin payment processors
have also received cash infusions. BitPay Inc. added $30
million to its coffers and is on track to exceed the $158
million it processed in bitcoin payments last year. Bitnet
Technologies, led by former CyberSource Chief Technology
Officer John McDonnell, secured $14.5 million to deliver a
secure, enterprise-level bitcoin platform for large retailers.

Cryptocurrency has recently gained payments industry
support from First Data Corp., Global Payments Inc., NCR
Corp., Stripe and Square Inc., among others. The Digital
Currency Council estimates that each week about 1,000
by Ann Train new merchants begin accepting bitcoin payments. Even
the New York Stock Exchange is on board. It launched the
apital investment in cryptocurrency compa- bitcoin price index (NYXBT) in May. Bitcoin users can now
nies is at an all-time high. During the first follow the daily value of bitcoin in U.S. dollars.
six months of 2015, funding in this sector
C reached $357 million, surpassing the $350 mil- Putting the past behind
lion record set for all of 2014, according to Wedbush
Securities Inc. Cryptocurrency enterprises have brought in Despite price volatility and a spate of reputation damaging
an estimated total of $832 million since 2009, when bitcoin, events, including the debacle involving bitcoin-based
a decentralized digital currency, debuted. online drug trafficker Silk Road in 2013, the collapse of
Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in 2014 and the fall
Based on open source protocol, bitcoin was developed by of bitcoin marketplace Buttercoin in 2015, most analysts
an individual or group going by the pseudonym Satoshi agree cryptocurrencies are here to stay.
Nakamoto. Most cryptocurrency investments have
gone to bitcoin-related ventures. The largest to date $116
million, went to San Francisco-based startup 21 Inc. Led
by Andreessen Horowitz partner Balaji Srinivasan and Contributed articles inside by:
Matthew Pauker, who co-founded Voltage Security Inc,
which Hewlett Packard Inc. acquired in February 2015, 21 Chris O'Donnell .....................................................................................25
Inc. plans to distribute an embeddable bitcoin mining chip Adam Hark ..............................................................................................30
called BitShare that can generate a continuous stream of Jefffrey I. Shavitz ...................................................................................42
digital currency.
Jeff Fortney .............................................................................................44
A near-record $75 million investment landed at San Michael Gavin ........................................................................................46
Francisco-based Coinbase to expand the bitcoin exchange's John Tucker .............................................................................................48
merchant base and bitcoin wallet globally. Founded in
2012 by software engineer Brian Armstrong and former TOC on page 3
Goldman Sachs currency trader Fred Ehrsam, Coinbase

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