Bitcoin exchanges are the gateway between fiat and digital currency. Vancouver-based Bex.io has received venture funding in order to advance its own ideals on how to build them.
The company, which has built a bitcoin exchange platform, has received $525,000 in venture capital to fund its operations. The round was funded by CrossPacific Capital Partners, with participation from Brian Cartmell and HootSuite Founder Ryan Holmes. Plug and Play and Boast Capital also contributed financing recently.
Founder Yurii Rashkovskii told an audience in London in July that Bex.io plans to “help bitcoin business entrepreneurs manage the technical side of the operation so they don’t need to worry about it”.
Focusing on bitcoin regulatory issues may ultimately be a better use of an exchange’s time than building an entire system from scratch. Governments in various jurisdictions have differing opinions on what bitcoin might means within a particular regulatory framework.
For example, in the United States the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an anti-money laundering unit of the US Department of Treasury, recently sent out “industry outreach” letters regarding anti-money laundering practices. The purpose of this was to encourage bitcoin businesses to register with FinCEN and uphold basic money transmitter responsibilities such as record keeping.
Bex.io’s business plan is similar to that of Robocoin, a bitcoin ATM manufacturer. That company is working with partners in local jurisdictions who can navigate specific regulatory issues that might crop up.
One of Bex.io's founders, Jesse Heaslip, previously told CoinDesk that security and performance would be key metrics that the company would focus on. The Bex.io platform is built for the datasets that a burgeoning exchange could encounter. Prevention of distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) via third-party penetration testing is an important part of keeping the company's platform secure.
The Plug and Play technology incubator in particular has plans for a total of ten investments in bitcoin-related startups over the course of 2014. Eleven bitcoin startups pitched for funding at Plug and Play’s Sunnyvale, California facility in early December.
Marc van der Chijs of Cross Pacific Capital Partners, and co-founder of online video sharing site Tudou.com, has been appointed to company’s Board of Directors.
Bex.io is currently in a limited beta, and invites can be requested from the company’s website.
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