Singapore's itBit raises capital for Bitcoin exchange

Bitcoin (BTC) is a decentralised digital currency offering a peer-to-peer payment method that circumvents costly bank fees when making online payments across international borders.

itBit supports trades between Bitcoin and US dollars, Singapore dollars and euros from retail investors in all markets except the US. It uses NASDAQ exchange technology to support millions of trades per second.

The company hopes to attract traditional financial organizations and legitimize the market by providing bank-like security and compliance as well as multi-factor authentication and identity verification.

Another Bitcoin start-up, New York City-based Coinsetter, raised $500,000 in seed funding earlier this year from Tribeca Venture Partners, SecondMarket CEO Barry Silbert's Bitcoin Opportunity Fund and tech entrepreneur Jimmy Furland, to build a forex-style platform for trading bitcoins.

itBit has raised raised $5.5 million so far and plans to invest in expanding its operations and offerings, while working on getting further regulatory approval.

There have been security issues related to BTC transactions. For example, earlier this year hackers were able to compromise the bitcoin wallet inputs.io, and take over $1.2m worth of bitcoins. Investors also lost $4.1 million when GBL, a trading platform that claimed to be based in Hong Kong, suddenly shut down.

Interest in bitcoins has grown in China, where BTC China, the first trading platform to trade bitcoins for Chinese renminbi, shot past world-leading platform Mt. Gox briefly this year. Chinese internet giant Baidu has also started accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for Jiasule, its online security and firewall service.

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