Ceyuan leads $10m Series A for China bitcoin exchange

The deal was completed in December. A number of Chinese angel investors including Mike Cai, China Software Developer Network founder Tao Jiang, and China Young Angel Investor Leader Association's chairman Ning Yang, also joined the round.

The fresh capital will go towards team-building, research and development, and security improvements, according to a statment. The company also plans to expand its operations beyond China.

In November, BTC China raised $5 million Series A funding from Lightspeed China Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

At that time, BTC had just become the world's most active bitcoin exchange on the back of an explosion in Chinese interest in the currency. The People's Bank of China responded by banning financial and payment institutions from dealing with bitcoin and stressing that it cannot be used as currency in the market.

However, the global, decentralized nature of bitcoin means it can exist beyond the reach of national regulators, with users able to move their holdings to any platform in any country. Venture capital investors therefore see the digital currency as a sustainable payment channel that offers a lower cost solution than its competitors or reaches places they cannot.

OKCoin launched in December after receiving $1 million seed funding from VentureLab and Tim Graper, founding partner of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The company introduced a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, allowing users to lend bitcoin and renminbi online. Daily trading volumes have reached 300,000 bitcoin.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Technology
• Financials
• China
• Venture
• Ceyuan Funds
• Financial Services
• TMT