Circle is raising $40 million for a $200 million valuation, Fortune reports. The company hasn't confirmed the funding round, but Fortune verified the details through multiple sources. Circle offers we
Circle is raising $40 million for a $200 million valuation, Fortune reports. The company hasn't confirmed the funding round, but Fortune verified the details through multiple sources. Circle offers web wallet, payment processing, and exchange services, competing with Coinbase by making Bitcoin more accessible to everyday users while still following regulatory requirements.
A $200 million valuation stands out considering Bitcoin's entire market cap is just $3.2 billion. At that price, Circle represents 6.25% of the whole ecosystem. Investors could believe the company warrants that valuation today, or more likely, they're betting on growth across both Circle and Bitcoin technology.
Overstock filed with the SEC about issuing stock on a blockchain. CEO Patrick Byrne has been vocal about cryptocurrency. The company hired developers from CounterParty to work on a crypto-related project and then ended the effort. Overstock also runs a wiki describing how companies can use existing cryptocurrencies for crowdfunding.
Overstock's SEC filing includes this language: "We may decide to offer securities as digital securities, meaning the securities will be uncertificated securities, the ownership and transfer of which are recorded on a cryptographically-secured blockchain system using technology similar to (or the same as) the blockchain technology used for trading digital currencies." Wired published reporting on the filing but overlooked other details in the submission.
Multiple companies are working to replace government functions with cryptocurrency-based distributed systems. BitNation and the Blockchain Factory's iNation are two prominent examples. Swarm, a crowdfunding platform that has backed projects like the Bitcoin Comic, is now turning toward nonprofits and charitable organizations.
Swarm distributes tokens to all token holders each time a project launches on its platform. The company calls this "distributed abundance," providing a form of basic income to participants. This represents a potential early model for how societies might operate. Cryptocurrency lets people test ideas that wouldn't be possible elsewhere. Whether this approach works or fails, these kinds of experiments drive the broader conversation forward.
