Bitcoin wallet and exchange service Coinbase has spread its wings to the UK with the introduction of its wallet and exchange merchant services in the country.
With Coinbase, Britons will be able to trade bitcoin using its trading platform Coinbase Exchange, and use Coinbase Wallet to buy and sell the crypto currencies with the British pound and Euro.
Coinbase said that users will be able to credit Euros through the single euro payments area (SEPA), along with GBP and USD via wire transfer to their Coinbase Wallet.
Coinbase is divided into three pillars, which includes a consumer wallet, a platform with APIs targeting developers, and an exchange where investors can trade bitcoin against real currencies. Company CEO Brian Armstrong, however, anticipates exchange to be the most profitable part for the company in the UK.
The San Francisco based company is already offering its services across 24 countries and reportedly includes 39,000 merchants and 2.1 million wallet holders.
In January, it raised $75m from investors including VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, and in March the company managed to raise another $116 m in funding.
Coinbase said: Our mission at Coinbase is to make payments more open and efficient around the world."
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"Expanding to the UK is an important step towards that goal and will make it easier to access bitcoin in one of the financial capitals of the world."
The UK Government had earlier in March announced plans to regulate digital currencies and apply anti-money laundering laws to digital currency exchanges operating in the country.
In its 2015 Budget, the UK Government said it will work with the British Standards Institution and the digital currency industry to develop voluntary standards for the currencies in order to provide protection to consumers.
The British government not only wants to regulate the crypto currency, but also plans to increase research funding by £10m to support innovation in the sector.
The money will be used to address the research opportunities and challenges before digital currency technology.
