BitPay, a US-based cryptocurrency payments processor, has successfully raised £17.8m with the help of Virgin head Richard Branson.
In an email, cited by the Wall Street Journal, the firm used the news to comment more widely about virtual currency, saying: "Banking as we know it is in the midst of enormous change and innovation."
The amount raised is now the biggest funding round a Bitcoin company has ever made. BitPay is now valued at $160m.
Virgin Galactic will also now be accepting Bitcoin as payment for space flights. The space tourism arm of Branson’s Virgin Group has made the world’s first commercial spaceship.
Branson said that BitPay has "proven itself to process Bitcoin safely and reliably, growing the market and increasing adoption which continues to build trust, legitimacy and momentum in this exciting currency revolution."
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