2013 was easily the best year so far in terms of Angel/VC funding in the Bitcoin segment. The virtual currency Bitcoin garnered a great deal of interest in 2013 from Angel/VC funding, but analysts expect 2014 to be a huge growth year for Bitcoin exchanges, mining companies, and other startups associated with the currency.

6 Major investments in Bitcoin firms in 2013:

Coinbase:

On December 12, 2013, Andreessen Horowitz led a $25 million series B investment in Coinbase, the San Francisco based platform/app that enables buying, selling and trading of Bitcoins. One of the biggest investments by any firm in a Bitcoin-based company, Andreeessen said that Bitcoin feels like the early days of Internet. Furthermore, he said, the currency has been widely misunderstood as an investment tool.

Coinbase, co-founded in June, 2012 by Brian Armstrong (CEO) and Fred Ehrsam with Mark Peter Davis as an investor, has received a total funding of $31.9 million from investors Alexis Ohanian, Y Combinator, Greg Kidd, Garry Tan, FundersClub, Union Square Ventures, Ribbit Capital, SV Angel, Red Swan, Interplay Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. With the latest round of funding, Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon along with Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson will join Coinbase’s board.

On August 1, 2013, Coinbase reached a milestone of 200,000 users. By mid-October ,they had reached 300,000 users. As of December 2013, the company reported that there are more than 600,000 consumer Bitcoin wallets on Coinbase. The company says that they are averaging 10,000 new customer sign-ups a day, and are now working with more than 16,000 merchants including Khan Academy, OkCupid and Reddit, who use Coinbase to accept Bitcoin.

Total Funding Received: $31.9 Million

Circle: