Late last week, the New York Department of Financial Services, the state’s banking regulator, sent 22 subpoenas to Bitcoin-related companies, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The full list includes BitInstant, BitPay, Coinbase, CoinLab, Coinsetter, and Dwolla, as well as investors Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, and Winklevoss Capital Management (which claims to own one percent of all bitcoins in circulation). Butterfly Labs, a bitcoin miner manufacturer that Ars profiled earlier this year, also received a subpoena. Most of the companies listed did not immediately respond to our request for comment. Responses from those that did spanned the yes-no-maybe gamut:

"We’re not publicly commenting on the subpoenas or whether we received one," Jaron Lukasiewicz, the CEO of Coinsetter, told Ars by e-mail. "I think the more important takeaway is that companies in our space can now open up a productive dialogue with regulators."

Kim Milosevich, a spokesperson for Andreessen Horowitz, told Ars that her firm had not "received anything yet."

"I can confirm that we received a subpoena from NY," Jeff Ownby, vice president of marketing and e-commerce for Butterfly Labs, told Ars by e-mail. "Our attorneys are reviewing it and we will decide what to do as soon as that is complete."

On Monday, the New York Department of Financial Services also issued a two-page memo (PDF) on its website, saying that it was considering how new “regulatory guidelines” would benefit this “virtual Wild West.”

First, safety and soundness requirements help build greater confidence among

customers that the funds that they entrust to virtual currency companies will not get stuck in a digital black hole. Indeed, some consumers have expressed concerns about how quickly their virtual currency transactions are processed. Taking steps to ensure that these transactions—particularly redemptions—are processed promptly is vital to earning the faith and confidence of customers. Second, serving as a money changer of choice for terrorists, drug smugglers, illegal weapons dealers, money launderers, and human traffickers could expose the virtual currency industry to extraordinarily serious of criminal penalties [sic]. Taking steps to root out illegal activity is both a legal and business imperative for virtual currency firms.

Interestingly, BitInstant closed down its website a month ago for maintenance, saying repeatedly on Twitter that it was “working on” getting it restored.