Can bitcoin go straight?

The crypto-currency advertises itself as an easy way to do financial transactions online.

But it’s mostly been synonymous with crime.

On Friday afternoon, Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison. Silk Road was a bitcoin-based online bazaar for drugs, weapons and other illicit wares.

A few months after Silk Road’s 2013 collapse, nearly 750,000 bitcoins went missing from Mt. Gox, a Japan-based exchange. Many now suspect it was a heist by the exchange’s own management.

There have been no comparable disasters since, but the damage was done. Bitcoin prices have steadily declined since their December 2013 peak of around $1,150, trading on Friday near $237.

The problem? A simple lack of rules and regulations, according to a small but high-profile cadre of New York City-based bitcoiners.

But a high-profile group of investors are hoping to change that.

Most famous among New York’s bitcoin evangelists are Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. They’re preparing to launch an FDIC-insured exchange called Gemini, which they have likened to a Nasdaq for bitcoin.

“We believe that this will be the year of infrastructure for bitcoin,” Tyler Winklevoss told The Post.

The Harvard-educated twins — who famously tangled with Mark Zuckerberg over who founded Facebook — believe that prospective investors “are sitting on the sidelines” in lieu of well-regulated “on-ramps” for bitcoin, he said.

The Winklevosses have lately been joined in their regulatory zeal by Ben Lawksy, who this month announced he was stepping down as New York state’s top Wall Street watchdog to start a consulting firm for digital currency.

Lawsky and Gemini hope to make bitcoin the byword of international trade and online stocks — not guns and fraud.