An effort to make bitcoin go mainstream just got some muscle from Wall Street.

Goldman Sachs has co-led a $50 million financing round in Circle Internet Financial, a bitcoin payments startup, according to an announcement Wednesday night. The deal, Goldman's first strategic investment related to bitcoin, lends some buttoned-up credibility to an industry often seen as the province of anarchic techies.

Circle, which was started in 2013 by Jeremy Allaire, is among a small number of tech startups trying to introduce bitcoin to the broader public. The company — which offers a digital wallet that lets people store bitcoins, send them to each other, and pay for things at retailers that accept the digital currency — has received backing from some big names in tech, like the venture capitalist Jim Breyer.

As it tries to expand its appeal, Circle also announced on Wednesday that it would go beyond bitcoin and allow users to hold regular old dollars. That will put the young company into competition with the likes of Venmo, which is part of PayPal, and other money transfer and payment services.

Goldman, for its part, didn't offer much in the way of explanation for its bet on Circle. Tom Jessop, the Goldman managing director who worked on the deal, said in a prepared statement that he thought Circle's "product vision and exceptional management team present a compelling opportunity in the digital payments space."

"As the financial services industry continues to become more digital and open, we see significant opportunities in companies and solutions that have the promise to transform global markets through technical innovation," he said.