South African mobile crypto wallet Centbee has just secured £1 million – some R18.3 million – in funding.

The company specialises in a specific variant of the grandaddy of all cryptocurrencies, bitcoin SV.

Bitcoin SV prices slumped this week after a major exchange delisted it amid infighting in the crypto community, and to-and-fro accusations involving its creator.

Centbee, the South African company behind what it markets as "the world's favourite bitcoin wallet", on Tuesday announced it had landed a new £1 million (around R18.3 million) round of funding – just as the variant of bitcoin it backs slumped in price.



Calvin Ayre, an entrepreneur best know for his company CoinGeek, had committed the funding on the back of its proven ability to attract users and make bitcoin easy to use, the company said.

Centbee was co-founded by blockchain specialist Lorien Gamaroff and former eBucks CEO Angus Brown, and is associated with AlphaCode, a "club" created by Rand Merchant Investment Holdings to find and support businesses that could disrupt the financial sector.

In early 2018 blockchain research group nChain took an equity stake of undisclosed size and value in Centbee. nChain, in turn, introduced Centbee to Ayre.

The Centbee wallet has been installed some 10,000 times via the Google Play Store and is rated 4 out of 5 on the Apple app store.

In a press release on the investment, Centbee's Gamaroff said the company had a well-defined roadmap with "exciting payment and remittance products coming to market this year. We look forward to the next phase in our growth and development."

Ayre, Centbee, and nChain all share a passion for bitcoin SV, a variant on Bitcoin Cash (itself a fork of the original bitcoin) that they describe as the only blockchain that represents the original intention behind such tokens.

The price of bitcoin SV plummeted this week after major exchange Binance delisted it from trading amid a nasty dispute within the crypto community.

Bitcoin SV creator Craig Wright claims to also be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the original and much-revered creator of bitcoin. His claim is heavily disputed, complete with allegations of theft.

The bitcoin SV variant is so named because it supposedly represents "Satoshi Vision".

Wright has reportedly threatened critics with libel and harassment lawsuits, and has put out a bounty for the identity of one person he labels a troll.

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