The last 48 hours has seen an explosion of activity in the Bitcoin ecosystem and beyond.

Most excitingly for all the investors / speculators / enthusiasts and those wondering whether to dip their toes in the cryptocurrency water – the BTC price is currently trading on MtGox at over $44 USD a piece, and has been trading steady at over $44 (EDIT: holding $46 for over two hours now) for the past two hours.

Kim Dotcom tweeted on Monday that BItcoin was “the currency of the future” and that it’s time for a Bitcoin credit card. If anyone has the resources to pull if off it in a big way, it is most certainly the millionare behind the encrypted cloud storage service Mega, who rose to internet fame after the US shut down prolific file host MegaVideo in January 2012. MegaCard coming soon?

In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin merchant processing service BitPay, which now has over 3 300 merchants using its service, has expanded its seed round: securing more angel investment from Ben Davenport, Trace Mayer, and A-Grade Investments. In February, BitPay recently relocated its office to the Atlanta Tech Village in the epicentre of Buckhead’s Financial District.

Meanwhile, Forbes has pronounced that Bitcoin is ready to go mainstream with the first U.S Exchange, with Seattle based start up Coinlab recently receiving $500 000 in start up capital and announcing a recent partnership with Silicon Valley Bank. This brings Mt Gox, the largest Bitcoin exchange, to U.S shores. The exchange has a trade volume of nearly $500 000 000 per year; and this is forecast to grow by ten times in the next year.

One thing’s for sure: Bitcoin is everywhere, it’s growing and the adoption rate doesn’t show any signs of slowing any time soon.

Our other favourite Bitcoin developments of the last 48 hours:

– Domain registrar Namecheap now accepting Bitcoin payments

– Grassroots 3D Printing For Bitcoin service opens shop

– Bitcoin Stickers (because we all want stickers – right?)