Bitcoin Has a Friend in Asia; Li Ka-shing is an Investor in BitPay
Over the last few weeks, the news surrounding Bitcoin in Asia has been tumultuous. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) notified 3rd party payment processors to stop allowing RMB deposits in China. The Bitcoin market crashed, heavily, then recovered.
Well, if you are looking for a positive signal from Asia, here’s a strong one.
It has been revealed that Atlanta-based BitPay, a Bitcoin payment processor that has experienced amazing growth over the last few months, has Asia’s richest man Li Ka-shing as an investor.
Li Ka-shing, whose net worth is over $28 billion, is an investor in BitPay through his venture capital firm, Horizon Ventures.
Horizon is the same firm that made the memorable $120 million investment in Facebook prior to the IPO, as well as other successful startups such as Spotify, Siri (acquired by Apple), and Summly (acquired by Yahoo!).
Other investors in the latest BitPay round included Founders Fund, Barry Silbert of SecondMarket, Roger Ver, and more. BitPay has raised more than $2.5 million to date.
The South China Morning Post published an article suggesting that Li Ka-shing’s motivation for investing in BitPay is to sell “picks and shovels” in the Bitcoin gold rush, rather than investing in the currency directly.
Whatever the reason for this support, BitPay and the overall Bitcoin ecosystem are sure to benefit from the support of Asia’s richest man.
[…] On Bitcoin December 30, 2013 […]