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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.

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Following last week’s news that Overstock.com plans to start accepting Bitcoin, Overstock.com CEO Patrick M. Byrne has been in the spotlight.

Byrne shared his enthusiasm about Bitcoin on FOX Business’ Varney & Co (starting at 1:09 in the video below).

“You like Bitcoin?” asked the TV show hosts, quizzically.

“Bitcoin is just the opposite of the Federal Reserve,” said Byrne. “If you believe in limited government, you need a monetary system that doesn’t give them unlimited power.”

Bitcoin is mathematically limited and scarcity is a key, explained the CEO of Overstock.com. His company recently announced that they plan to accept the digital currency.

Byrne clarified that he is not making a bet on the value of Bitcoin; it’s more akin to an alternative payment method or a foreign currency, he said.

Watch the video below for the full interview.

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ZeroBlock Acquired After Leading the Field for Bitcoin Mobile Apps

Blockchain.info has acquired ZeroBlock, a leading Bitcoin mobile app for iPhone and Android devices.

Blockchain.info is one of the largest online Bitcoin wallets, and the company also hosts fresh Bitcoin charts, currency statistics, and an easy to navigate Bitcoin Blockchain explorer.

ZeroBlock is the first cross-platform real time Bitcoin market data and aggregated news feed.

Both companies have had tremendous growth this past year, and are combining forces to continue competing in the exciting Bitcoin industry. In November, Blockchain.info added nearly 300,000 users and ZeroBlock saw meteoric downloads with the release of its much anticipated Android version.

“When I’m asked what’s the killer app for Bitcoin right now I always recommend ZeroBlock,” said Nicolas Cary, CEO of Blockchain.info.

Pictured above: the ZeroBlock app (click to enlarge)

“What Dan Held and Kevin Johnson have accomplished is truly remarkable. ZeroBlock has created an enduring design aesthetic that elegantly filters the signal from the noise in the Bitcoin ecosystem. I’m completely obsessed with it” he added.

“Kevin and I felt there was a void in the app marketplace for a well-designed, informative Bitcoin app,” said Dan Held, co-founder of ZeroBlock. “So we built ZeroBlock to be simplistic but possess deep functionality, focusing on easily digestible and relevant information.”

On Bitcoin is one of the key news sources in ZeroBlock, turned on by default.

Held expressed his excitement for this acquisition, “We were excited to have the opportunity to grow ZeroBlock with the resources and user base of Blockchain.info. With their support, ZeroBlock will solidify its position as the leader in the mobile Bitcoin app marketplace.”

Along with other Bitcoin iPhone apps, Blockchain.info ran into trouble with Apple. The app previously allowed for sending and receiving Bitcoin, but Apple placed restrictions on the app that rendered the app much less useful. With the acquisition of ZeroBlock, Blockchain.info can make up for lost time in iOS.

Blockchain.info has some very ambitious future goals in the Bitcoin space – one of these is to build an informed global Bitcoin audience. ZeroBlock will play a pivotal role helping the global Bitcoin community follow market trends and open up new revenue sources, said the company.

Congratulations to the ZeroBlock team!

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