Circle Internet Financial is open for international business. The Boston-based bitcoin banking startup announced Monday its opening its service to the world, after months of working with customers on an invite-only basis.
Starting Monday, the team said individuals can sign up for a Circle account and start using digital currency "within minutes, not days." The company is trying to appeal to the mainstream by creating a platform that's instant, fee-free and features the ease-of-use expected from a consumer financial service. The only difference is that at Circle's core is bitcoin, a cryptocurrency consumers are still growing accustomed to.
Although customers in any country can sign up for Circle, only U.S. residents can link their bank accounts. The service is now available in seven languages, however, and will cover more as the company grows. Circle also announced its "offering customers insurance from theft on 100 percent of their bitcoin account balances."
Circle will be rolling out iOS and Android native apps in the near future. The apps are still in beta, but will become a crucial component of the service as bitcoin starts gaining more traction.
Wrote Circle Founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire, the founder of Brightcove, in a blog post Monday announcing the news:
Over the past months, it has been exciting to see the Circle team grow and to see our product, operations, support, legal and compliance, security, and finance teams execute on launching our service. Importantly, though, we are just getting started. What we’ve delivered today is the beginning of an arc of innovation that we hope to keep delivering in the years to come.
Circle closed a $17 million Series B round in March, bringing the startup's total amount raised to $26 million.
Image via Circle
