Now many Europeans can buy and sell bitcoin on one of the leading industry exchanges.
Bitcoin is often pitched as a global phenomenon. It's only natural that one of the leading Bitcoin companies is looking to expand its operations to 13 countries across the pond.
As fast as the company has grown, it has been limited mainly to a U.S. audience, Coinbase explains in a blog post:
“Other markets have not grown as quickly because people have been unable to buy and sell in their local country.”
But now, they will be expanding operations to include 13 more countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain. It has added a global page with a list of countries it supports. It seems to imply a hope that it will be updated more in the future.
By incorporating the Euro, the company has enabled the users from those countries to buy or sell bitcoins with Coinbase.
Euro Beta Limitations
The program is in beta, for now. It is open. All users from the aforementioned European countries, with a euro bank account, are welcome to join. But the beta service has one limitation:
"It’s important to note that this is a beta launch in Europe. During our beta, we will have a fairly low daily limit: €500 per day on buys and sells."
Coinbase will raise the limit as they edge out of beta. They welcome feedback.
Coinbase: A Brief Background
It raised $25 billion in venture capital funding last December and was named No. 2 most exciting startup of 2013 by Times magazine.
Located in San Francisco, Coinbase has so far mainly catered to U.S. customers. Coinbase has partnered up with a lot of companies to provide bitcoin services—most recently PayPal's Braintree, a budding payment processor.
Coinbase has expanded its user base plenty already, and is churning out new ways to do so. The company has been deeply entwined with the progress of Bitcoin. The company writes in the conclusion of the blog:
"We think launching in these additional countries is a major step for the entire Bitcoin community, and will help continue bitcoin’s growth as a global payment network."
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