A recently released Business Insider list of the 7 hottest fintech companies in Silicon Valley ranks Bitcoin companies 21 Inc and Coinbase at 5 and 6 respectively. Topping this list was the credit card processing company Square and mobile-payment system CardSpring came last.
About 21 Inc.
The secretive San Francisco-based 21 Inc. has recently developed a chip called BitShare for Bitcoin mining which can be embedded into any internet-connected device as a standalone chip or integrated into an existing chipset as a block of IP to generate a continuous stream of digital currency.
Interested parties can request a dev kit by signing up on the website.
The company had raised $116 million in March via venture funding from Qualcomm Ventures and others. Among other influential investors are Cisco and former ARM CSO Mark Templeton. Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz is a member of the board, and Larry Summers is the strategic advisor to the company.
About Coinbase
Bitcoin wallet company Coinbase is among the best Bitcoin companies in the world. The company has roughly 2.4 million active users and serves over 40,000 merchants worldwide. Founded in 2012, San Francisco-based Coinbase is supposedly worth $400 million.
Coinbase’ growth is remarkable considering the ups and downs that the Bitcoin community has and continues to face. The company has investments from the prestigious New York Stock Exchange, Andreessen Horowitz, and banks USAA and BBVA.
The company announced a flurry of positive developments for the Bitcoin community, including a revitalized Referral Program, an Instant Exchange to eliminate volatility risk, final version of API v2 developer platform for Bitcoin app developers, and a zero fees week during the recent Greek crisis. And now, customers can also place market orders on the Coinbase Exchange.
Entering the league of the hottest fintech companies in the Silicon Valley is definitely a big boost for these companies and for the Bitcoin ecosystem!
