Bitcoin investment firm (BTC) New York Digital Investment Group, or NYDIG, has announced the acquisition of UK micropayments service Bottlepay for an estimated fee of $ 280 million to $ 300 million.
NYDIG previously participated in the company’s initial funding round of $ 15.4 million in February, driven by British billionaire investor Alan Howard, who valued the company at $ 50 million.
Using the Bitcoin Lightning Network, Bottlepay’s mobile app service allows users in the UK and Europe to transfer small amounts known as micropayments, bitcoin and traditional fiat currencies such as the British pound and euro.
In March, following previous Discord and Reddit integrations, the digital app announced the integration of bitcoin payments into the social networking platform Twitter, allowing account holders to send information about sources in a simple tweet format: “Bottle pay sends 1000 bids to Twitter user.”
Bottlepay founder Pete Chain expressed optimism about the future of the payment service following the NYDIG acquisition:
“When we started creating Bottlepay, we wanted to open up access to the financial infrastructure of the future. We are delighted to team up with an industry leader like NYDIG who shares our vision for the money of the future. ”
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Bottlepay ceased operations in late 2019 after new EU anti-money laundering regulations were introduced, with British developer Block Matrix citing tough legislation that threatens community identity and privacy and therefore refuses to pursue the harassment. Project.
Following this saga, Bottlepay redesigned the core Bitcoin wallet infrastructure in line with the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, an initiative aimed at increasing the transparency of digital transactions in Europe.
Ross Stevens, Founder and CEO of NYDIG, and Robert Guttman, Co-Founder and CEO of NYDIG, shared a joint statement about the reliability of the regulators they witnessed at Bottlepay:
The Botlepay team has built a world-class infrastructure for Lightning and Bitcoin payments, and they’ve done so with the same level of regulatory rigor and compliance that our customers expect from NYDIG today. NYDIG’s mission is to bring Bitcoin to everyone, and this acquisition brings us one step closer to achieving that goal.