MasterCard, Bain Capital Ventures, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and 8 more companies invest into DCG founded by Barry Silbert, who has just sold his SecondMarket to Nasdaq.

For most of the companies it becomes the first investment in the bitcoin industry ever.

Digital Currency Group is a strategic investment company established earlier in 2015. Since then it has made over 50 investments in 17 countries, seeking to “improve communication and collaboration between entrepreneurs, legacy financial institutions and fintech investors” focused on any specific sphere of the decentralised internet of value.

One of the companies DCG recently invested into was ShapeShift, the company allowing customers to exchange digital currency without an account or a sign up process.

Silbert says that the Group plans to invest in up to 20 more start-ups next year.

“We view it (DCG — CoinFox) as a platform company similar to businesses like SoftBank and Berkshire Hathaway. They have the flexibility to start companies, to invest in companies, to buy companies. And that’s what we are doing. We are narrowly focused on this industry,” Bloomberg quotes Silbert's words.

In March 2015 Barry Silbert's Bitcoin Investment Trust became the first publicly traded bitcoin fund, which made it possible for traders to invest into bitcoins without buying the digital currency themselves.

Maria Rudina