Bitcoin Capital attracts $1M for cryptocurrency investment

Bitcoin Capital, a VC fund from financial journalist Max Keiser, has topped the $1 million mark on BnkToTheFuture, a crowdfunding platform.

With six days still left to go, Bitcoin Capital has already attracted more than 550 backers investing as little as $1,000, who are being collectively offered 50 percent equity in the fund.

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A third of the money will be invested straight into Bitcoin mining, which will be done at Bitcoin Capital’s institutional mining rig in Iceland, enabling investors to get daily Bitcoin dividends from their investment.

Keiser is joined in this venture by Simon Dixon, CEO and cofounder of BnkToTheFuture, who wrote a book of the same name in 2006 that looked at the sustainability of the banking sector.

Dixon says the daily Bitcoin dividend payments, paid automatically rather than having to arrange hundreds of bank transfers, offers a good use case for how Bitcoin is superior to other transaction methods.

Cryptocurrency startups looking for investment from the fund must raise a small amount of cash through Keiser’s rewards-based platform StartJOIN to prove their concept. They will then be expected to crowdfund on Dixon’s BnkToTheFuture, after which, they will be considered for VC investment from Bitcoin Capital.

“This give us a good signal that you have a well-rounded team,” Dixon told Tech City News. The fund’s first investments have already been made, including in Blockchain innovation startup Factom, which is exploring using the technology for everything from land registry in Bangladesh to “voting systems that can’t be rigged”.

Dixon explains that this fund was designed as a test to determine demand for such an investment vehicle. “I get a call from a VC every week asking to come and consult on Bitcoin – so we decided to create our own fund,” he says. “There’s a huge appetite to invest in this sector and there’s a clear need to have experts in the industry managing the fund.”

On the growing interest in Bitcoin, Dixon adds: “We’ve been saying this is the future all along but now the banks and other institutions say yes, everyone says it’s serious. That’s even though banks haven’t been involved with financial innovation for the past 300 years.

“I would hate if the end result is that we produce a cheaper, better way for traditional financial institutions to rig the markets cheaper – but I think the true power is for individuals using Bitcoin on a peer-to-peer basis.”

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This story originally appeared on Tech City News. Copyright 2015