News Americas, BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Tues. Mar. 31, 2015: The disruptive new kind of money that is Bitcoin has now made its way officially to the Caribbean.
The Caribbean digital currency exchange, Bitt, launched Monday in Barbados, having secured US$1.5m seed funding from VC group Avatar Capital, a Caribbean investment group based in Trinidad and Tobago. It will serve as the frontrunner in the Caribbean’s burgeoning cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Bitt will serve as a remittance channel and merchant processing gateway, keeping 95 percent of customers’ bitcoin offline.
Bitt claims to have implemented “military grade security” with a multi-signature HD wallet system. It is powered by AlphaPoint, an exchange technology platform provider that also offers its solutions to Bitfinex and Cointrader.
Consumers will be able to trade in 11 major fiat currencies, including the US dollar, the pound and the euro.
The company was founded in 2013 by Gabriel Abed and Oliver Gale.
“The Bitt exchange is a cornerstone project for digital finance in the Caribbean. By facilitating trade between traditional and digital currency markets, Bitt is creating the platform for very low-cost international commerce and remittance between the people who need it most – the millions of unbanked and underbanked citizens in the Caribbean,” Abded said.
“Avatar backs Bitt with full confidence,” said Peter George, Director of Avatar Capital. “We are pleased to invest in the development of the cryptocurrency industry in the region. It is our hope that this investment benefits the people of the Caribbean and becomes the catalyst for digital currency trading in this part of the world.”
