StartEngine Capital, a subsidiary of StartEngine Crowdfunding Inc., a funding portal that helps companies raise capital utilizing the Regulation Crowdfunding exemption from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, announced that it is now accepting bitcoin as a form of payment.
This now makes StartEngine the only FINRA-regulated funding portal to accept BTC as a form of investment. StartEngine Crowdfunding began accepting bitcoin on its marketing platform for offerings using the exemptions Regulation A and Regulation D Rule 506(c) earlier this spring by transferring BTC investments directly to the company raising capital without converting the bitcoin into fiat.
With this latest product release, all offerings on StartEngine can now accept bitcoin investments.
“When we began hosting regulated ICOs on our platform in the fall of 2017, we knew there was a market demand for entrepreneurs that wanted to accept cryptocurrency directly. Those entrepreneurs can now accept Bitcoin as a form of payment, and we hope to continue to make our platform more accessible to both entrepreneurs and investors. We needed to find a qualified custodian in order to accept Bitcoin, and with Prime Trust as our partner, we are now the only regulated entity to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for securities.”
This development is another move by StartEngine into the crypto space since the company began accepting ICOs relying on exemptions from registration under the Securities Act late last year.
To date, the StartEngine platform has been used by more than 160 companies to raise capital, including tZERO, one of the largest ICOs to date. StartEngine is currently “testing the waters” for its own ICO under Regulation A, allowing investors to indicate interest in investing in tokenized shares.
“As the market leader in Regulation CF equity crowdfunding, it is important to offer bitcoin as a form of payment for our ICOs and Online Public Offerings,” said Marks.