Australian Securities Market to Begin Trading Bitcoin Shares

The Australian Securities Market (ASX) is preparing to debut the Bitcoin Group on the public market under the symbol BCG. This is seen as a potentially billion dollar opportunity by Bitcoin Group, with at least $20 million expected to be gained from the initial sale of 100 million shares at $0.20 each on February 9th.

The Melbourne-based bitcoin mining company currently operates around 6000 “mining” rigs worldwide, split across 12 mining centres. Less than 2% of the companies mining power is concentrated in Australia, with the majority of the power coming from their 5 Chinese mining centres. The majority of the funds raised by the sale of shares is planned to be put directly into increasing the firm’s hashing power.

The CEO of Bitcoin Group, Sam Lee hopes that the floating of his firm on the Securities Market will help to increase the acceptance of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency worldwide and to increase the number of investors in the technology. “It’s about giving ourselves and the industry accountability and legitimacy; people often doubt whether our industry is ‘real’ as bitcoin has been declared dead many times over,” Lee said. “Unlike private companies, however, listed companies have a higher level of compliance; audited numbers will assist us in educating people interested in our industry with facts, not fiction.” He believes that when backed with legitimacy, Bitcoin’s ability to be converted to any worldwide currency and reusability will solidify the crypto-currency as a legitimate monetary platform.

Bitcoin’s emerging acceptance of Bitcoin is only the start of worldwide acceptance of the technology, with some US financial commissions taking the digital currency under their jurisdiction. Additionally, the US Securities Exchange Commission will be allowing companies to issue shares using the blockchain technology, similarly to ASX selling shares of BCG. ASX itself is also reported to be looking to convert their current settlement and clearing system to Bitcoin blockchain technology, with the switchover expected to be complete before the end of the year.