Coinfloor
Coinfloor is a London-based Bitcoin exchange. Established in early 2013 with the aim of creating the world's most reputable and trustworthy digital currency exchange. The company is focused on security and is known for being the first exchange to store all bitcoins in 100% multi-signature cold storage and employing procedures to deter money laundering amidst the lack of government regulation.
In addition to its commitment to user security and user asset protection, Coinfloor is also the first exchange to employ a sophisticated algorithmic rounding engine for fee calculation - making its exchange the most favourable for high frequency and professional traders in the world. At the same time, Coinfloor has been developed to be intuitive and easy to use for even a CASUAL Bitcoin enthusiast and first-time trader.
By allowing direct conversion between bitcoins and the British Pound (Sterling), it also aims to reduce the inconvenience of a two-step conversion that people holding Sterling used to have to go through.
The start-up was founded by Mark Lamb and Amadeo Pellicce. In October 2013, the company announced raising an undisclosed amount of venture capital funding from Passion Capital and Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise and the first employee at Skype.
The People
Coinfloor is a tight team of developers and business partners with experience in Bitcoin, security, analytics and financial services. Most of the team is based in London, England.
One of its early team members was James McCarthy (aka Nefario) who was previously involved in Global Bitcoin STOCK Exchange, which controversially shut down in October 2012. McCarthy stepped down as CTO of the company in December 2013 and Obi Nwosu, previously CTO at QXL, ebookers.com and WeeWorld was appointed as the new CTO. In May 2014 James McCarty left the the business entirely.
CEO, Mark Lamb has a noticeable presence in the media as well as major finance conferences (Keynote Speaker at Capital Creation 2014, guest presentation at Trade Tech 2014: All you need to know AbOUT investing in Bitcoins) and Bitcoin conferences.
Adam Knight, Coinfloor's Chairman, was previously a Managing Director of the team responsible for building and managing the Credit Suisse – Glencore Global Commodities Alliance, a global commodity derivatives trading business. He was a managing director in the fixed-income department of the investment banking division of Credit Suisse and earlier ran the global metals trading business at Goldman Sachs. He has been an angel investor in London since leaving Credit Suisse in 2011 and believes "that Mark Lamb and his team are building a Bitcoin exchange and storage company that will become a leader in the sector".
Regulation
Coinfloor is not an FCA-regulated entity but has received formal communication from the regulatory body deeming regulation not necessary at this point in time. Bitcoin is currently not classified by the FCA as money and as such is not representative of monetary value. Coinfloor has been working closely with the HMRC on the classification of bitcoin.
Coinfloor is the first Bitcoin exchange to be registered as a Bureau de change with HM Revenue & Customs and is registered at Companies House with registration number 08493818. Date of Incorporation: 18/04/2013
History
Coinfloor began opening accounts for European customers on October 29, 2013, and announced it would be open for trading on November 5, 2013. The November 5 opening of trading was delayed due to technical problems, and on November 10, the company targeted a launch sometime later that week. As of February 21, 2014, the company's website stated that their system was open only in a private beta test. On 25 March 2014 Coinfloor re-launched.
Six weeks from launch Coinfloor became the first ‘Publicly Auditable’ Bitcoin Exchange with a blockchain based proof of solvency available monthly to all its users.
A week later Mark Lamb, CEO, announced Coinfloor setting up an over-the-counter market for Bitcoin, aimed at institutional investors.
On the 30th of June 2014 Coinfloor begun accepting domestic deposits via local bank transfer in an effort to accelerate its local payments services. The feature was brought about by popular demand thanks to a Coinfloor customer survey that found that the majority of Coinfloor’s users (47%) would like to see faster local payments. After three months of operations with Faster Payments, Coinfloor withdrew the option from its offer, after the Isle of Man banks demand that Capital Treasury Services (CTS), the company that linked Bitcoin businesses to banks, cuts all ties with the Bitcoin industry.
In July 2014 Coinfloor announced the joining of an investor and Coinfloor's new executive chairman Adam Knight, a former managing director from both Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.
In August 2014 the company announced being one of the founding members of Innovate Finance, a nonprofit organisation that aims to accelerate the UK’s leading position in the global financial services sector.
In September 2014, after six months of continuous operations, Coinfloor reported reaching over 1130 bitcoin in 24h trading volume and a 30 day trading volume of over 1 million pounds.