Coinfloor

Last updated
Coinfloor Limited
Limited company
Industry Bitcoin exchange
Founded2013
Headquarters Chancery Lane
London, WC2
United Kingdom
Key people
Adam Knight, Chairman
Obi Nwosu, CEO
Website coinfloor.co.uk

Coinfloor is a London-based bitcoin exchange established in early 2013. [1]

Contents

Coinfloor has launched the first exchange-backed Peer-to-Peer marketplace for bitcoin, "Coinfloor Market", which connects vetted brokers with investors and consumers looking to buy bitcoins. Buyers are able to send funds directly to a broker using a local UK bank transfer. Coinfloor is also the first exchange to employ a sophisticated algorithmic rounding engine for fee calculation. [1] By allowing direct conversion between bitcoins and the British Pound (Sterling), the exchange aims to reduce the inconvenience of a two-step conversion that people holding Sterling used to have to go through. [2]

In October 2013 the company announced raising an undisclosed amount of venture capital funding from Passion Capital and Taavet Hinrikus, [3] co-founder of TransferWise and the first employee at Skype. [3] It was reported that Coinfloor had a major layoff of the majority of its staff in October 2018. [4] Coinfloor's CEO, Obi Nwosu, subsequently clarified that most of the affected staff were actually transitioned to a new company, CoinFLEX, as part of the spin off and sale of one of Coinfloor's subsidiaries in January 2019. [5]

Headquarters of Coinfloor in the City of London. 1 Quality Court Chancery Lane.png
Headquarters of Coinfloor in the City of London.

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. [1] 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. [6]

Coinfloor was the first bitcoin exchange to be registered as a Bureau de change with HM Revenue & Customs [7] and is registered at Companies House : registration number 08493818, Incorporated: 18/04/2013. [8]

On 19 December 2018 HM Revenue & Customs published a Policy Paper entitled Cryptoassets for Individuals. It sets out how individuals who have crypto assets are taxed in UK. Of particular interest is the clarification regarding Capital Gains Tax treatment of profits. [9]

History

Coinfloor began opening accounts for European customers on 29 October 2013 and announced it would be open for trading on 5 November 2013. [1] The 5 November opening of trading was delayed due to technical problems, and Coinfloor re-launched on 25 March 2014.

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. [10]

A week later Coinfloor announced setting up an over-the-counter market for bitcoin, aimed at investors looking to do large block trades in bitcoin. [11]

On 30 June 2014 Coinfloor began accepting domestic deposits via local bank transfer in an effort to accelerate its local payments services. 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, [12] a former managing director from both Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Solon, Olivia (October 29, 2013). "London-based Bitcoin exchange Coinfloor opens for business". Wired. Archived from the original on January 22, 2014. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  2. ↑ Bown, Jessica (November 10, 2013). "Bitcoin exchange launch is delayed: Warning for investors in virtual currency". The Sunday Times. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  3. 1 2 O'Hear, Steve (October 29, 2013). "Coinfloor Is A New UK-Based Bitcoin Exchange Backed By Passion Capital And Transferwise Founder Taavet Hinrikus". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on October 30, 2013. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  4. ↑ Marsh, Alastair (2018-10-08). "UK's oldest bitcoin exchange slashes jobs". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
  5. ↑ McFarlane, Gary (2019-01-09). "CoinFLEX exchange to launch the world's first physical bitcoin futures". Interactive Investor. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  6. ↑ "Coinfloor applauds HMRC's position on the classification of Bitcoin". Coinfloor Blog. 3 Mar 2018. Retrieved 9 Oct 2018.
  7. ↑ "Supervised Businesses Register". HMRC. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 12 Oct 2018.
  8. ↑ "Coinfloor Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  9. ↑ UK HMRC Policy paper Crypto Assets for Individuals
  10. ↑ Fleisher, Lisa (30 Apr 2014). "London's New Bitcoin Exchange Hopes to Avoid Mt. Gox Fate". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 12 Oct 2018.
  11. ↑ Williams-Grut, Oscar (21 Apr 2014). "London start-up to launch new market for Bitcoin". The Independent.
  12. ↑ Foley, Stephen (10 July 2014). "Bitcoin taps former Credit Suisse commodities boss Adam Knight". Financial Times. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
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