Coinfloor

Coinfloor Limited
Limited company
Industry Bitcoin exchange
Founded 2013
Headquarters 1 Quality Court, Chancery Lane, WC2A 1HR London, United Kingdom
Key people
 Adam Knight, Chairman
Mark Lamb, Founder
Obi Nwosu, Managing Director
Website coinfloor.co.uk
Footnotes / references
100% multi-signature cold storage
Provably solvent
VC-backed

Coinfloor is a London-based bitcoin exchange.[1] 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 client bitcoins in 100% multi-signature cold storage[2] and employing procedures to deter money laundering amidst the lack of government regulation.[1]

Coinfloor has been focused on building a community of bitcoin brokers and investors, with the launch of the first exchange-backed Peer-to-Peer marketplace for bitcoin. This product, “Coinfloor Market” connects vetted brokers with investors and consumers looking to buy bitcoins in a more personal, user friendly and convenient way. Buyers are able to send funds directly to a broker using a local UK bank transfer.[3]

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.[1] 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), the exchange also aims to reduce the inconvenience of a two-step conversion that people holding Sterling used to have to go through.[4]

The start-up was founded by Mark Lamb, Amadeo Pellicce, and James McCarthy.[5] In October 2013 the company announced raising an undisclosed amount of venture capital funding from Passion Capital and Taavet Hinrikus,[6] co-founder of TransferWise and the first employee at Skype.[6] In December 2013, Obi Nwosu also joined the company as a co-founder.[7]

Headquarters of Coinfloor in the City of London.

The People

Obi Nwosu, Coinfloor's Managing Director, speaking at the Bitcoin and Blockchain Leadership Forum, September 2015 in London.
Mark Lamb, Coinfloor's Founder, speaking at TradeTech 2014 in Paris.
Mark Lamb, Coinfloor's Founder, at CoinSummit 2014 in London.
Adam Knight, Coinfloor's Chairman and Lotus Exige V6 with Coinfloor's logo on the hood at the 24H BARCELONA race.

Coinfloor is a team with experience in bitcoin, security, analytics, technology and financial services. Most of the team is based in London, England.

One of its founders was James McCarthy who was previously the founder of Global bitcoin Stock Exchange, which shut down in October 2012.[6] McCarthy stepped down as CTO of the company in December 2013[8][9] and Obi Nwosu,[7] joined as a late co-founder and CTO. In May 2014 James McCarty left the business entirely.

Mark Lamb has a noticeable presence in the media[10][11][12][13] as well as major finance conferences (Keynote Speaker at Capital Creation 2014,[14] guest presentation at Trade Tech 2014: All you need to know about investing in bitcoins[15][16]) and bitcoin conferences.[17]

Obi Nwosu, initially started as Coinfloor’s CTO. In November 2014, he took over as Coinfloor’s Managing Director. During this period Coinfloor transitioned to a Broker focused strategy and came to dominate the UK and GBP bitcoin markets. Previously, Nwosu was the CTO at QXL, ebookers.com and WeeWorld.[7]

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".[18]

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.[19]

Coinfloor was the first bitcoin exchange to be registered as a Bureau de change with HM Revenue & Customs[20] 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 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 on 10 November the company targeted a launch sometime later that week.[4] As of 21 February 2014, the company's website stated that their system was open only in a private beta test.[21] On 25 March 2014 Coinfloor re-launched.[22]

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.[23][24]

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.[25]

On 30 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.[26] 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.[27]

In July 2014 Coinfloor announced the joining of an investor and Coinfloor's new executive chairman Adam Knight,[28] 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.[29]

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.

In November 2014, Obi Nwosu took over as Managing Director and the company repositioned itself to focus more on nurturing its relationships with the UK’s top bitcoin brokers and market makers. In the period between Q1 2015 and Q3 2016, Coinfloor has launched a number of innovative services including Coinfloor Market,[30] Advance Withdrawals[31] and has maintained its commitment to Provable Solvency audits.[32] It has also seen a 5x increase in trade volumes making it the most liquid UK and GBP to bitcoin exchange.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Solon, Olivia (October 29, 2013). "London-based Bitcoin exchange Coinfloor opens for business". Wired. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Bitcoin Security". Coinfloor Blog.
  3. ↑ "Coinfloor Launches Broker-Based UK Bitcoin Marketplace". Coindesk.
  4. 1 2 Bown, Jessica (November 10, 2013). "Bitcoin exchange launch is delayed: Warning for investors in virtual currency". The Sunday Times. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  5. ↑ "UK bitcoin exchange Coinfloor opens for business". Coindesk. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 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.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Obi Nwosu". LinkedIn Profile.
  8. ↑ "2014 is going to be a big one - Launch Updates". Coinfloor Blog.
  9. ↑ "Mark Lamb on McCarthy's involvement". Reddit.
  10. ↑ "Coinfloor would welcome bitcoin regulation: CEO". CNBC.
  11. ↑ "Citi: Miners and Merchants Are Keeping Bitcoin Prices Low". CoinDesk.
  12. ↑ "Bitcoin Price Drops Below $600 After Relative Stability". CoinDesk.
  13. ↑ "How Bitcoin Brokers Trade Millions Without an Exchange". CoinDesk.
  14. ↑ "Industry Insight: Blue Sky Thinking: Bitcoin & deciphering what it means for today's financial markets". Capital Creation Europe.
  15. ↑ "Mark Lamb, Coinfloor Interview". TradeTechTV.
  16. ↑ "Bitcoin - The Internet of Finance". TradeTechTV.
  17. ↑ "CoinSummit London 2014 - The Challenges of Operating a Bitcoin Business in Europe". CoinSummit.
  18. ↑ "Adam Knight appointed as Coinfloor's executive chairman". Coinfloor Blog.
  19. ↑ "Coinfloor applauds HMRC's position on the classification of Bitcoin". Coinfloor Blog.
  20. ↑ "Supervised Businesses Register". HMRC.
  21. ↑ "Coinfloor Limited". Coinfloor. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014.
  22. ↑ "UK Bitcoin Exchange Coinfloor Opens Registration, Incentivizes Early Adopters". Coindesk. Archived from the original on March 28, 2014.
  23. ↑ "Coinfloor Become First Publicly Auditable Bitcoin Exchange". CoinDesk.
  24. ↑ "London's New Bitcoin Exchange Hopes to Avoid Mt. Gox Fate". The Wall Street Journal.
  25. ↑ "London start-up to launch new market for Bitcoin". The Independent.
  26. ↑ "Coinfloor Boosts UK Deposit Speeds In Customer Satisfaction Bid". CoinDesk.
  27. ↑ "Banks Cut Ties With Isle of Man's Bitcoin Industry". CoinDesk.
  28. ↑ "Bitcoin taps former Credit Suisse commodities boss Adam Knight". Financial Times. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014.
  29. ↑ "Innovate Finance - The future of finance is here". Coinfloor Blog.
  30. ↑ "Coinfloor Market - world's first exchange-backed bitcoin marketplace". Coinfloor Blog. July 2, 2015.
  31. ↑ "Coinfloor introduces Advance Withdrawals for quicker access to your bitcoins". Coinfloor Blog. June 30, 2015.
  32. ↑ "Provable Solvency Report #29 - August 2016". Coinfloor Blog. August 24, 2016.
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