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Medici Ventures has completed an $ 8 million share purchase in Barbados-based Bitt, bringing it a controlling stake in the blockchain company.
Medici’s latest investment will help him seize market opportunities around digital currency adoption in developing countries, the Overstock subsidiary said in an announcement Wednesday.
“Bitt’s pioneering work in the central bank’s digital currency space promotes social inclusion, financial empowerment and economic growth,” said Jonathan Johnson, CEO of Overstock and President of Medici Ventures. “It’s the perfect use case for blockchain technology.”
With its controlling stake in Bitt, Medici indicated that it aims to support Bitt’s offer to accelerate the growth of the central bank’s digital currency.
The stock investment follows a purchase of $ 4 million in 2016 and another in 2018 for $ 3 million.
Bitt was founded in 2013 and aims to provide the infrastructure to “support a digital financial ecosystem across the Caribbean”.
Last March, Bitt signed an agreement with the Central Bank of the Eastern Caribbean to pilot a digital version “securely minted” and issued the Eastern Caribbean dollar designed to be distributed throughout the region.
The Caribbean dollar was designed to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions between merchants and consumers using smartphones.
Bitt will remain in Barbados after the deal, while its president, Brian Popelka, will also become the new CEO of the blockchain company.
