The Bitcoin space came of age in 2015, as much of the sometimes dubious early players dropped by the wayside and serious money entered the space for the first time as markets recognized the value Bitcoin startups offer.

You could say Bitcoin has moved on from being in its tweens into a teenager, and while like any teenager there will still be growing pains ahead, those continue to mature relative to the amount of venture capital flowing and the resultant properly funded and regulated startups.

The year started on a strong note with a then-record amount of $75 million Series C heading to Bitcoin wallet and exchange Coinbase, Inc. from big-name investors, including DFJ Growth, The New York Stock Exchange, USAA, BBVA (Brazil), NTT Docomo (Japan) and the Valar Capital Group.

Coinbase subsequently used some of that money for pure evil when it filed patents on various aspects of the Bitcoin market in October, but that’s a story for repeating in a different list.

In February, cementing what would become a minor, but interesting theme of investments in Bitcoin startups catering to emerging markets was Kenyan Bitcoin exchange Bitpesa raising $1.1 million in a round from Pantera Capital, Crypto Currency Partners, Stephens Investment Management, Bitcoin Opportunity Corp. and Future/Perfect Ventures.

Despite ongoing failures from established players, Bitcoin mining still managed to attract investment with KnCMiner, raising $15 million Series B also in February, and following on from a previous $14 million Series A in September 2014.

Proving that records were meant to be broken, March saw a new record high investment in the Bitcoin market with then “mystery” startup 21, Inc. raising a whopping $116 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Qualcomm and RRE Ventures; at one stage it was rumored that the company was developing a Bitcoin mining toaster, until it finally released the details of a Raspberry Pi-like Bitcoin mining computer.

Other notable rounds that month included the still seriously clever less-than-traditional cryptocurrency exchange platform ShapeShift who banked £525,000 in seed funding from investors Barry Silbert and Roger Ver, and Overstock.com’s investment of $5 million in San Jose-based Bitcoin technology specialist PeerNova, Inc.

Q2

Headlining the second quarter, Bitcoin wallet service Circle Internet Financial Ltd. raised $50 million in a round led by Goldman Sachs and IDG Capital Partners in April, followed by Ripple Labs, Inc. taking $32 million in May; while primarily a Blockchain company, Ripple has the potential to support Bitcoin payments as was demonstrated by its deal with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd. in June.

New York-based Bitcoin exchange itBit Trust Company LLC announced a $25 million Series A round for investors, including RRE Ventures, Liberty City Ventures and Jay W. Jordan II, while at the same timing announcing that it had gained regulatory approval to start taking U.S. customers.

In June, Bitcoin Blockchain financial platform startup Mirror (Vaurum Labs, Inc.) raised $8.8 million Series A from Route 66, Battery Ventures, Crosslink Capital, RRE Ventures and others to build a smart contracts platform that enables peer-to-peer trading, using Bitcoin, to “democratize access to financial markets.”

Also of note in the quarter, Bitcoin and Blockchain equity crowdfunding site Bnk To The Future Ltd. (BnkToTheFuture) passed the $10 million mark in funds raised.

Q3

Bitcoin Blockchain infrastructure provider and transaction processing company BitFury, Inc. headed the list of venture capital investments for the second half of the year, taking $20 million in a round that included DRW Venture Capital, iTech Capital and Georgian Co-Investment Fund.

It was around this time that pure Blockchain focused startups, such as Chain, Inc.’s round of $30 million, started taking a bigger slice of  venture capital, but more traditional Bitcoin players did not entirely miss out.

In September, Bitcoin exchange and payments service provider Paymium raised a seed round of €1 million (US$1.12 million) that included Newfund, Kima Ventures, Galitt and others, while P2P remittance app maker Abra, Inc. took $12 million from Arbor Ventures, RRE Ventures and First Round Capital.

Not to be forgotten, Bitcoin Blockchain analytics startup Coinalytics, Inc. raised $1.1 million in a seed round from The Hive to continue its development of services relating to the real-time tracking of the Bitcoin Blockchain to allow companies to undertake risk assessments, among other related security and compliance tracking.

Q4

As the calendar year winded down, so did the venture capital, but there were still some interesting investments along the way.

At the beginning of October, Bitcoin services company Coinplug, Inc. raised $5 million Series B in a round led by SBI Investment to further grow a diverse book of Bitcoin-related products, including a fiat money to Bitcoin exchange, a Bitcoin wallet service, a Bitcoin prepaid card, two-way ATMs and merchant payment processing.

Bitcoin and Blockchain incubator Digital Currency Group, Inc. (DCG) raised an undisclosed amount of capital in late October from Bain Capital Ventures, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), CME Ventures, FirstMark Capital, MasterCard, New York Life, Novel TMT, Oak HC/FT, RRE Ventures, Solon Mack Capital and Transamerica Ventures.

Bitcoin fintech payment service startup Align Commerce, Inc. raised $12.5 million Series A in November in a round that included Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Silicon Valley Bank, Recruit Strategic Partners, Pantera Capital, Digital Currency Group and FS Venture Capital for their person-to-person payment service that utilizes Bitcoin for point-to-point money transfers without either the payer or recipient ever having to involve themselves in Bitcoin directly.

A smaller, but no less interesting round, was Fintech Bitcoin payroll startup Bitwage Ltd. raising a seed round of $750,000 from Orange Silicon Valley, Draper Associates, Cloud Money Ventures, Bitcoin Capital, Saeed Amidi and BnkToTheFuture; the company allows employees to both receive a wage and pay for goods and services both in Bitcoin and local fiat currencies without the need to have a bank account to access modern financial products.

The year ended with P2P Bitcoin to Amazon service provider Purse.io raising a seed round of $1 million and Singapore-based Bitcoin services company BitX raising an undisclosed round.

While venture capital investments definitely slowed in the second half of the year, it was still a big year for the space. And while it’s clear that much of the initial enthusiasm around Bitcoin is shifting primarily to the Blockchain itself, you’d had to be a brave person to predict the death of Bitcoin in the year ahead given how many have done so before without any success.

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