Recent news about the Bitcoin exchange landscape have been mostly related to takeovers, as various companies have moved in to acquire other players in the field. For example, igot, a prominent Australian company on the Bitcoin market, has recently acquired TagPesa, an exchange and remittance gateway involved with Bitcoin, but the exact details of the deal have not been made public.
Users of the company can now also benefit from a new “merchant” feature which gives businesses the opportunity to accept payments in Bitcoin from pretty much anywhere around the world, and they can then convert that income to fiat currency. Merchants using the service are taxed a fee of 0.5% per transaction.
Igot are expanding the range of features in their portfolio, from what it seems, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that – hopefully the company will continue to gain traction on the Bitcoin market, because they certainly deserve the serious exposure, having contributed so much until now.
Meanwhile, in other similar news, Satoshi Citadel Industries have acquired BuyBitcoin.ph, a Philippine company also involved in Bitcoin exchange services. The cost of the purchase is unknown, but we can only assume that it was a pretty respectable sum, as BuyBitcoin was not exactly a small company before the takeover.
Now, however, it will be part of a much larger group of companies, all under the name of Satoshi Citadel Industries, a fast-growing name in the Bitcoin market. Some commenters of the scene have noted that these constant takeovers might not be that good for Bitcoin in the end, as they are making the market more centralized as a whole. On the other hand, these are just a few small random examples and shouldn’t be seen as an indication of any trend, according to others.
Are we going to see more similar changes in the Bitcoin exchange market in the future, or is the situation going to settle after these few acquisition? We’re bound to see the occasional purchase of one company by another here and there, and in a market as volatile as Bitcoin’s, it can be hard to tell what’s going to happen from one day to the next.
In any case, those who’re investing heavily in Bitcoin should continue to watch the situation closely, as a shift in the organization of Bitcoin exchanges could also be indicative of certain changes in the currency’s price. Again, it’s hard to say exactly what will happen with the trends for Bitcoin over the next few months, but it’s probably not a good idea to rely on the currency remaining stable right now.