Online retailer Overstock is furthering its efforts to build a crypto-trading platform by taking a stake in Belgian blockchain startup SettleMint.
A fintech firm specialising in developing software leveraging distributed ledger technology, SettleMint most recently released SettleMint Ballot Box, an application for recording voting to an immutable blockchain.
The investment was made by Medici Ventures, the US e-commerce giant's blockchain trading subsidiary.
“Medici Ventures is immersed in a global search for outstanding companies poised to disrupt key sectors with blockchain technology,” says Jonathan Johnson, president of Medici Ventures. “SettleMint is precisely the kind of company we hoped to find and we’re pleased to be an angel investor at such an early stage of what promises to be a very auspicious future.”
It follows a recent $4 million investment in in Bitt.com, a Caribbean-based financial technology firm working to move island nations in that region to adopt digital national currencies.
In addition to joining the Medici Ventures portfolio, SettleMint - which is also working on applications for property titling and procedures for simplifying ‘know your customer’ (KYC) compliance - will represent t0.com, Overstock's blockchain-based crypto-trading unit as it seeks to expand its European presence.
In a separate development, Overstock says it has hired Connecticut-based investment bank Source Capital Group as dealer-manager for its planned blockchain-based stock offering, which will commence later this month.