Investors Are Plowing Into European Bitcoin Firms Faster Than Any Other Region In The World

Europe is now the fastest-growing region for venture capital investment in Bitcoin, according to Coindesk.

In its quarterly State of Bitcoin report, released Thursday, Coindesk shows Bitcoin VC funding in Europe nearly doubled in Q2, to $30.9 million from $15.6 million in Q1. Investment in North America climbed 21% to $186.3 million. Asian funding fell 18% to $20.8 million. Here's CoinDesk's chart:

Within Europe, Netherlands-based Bitfury, a mining hardware developer, captured the greatest share, raising $20 million. That funding round alone made the Netherlands the second-largest recipient of VC funds in the world.

We recently showed that European countries hold the top-5 positions for downloads per capita of Bitcoin's core protocol. We got further evidence of the surge in Europe today, as Barry Silbert's Bitcoin Opportunity Corp. venture capital fund announced a $250,000 investment in Stockholm-based Bitcoin service provider Safello.

"In a very short period of time, the Safello team has created a leading European platform for buying, storing and selling bitcoin," Silbert said in a statement. "Their user and transaction growth is accelerating and I'm thrilled to join a group of fantastic investors to help support Safello's rapid growth and ambitious product plans."

Silbert said the opportunity in Europe is strong, though is still unlikely to match America's anytime soon.

"While there is a growing number of bitcoin investment opportunities in Europe, the companies are much earlier stage and funding rounds much smaller than in the U.S.," he said in an email. "I expect that the U.S. will continue to lead the world in terms of the number of bitcoin startups and fundraising for the foreseeable future."

Bitcoin prices were at $616 Thursday evening according to CoinDesk. Click here to read their full report on the state of Bitcoin »