Dwolla closes its Bitcoin payment services business

By Rizza Sta. Ana

Oct 11, 2013 12:20 PM EDT

In an email addressed to its customers, payment processing company Dwolla said it would no longer accept transactions in virtual currency Bitcoin soon. Dwolla would be implementing the change starting the end of October.

Part of the email read, "As Dwolla gears up for a new stage of growth, we recognize that we can no longer sustain this merchant base (0.1 percent of Dwolla merchants) and its unique needs, and that attempting to do so jeopardizes both of our communities' starkly different, but similarly ambitious, vision for improving payments."

Bitcoin was cast on a negative light recently. The Silk Road online market was seized by US authorities when investigations revealed that the market was a haven for selling drugs.

US Department of Homeland Security seized Bitcoin currency worth USD2.9 million from Dwolla, which reportedly prompted the closure of its Bitcoin services. The government investigation on Dwolla was said to be a result of an earlier investigation into Web's largest exchange service Mt Gox. Mt Gox had suspended its Bitcoin-US dollar exchange services, also seen due to a government investigation on the company.

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