Thursday, December 17, 2015

Overstock.com Gets Approval To Raise Up To $500M Using Bitcoin Blockchain

Salt Lake City-based online retailer Overstock.com has just gained approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to issue stock using blockchain--the technology behind Bitcoin--as part of the company's efforts to bypass the traditional financial markets. The move would allow Overstock.com to offer up sales of its stock directly to owners of Bitcoin, and also allows owners of that stock to buy and sell that stock digitally via blockchain. According to Wired, which first reported the news, Overstock.com may launch the ability to issue stock as a separate business, to allow other companies to also issue their stock digitally using blockchain. In the regulatory filing with the SEC, Overstock.com said it is looking to raise up to $500M both via Bitcoin's blockchain--which it refers to as "mathematically proven utilizing cryptographically-secured distributed ledger network technology" in filings.