Bitcoin Triggers Buzz, Controversy… And Now, Sta

Bitcoin has triggered a wave of warnings from central bankers since the online currency started gaining, well, currency late last year. Now, it’s also behind a wave of tech startups aimed at building up a bitcoin infrastructure.

Some 320 startups are now involved somehow in maintaining or tracking the bitcoin eco-system, according to a database maintained by Creandum AB, a Swedish venture capital firm

. The firm says it’s done most of the work compiling the list, but it also has invited outsiders to contribute, and is still a work in progress.

Still, it’s a helpful tool in figuring out just what bitcoin can buy these days and what tools are out there to help understand how–or whether–to use the currency. There are exchange services, like Bitstamp, an exchange based in Slovenia, where users can trade dollars for bitcoin and vice versa. And of course, there are several payment-processing providers, as well as companies offering digital wallets and banking services for bitcoin users.

All in all, these bitcoin-related startups have raised upwards of $90 million in announced venture, seed and crowd-funding, Creandum said. A majority of that funding has been raised by a few U.S. firms, like Coinbase, Circle, Ripple, gyft and 21E6, which together account for 67% of the announced bitcoin startup funding to date.

Coinbase–a San Francisco-based company that operates an online service which lets users buy bitcoin, store the virtual currency in a digital wallet and pay merchants for goods or services–has received backing from prominent venture-capital firms and angel investors, including Twitter investor Union Square Ventures.

The company alone accounts for more than a third of total funding into bitcoin startups, having attracted $31.7 million since it was founded in June 2012, according to Creandum.

Creandum–which has €250 million under management and has invested in the likes of Spotify, iZettle and Wrapp–hasn’t put any money into any bitcoin-related companies as of yet. But the company is on the lookout.

“Bitcoin is interesting, but we’re still looking for a company within this space that provides an application that solves an actual problem,” said Joel Eriksson Enquist, an associate at Creandum. “And given that bitcoin is a global phenomenon, we’re also keen to find a company that is truly global.”