Australia is no stranger to bitcoin exchanges, BtcMarkets and BtradeAustralia have already established themselves as reputable trading venues. However, the city of Perth did not have an official bitcoin exchange. All that changed today, with the announcement from Digital World Ventures(DWV), which has launched a bitcoin exchange that will allow consumers in Perth to purchase digital currency with Australian dollars. The DWVx exchange is currently running on the popular AlphaPoint exchange platform.
Perth is one of the largest cities in Western Australia, with a population in excess of 2 million. James Clarke, Founder of DWVx, believes that his prior experience in business systems management for IBM, has prepared him well for the world of digital currency exchanges. Ian Davies, Co-founder and director of DWVx, worked for Barclays as a systems analyst, and is bringing his expertise in financial markets to the burgeoning bitcoin space.
“, we can provide an exchange platform to enable the buy and sell of fiat, and or crypto currency with a competitively reduced fee structure that should stimulate greater trade volumes increasing users bottom line returns.” – digitalworldventures.com
The current bitcoin exchange landscape is a tough one, several established digital currency exchanges in the United States and Canada have folded already due to various technical and economic reasons (e.g. Buttercoin). Bitcoin exchanges are still viewed by the banking establishment as a very risky endeavor, and many exchanges have found themselves shunned by many banks. DWVx currently has the financial backing of Westpac Bank, and liquidity on the exchange is supplied by AlphaPoint’s exchange network. DWVx’s development was partly financed through BitLendingClub, a P2P bitcoin lending platform, which allowed Davies and Clark to take out bitcoin loans to start the exchange.
James Clark seeks to establish DWVx as a major brand in the bitcoin exchange space, by establishing offices in Perth:
“We hope to broaden the awareness of our brand, but more importantly generate a trust within the crypto currency community that DWVx is here for the long term.“ – digitalworldventures.com
Also, Clark hopes to one day allow clients of the exchange to have the ability to execute cash-to-bitcoin transaction.
