Elliptic has raised $2 million to help companies store and handle Bitcoin

Europe’s top banking regulator may think banks should stay away from bitcoin and other virtual currencies, but that’s good news for at least one company — Elliptic, which has just scored $2 million in seed funding from Octopus Investments and several angels. Elliptic offers a secure, insured bitcoin service called Elliptic Vault for retailers,hedge funds, bitcoin exchanges and other companies that are trying to dabble in this new world of so-called cryptocurrencies. According to CEO James Smith, the advice of the European Banking Regulator “opens up the playing field for people like us who can step into that void.” Smith said the funding would be used to make Elliptic Vault easier to use: “We want to make it very easy for companies to use. If they’re used to other types of financial products… a hedge fund is used to having everything with a custodian, normally a bank. The way reporting fits into their systems is quite standardized, but bitcoin doesn’t fit easily into that picture because banks won’t handle it, and so on.” Elliptic Vault provides both cryptographic and physical security for customers’ bitcoins, Smith said, adding that the firm also uses geographically distributed backups. Elliptic uses a “large international diversified” insurer, he explained.