Bitcoin may be getting some of its groove back.
Coinbase, a startup that develops a mobile wallet to buy and store the digital currency, announced Monday that it is launching the first licensed Bitcoin exchange in the United States with the goal to provide a more "reliable and secure platform" for trading bitcoins.
"We believe Coinbase Exchange will bring stability and trust to the exchange space," the startup wrote in a blog post. Coinbase has been at the forefront of legitimizing -- or attempting to legitimize -- the Bitcoin space in part by raising more than $100 million in funding from major VC firms and even The New York Stock Exchange.
News of the exchange helped the price of Bitcoin briefly surge back above $300 early Monday after having collapsed below $200 earlier this month for the first time since late 2013.
The price decline was part of a longer-term slump that had dragged bitcoin down from its frothy $1,000-plus highs after the implosion of Mt. Gox, once the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world, and more recently a security issue at Bitstamp, another exchange.
Some Bitcoin mining services, which make money by unlocking new bitcoins, were forced to suspend operations due to the declining prices presumably cutting into profit margins, raising further concerns about whether there would be a snowball effect for Bitcoin. Yet, investors continue to pump money into the space, with Coinbase recently raising a $75 million round and Ripple, an open payments network similar to bitcoin, is reportedly raising $30 million.
Coinbase isn't the only company working on a regulated Bitcoin exchange. The Winklevoss Twins, Tyler and Cameron, are also building a "fully regulated, fully complaint" Bitcoin exchange called Gemini that is pending approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services.