Trucoin has announced it will expand its bitcoin buying service to consumers in 32 US states over the next few weeks.
The news follows three months of inactivity for the company, and what it called its successful eight-state beta test earlier this year. Customers in states served by the company will be able to purchase bitcoin using payment options such as MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards.
Trucoin co-founder and president Chris Brunner echoed past remarks in a new interview with CoinDesk, emphasizing that the Georgia-based company aims to offer what it believes is the most compliant bitcoin buying and wallet storage solution on the US market.
Brunner said:
“One of the major advantages of dealing with a regulated company from a consumer standpoint is that regulators do a lot of auditing and there are a lot of controls in place that don’t exist. Mt Gox, that type of thing, could not happen in a situation where the regulated company is being audited.”
In addition to anti-money laundering (AML) and Bank Security Act (BSA) compliance, Brunner also noted that the company’s wallets meet standards set by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) that cover the handling of consumer data.
“We set out to make bitcoin seamless for the average user, in a legal and easy way, and we haven’t veered from that at all,” Brunner said. “It took us longer to launch because it was important for us to be a company the bitcoin community could depend on long term.”
Generous daily limit
Trucoin VP of marketing and communication Brent James went on to stress that the company aims to offer a competitive customer experience that extends beyond simply its compliance features.
James noted Trucoin will have chat, email and phone support available to all users, and that customers who place orders will be notified via their desktop or mobile wallet as soon as their purchase is filled.
However, perhaps most notably, Brunner suggested that Trucoin users will be able to receive higher-than-average spending limits.
“There have been one or two companies that have come up with processes that are nearly as quick as ours,” Brunner explained, “but the big disadvantage is that they don’t have the fraud mitigation technology that we have. They’re not able to offer a limit that I would consider to be useful.”
The end result is that Brunner said customers can purchase $200–$500 in bitcoin per day via the Trucoin platform.
New partnership
The news of the company’s expansion also follows Trucoin’s July announcement that it had ended its previous partnership with both National Check and Currency (NCC) and Presto Financial – the companies that previously acted as Trucoin’s licensed money services partner in the US.
At the time, Brunner indicated that Trucoin would close its beta program in Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Carolina and Texas, pending a new partnership.
“We felt that we needed to do this now, so that we could ensure a substantially larger group of consumers have access to a fast and easy way to purchase bitcoin,” Brunner said on 24th July.
While Brunner thanked his company’s previous partner, he suggested that the move was meant to ensure the company could serve a larger section of the US consumer market.
Trucoin has since entered into a relationship with stealth bitcoin startup CoinX.
Credit card buying image via Shutterstock