The City of London has long been considered the financial hub of Europe, and the inclusion of Bitcoin company, Blockchain, on last weeks trade delegation to South East Asia, suggests the UK Government may be positioning itself to take a similar role in the world of cryptocurrency. Blockchain may be considered an interesting choice to accompany Prime Minister, David Cameron, on such a visit alongside such British stalwarts as Rolls Royce and Lloyds of London. But trade missions are designed to give a more holistic (yet of course unabashedly positive) view of the potential of British trade partners, indicating that …

Cointelegraph reached out to Coinsilium to get some more details on its milestone IPO, set to become one of just a handful of Bitcoin companies in the world — and the first in Britain — to list its shares on London's junior stock market AIM. Why AIM? London-based Coinsilium plans to raise £3 million (US$4.6 million) with its listing on AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market), the stock market for small companies run by the London Stock Exchange. Coinsilium's CEO Eddy Travia has been managing VC and private equity funds for over a decade, and the reason this particular exchange …

American Banker reported that batches of FinTech startups are relocating to London to engage with large financial institutions and banks through connections from accelerators and mentorships, such as Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab, or accelerator Level39. Global investments in FinTech ventures have reached US$12.21 billion, a large portion in London. Sir Edward Lister, chief of staff for the mayor of London, told American Banker: "What is most interesting for London is that, as a city, we are leading on the development of specific subsectors that build on London's historical strengths as a financial services hub. Throughout London, more than 44,000 people …

This coming weekend and the following week will be an interesting time for Bitcoin users, fans and businesspeople to visit London. In addition to the Inside Bitcoins conference (disclosure: Cointelegraph is a media partner for that event), there will also be an ongoing series of events around Shoreditch to bring Bitcoin use — and general awareness of the currency — to the average consumer. The latter festival, BlockStock (think “blockchain” + “Woodstock”), starts Friday evening and continues for 10 days in and around London’s Tech City. BlockStock’s goal is to simply get consumers and merchants used to Bitcoin by organizing …

After organizing a successful conference in March in San Francisco, CoinSummit put on another exclusive, high profile Bitcoin event this Thursday and Friday. The event was created by Venture Capitalist Pamir Gelenbe and the focus was on enabling connections between entrepreneurs and investors. As reported by Cointelegraph back in May, the location - the East Wintergarden in the heart of Canary Wharf, London’s financial district – was aptly chosen to reflect this financial focus and provide a beautiful, air-filled space. Overlooking the event, the headquarters of the Citibank, HSBC and others were looking down on us. Towards Finance Even though …

Well, looks like Londoners are serious about Bitcoin. If even such a traditional for England thing as a gin distillery goes Bit, then any other merchant will join the party soon. That is the message that The London Distillery Company (TLDC) wants to send to fellow merchants. As the CEO of the joint, Daren Rook says: “We are looking at our neighbours to say ‘We can accept bitcoin; maybe you should look at it too because we’ll have people coming through.’ Our plan is to iron out the issues that we’ll potentially have and then go to everyone and say …