The boss of a bitcoin company believes better times are ahead for the cryptocurrency.

Danny Scott is chief executive of CoinCorner, which won the digital champions award at the last Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for Excellence.

He told Business News: ‘After a period of price stability, we have noticed that attitudes toward bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a whole are beginning to shift.

‘Once again, we’re starting to see both individuals and businesses expressing an interest in bitcoin.

‘With this in mind, we are delighted that we have recently been granted a UK bank account which is a key signal that the ice is beginning to melt and better times are ahead for bitcoin.

‘This is a significant development in the cryptocurrency space, as for a number of years we have been working with a European banking partner after experiencing great difficulty in securing UK banking - an issue common to exchanges in the Bitcoin industry.’ Mr Scott added: ‘Being able to offer UK banking facilities in the form of faster payments to our customers is a great addition to our services as it will speed up the time it takes to buy and sell bitcoin.

‘Having been approved UK banking also opens the way for our new, exciting payment gateway, due to be launched later this month. A big development, this product will allow UK merchants to accept bitcoin as a payment method and will help to develop the bitcoin ecosystem in the UK.’