Thursday was a big day for New York-based Bitcoin exchange itBit Trust Company LLC with the startup announcing a new round, and regulatory approval to start taking U.S. customers.

The company announced that it has raised $25 million Series A in a round that included existing investors RRE Ventures, Liberty City Ventures and Jay W. Jordan II, as well as new participants including Raptor Capital Management chairman James Pallotta.

As part of the round, itBit announced that it was strengthing its board of directors with three new members: former Senator Bill Bradley, Sheila C. Bair, who was Chairman of the FDIC from 2006-2011, and Robert H. Herz, a previous Chairman of Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

On the regulation side, itBit made history as the first Bitcoin exchange to be granted a license as a chartered trust company by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS,) organized under New York State banking law.

The short version: itBit now becomes the only U.S.-chartered and supervised Bitcoin exchange in full compliance with New York and federal law.

“Our mission at itBit has always been to create a trusted, institutional-grade exchange and regulatory compliance is an important pillar of that mission,” said itBit CEO and co-founder Charles Cascarilla said in a statement. “Regulatory approval from the NYDFS allows us to serve as a custodian for our clients’ assets and expand our services to U.S. customers – the largest market of bitcoin traders in the world – and allows us to do so with the highest standard of care afforded by any Bitcoin company.”

One small step for Bitcoin

itBit’s approval to offer exchange services legally as a trust company out of New York is one small, but important step for Bitcoin.

Usually, Bitcoin exchanges apply for a money transmitter licenses, but with a trust charter, the services provided are held to a much higher standard of oversight and requirements, which ultimately builds trust in the Bitcoin marketplace.

Founded in 2012, itBit had been operating out of Singapore prior to the new regulatory approval. The company has raised $28.3 million over two rounds to-date including the Series A round. Investors who didn’t participate in the new round include Ben Davenport and Canaan Partners.

itBit said it would use the new funds for investment in further expansion of products and services, as well as hiring across all functions including engineering, compliance, operations, marketing and customer service.

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