Overstock.com Inc.’s investment arm Medici Ventures has upped its stake in Caribbean-based blockchain startup Bitt Inc., investing $3 million more into the company in return for an additional 8.6 percent share.

Founded in 2015, Bitt offers a digital asset exchange whose initial focus was on providing access to cryptocurrencies in emerging markets with a high-frequency trading platform. It has since shifted to building a platform that uses blockchain and distributed ledger technology to build a secure, streamlined, peer-to-peer payment ecosystem for the Caribbean region. 

Overstock.com first took a stake in the company back in 2016 with a $4 million investment. At the time, it launched a blockchain-based digital version of the Barbadian dollar backed by the Central Bank of Barbados, but it has since signed a memorandum of understanding with Montserrat to launch a digital payments platform for the country and has also launched a digital wallet in Barbados.

“Bitt is in a unique position to provide the solutions to boost both financial inclusion and overall economic performance through its blockchain-based software,” Bitt Chief Executive Rawdon Adams said in a statement. “That’s already being recognized by regional governments overseeing economies characterized by large informal sectors, persistently high rates of poverty and expensive traditional financial services.”

Overstock.com was last in the news when it revealed that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating its tZERO initial coin offering. Although that news caused Overstock.com’s shares to slide, it has since been revealed that the investigation into the tZERO ICO was part of a broader investigation into the space that was targeting multiple companies.

CNBC reported March 2 that TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington’s cryptofund had also been subpoenaed by the SEC as part of “a broader investigation into the cryptocurrency world,” with Arrington himself saying that “every [crypto]fund I’ve talked to has received one.”

Image: Bitt.com