Singapore-based Bitcoin exchange Coin Republic (Rapid Net Profits Lte.) is reported to be in acquisition talks, according to one report local time Monday.

Deal Street Asia claims “an executive familiar with the cryptocurrency sector” is saying that the company is in talks to be acquired by a non-Singaporean company.

The site, to its credit, followed up with Coin Republic founder David Moskowitz, who sort of confirmed that an acquisition may be forthcoming, having replied “I’ve been in discussions with several firms and have received offers, but can’t comment at this point.”

Officially though the company took to Twitter to say they had no comment on the report:

Thanks for the article. No comment.
RT @DEALSTREETASIA: #Bitcoin brokerage @CoinRepublic to be acquired? http://t.co/gn9M11FesD @ShiwenYap

— David Moskowitz – SG (@david_mosk) July 20, 2015

Founded in 2013 as both a Bitcoin exchange and a service providing education on the benefits of using Bitcoin, Coin Republic offers Bitcoin exchange services for a flat rate of 1.9 percent, a rate they claim is a straight commission on the trades that is transparent, with no hidden spreads on trades some Bitcoin exchanges often apply on trades.

The company offers Secure 256bit SSL transactions and does not hold on to Bitcoin used in exchange, versus the Bitcoin being sent directly to the wallet a user specifies.

“We do not believe in holding customer funds for extended periods. This is counter-party risk which we want to help you manage” Coin Republic states. “By only sending money that you want converted into Bitcoin, and using your own controlled wallet you limit the risk of your hard earned capital.”

Colorful founder

It’s always a worry when the holding company for a Bitcoin exchange business is called “Rapid Net Profits” so we did some background on founder David Moskowitz, and it’s interesting, even colorful.

Before launching the exchange Moskowitz ran (and seems to still run) something called “Membership Academy,” a site that offers links to, reviews and coverage of platforms for running a “membership site;” if you’re not familiar with the online marketing term, it’s where you get people to sign up for a site offering products or advice for a monthly, recurring fee, and it’s a popular form of money making among internet marketers.

Prior to this Moskowitz worked in teaching, and ran a site that was said to “create, produce and sell a series of English educational CDs, sold online in Japan.”

We are in no way suggesting that Moskowitz has done anything untoward, but it certainly is a different sort of background for someone running a Bitcoin exchange that could be close to being acquired.

We’ll keep an eye on the story and if we hear anything more we’ll update the post.