BitPay and Vaurum announced Tuesday that Arthur Levitt, former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, is their official adviser.

Vaurum, which launched in 2012, lets financial institutions store, offer and trade Bitcoins to customers. BitPay, which was founded in 2011, helps 40,000 businesses accept Bitcoins as a form of compensation.

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The involvement of Levitt illustrates the Bitcoin market's interest in making the cryptocurrency attractive to the public, according to CNET's Donna Tam. It's widely known Levitt has little or no knowledge about Bitcoins.

Bitcoins, however, gained notoriety in both the finance and tech fields since it can be used to purchase items or services anonymously. In forgoing banking services, Bitcoin transactions are not charged credit card or transaction fees.

International purchases of Bitcoins are both cheap and easy as Bitcoins aren't subject to any regulations or linked to any specific country.

Other members of the public see Bitcoins as an investment, buying them in bulk with the hope the cryptocurrency will increase in value, similar to precious metals such as silver and gold.

The key to Bitcoin's success, according to Levitt, is regulation that will help validate the currency.

"The founders of these companies tend to be entrepreneurial, irreverent and probably feel that regulation should be avoided at all costs," he said in an interview.

"I understand where they're coming from but I also believe that regulations really will do more to establish their credibility as an alternative. It's got to be sensible, balanced regulation and it can't be regulation that chokes them."

Levitt was the longest serving chairman of the SEC, the federal agency that regulates the securities industry. He was SEC boss from 1993 to 2001. 

Levitt also said a number of tech companies approached him for his insights on how to navigate regulatory waters and expand their businesses, with the most recent ones being Bitcoin companies.

Tagsbitcoin, Arthur Levitt, BitPay7, Vaurum, Cryptocurrency, Securities and Exchange Commission