Philip Letts, chairman, chief executive and president of beenz is leaving the company that he helped found.

It all sounds amicable enough - if rather sudden - from the positively gushing press release announcing his resignation from the virtual currency company, with pat-on-the back quotes from Letts and the people he is leaving behind to run the show.

Letts is now ready to move onto his "next challenge", leaving behind a management team "poised to take the company into its next stage of growth".

Under his tenure, beenz.com has grown from three to 250 staff, set up headquarters in New York (the founders are British)and raised $70 million in venture capital.

According to the company, there are more than one billion beenz in circulation. ®