Bitcoins may have gotten a bitmore legit with the news that Mint, the widely used personalfinance app from Intuit, is now integrating the virtualcurrency.

Mint is using the Coinbase digital wallet Bitcoin service, andin its announcement on Wednesday said this: “With more than 12million Bitcoins in circulation, Coinbase supports the world's mostwidely used alternative currency. Coinbase isthe largest and fastest-growing Bitcoindigital wallet service in the United States which supports morethan 870,000 consumer wallets, exceeding the customer base of manymid-sized traditional banks.”

Bitcoins have been implicated in money laundering, leading to debate over their use in government circles in the U.S. and China, among others. TheRoyal Canadian Mint is experimenting with a virtual currency of itsown modeled after Bitcoins.

Some credit unions have publicly shied away from them, but their use also has beenendorsed by such entities as the Sacramento Kings in the NationalBasketball Association, which is accepting them for payments in theteam store. Mint is a standalone app available for Apple andAndroid devices as well as online. Intuit bought Mint in 2009 and last April said it would beginoffering it directly to banks and credit unions.

The integration will allow Bitcoin transactions processed byCoinbase to be viewed along with traditional financial accounts,Mint said.

Mint itself now claims 14 million users and links to 20,000financial institutions, credit cards and loan and investmentaccounts.

“By adding Bitcoin visibility, Mint becomes the only personalfinance and money management tool enabling users to view thosetransactions,” Vince Maniago, group product manager for Mint, saidin the announcement.

“This added feature better serves consumers' changing financialneeds and provides users with a more complete financial picture,”Maniago said.

Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam said, “We're excited to partnerwith Mint to allow joint customers to manage their Bitcoin walletsin much the same way as their bank accounts or credit cards. Thisfurther demonstrates that Bitcoin is becoming more broadly adoptedby consumers, and we look forward to working with the team at Mintto help make that a reality.”

Intuit, maker of Quicken software, got more heavily into theonline account aggregation business in late 2007 with its purchase of Digital Insight. In 2013 it sold that companyto equity investors who then soldit to NCR.