I wouldn't be surprised if Venmo adds bitcoin functionality to their app, honestly.  Someone should suggest it.  I might myself, but the next several days are crazy, so if you're reading this, feel free to do it.

I read the BusinessWeek article - it was pretty interesting.  And yes, they charge to use credit cards because credit cards charge the merchants (Venmo in this case) to use credit cards - a lot of their subscribers were just using Venmo to get credit card rewards points and since they originally didn't charge for credit card use, they were seriously hemorrhaging money.  Not exactly what you'd call a good business strategy, which is why the fee was eventually introduced for credit card use.

And to jcoin200 - technically, if you're thinking of the recent price downturn for bitcoin, you should realize that the price of a bitcoin has actually been trending back upwards lately.  It went all the way down to $280 or so for a bitcoin and now is at $377.58 / bitcoin per bitstamp prices.