- Bitcoinmarket was the first-ever Bitcoin exchange
- While not tremendously popular during its short life, the platform laid the foundations for those that came after it
- Who founded Bitcoinmarket and what happened to it?
Today, Bitcoin is available to buy and sell on around 1,200 online exchanges covering all corners of the world. Go back to early 2010, however, and that number, perhaps unsurprisingly, was zero. The creation of Bitcoin’s first exchange, BitcoinMarket, truly marked the beginning of Bitcoin’s journey from a niche technology to a global financial phenomenon, and in this piece, we remember that seminal moment.
The (Very) Early Days of Bitcoin
Bitcoinmarket, was launched on March 17, 2010, by a pseudonymous user named “dwdollar” on the Bitcointalk forums. To give an indication of just how early this was, Satoshi Nakamoto was still heading up Bitcoin development, and Barack Obama was just two years into his first term in office.
Before this exchange, Bitcoin was primarily traded between individuals through direct peer-to-peer transactions, with no formal marketplace to facilitate the buying and selling process. Bitcoinmarket changed that by providing a platform where Bitcoin could be traded against the US dollar, making it easier for people to obtain and exchange the cryptocurrency.
At the time of its launch, Bitcoin was valued at a mere $0.003 per coin, and the exchange initially struggled to attract significant trading volume, with users sceptical of the operation and the security of their coins. However, Bitcoinmarket played a crucial role in establishing a price discovery mechanism for Bitcoin, allowing the digital currency to gain legitimacy and paving the way for future exchanges.
Bitcoinmarket Laid Foundations
The significance of Bitcoinmarket extends beyond just being the first exchange; it laid the foundation for the creation of more sophisticated and secure exchanges that would later emerge, such as MtGox, which at one point handled 70% of all Bitcoin transactions globally. Bitcoinmarket also highlighted the challenges that would come to define the cryptocurrency space, including regulatory scrutiny, security issues, and the need for user-friendly platforms.
As MtGox and, later, the likes of Bitstamp and Kraken gained market share with their more sophisticated approach, Bitcoinmarket faded into obscurity. The exact date of its closure is not known, but by 2011 it had effectively disappeared from the cryptocurrency landscape, making way for the next generation of exchanges that would drive the growth of Bitcoin for the next decade and beyond.
In retrospect, BitcoinMarket.com’s closure was a natural consequence of the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency ecosystem, and many have gone the same way. While it no longer exists, its legacy as the first Bitcoin exchange remains an important chapter in the history of digital currency, marking the initial steps toward the establishment of a global cryptocurrency market.
