In this guide, we explore Bitstamp and its journey from humble beginnings seven years ago to becoming one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. We’ll also look at the various features of its platform, chiefly trading and acquiring cryptocurrency.
Snapshot
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Operating since: August 2011 Location: London, Luxembourg, Slovenia, U.S. Fiat pairs supported: USD, EUR Notable cryptocurrencies supported: BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, XRP Countries served: Worldwide Account verification: Proof of identity and address Funding options: SEPA bank transfer, cryptocurrency, debit/credit card, international bank transfer, AstroPay Withdrawal options: SEPA bank transfer, cryptocurrency, gold, international bank transfer Fee structure: Scaled at various levels from 0.25 percent for under $20,000, to 0.10 percent for over $20 million. |
A Brief History of the World’s Longest-Running Bitcoin Exchange
On August 22, 2018, Bitstamp[1] celebrated its seventh year in operation as one of the largest bitcoin[2] exchanges in the world. This anniversary makes it the longest-running bitcoin exchange in a sector of the crypto-economy plagued by hacks and exit scams. One of the most notable of these, Mt. Gox[3], was one of Bitstamp’s first competitors.
Started by Nejc Kodrič and Damijan Merlak in August 2011, the company’s first base was in a Slovenian garage with just a server, a couple of laptops and a thousand euros in capital.
Despite these humble beginnings, Bitstamp has grown into one of the world’s leading bitcoin exchanges, one that has played pioneer to a number of exchange security features and technical standards.
For example, Bitstamp was one of the first exchanges to implement multi-signature[4] technology for its hot wallet. It was also an early adopter of Bitcoin’s SegWit[5] soft fork for lower fees in 2017, and it instituted one
