$BTC s Bitcoin market was established as an exchange for Bitcoin in February 2010, and the first real global transaction using it occurred when 10,000 Bitcoins were paid for a pizza on a Bitcoin forum. At that time, the exchange rate for buying the pizza was about 25 US dollars.

As one might expect, when Bitcoin was first introduced, the majority of people were hesitant about the virtual currency. They did not know what to make of a currency that could not be seen or touched. The fact that it was presented as a decentralized currency without any regulation at all did not sit well with most people. What was important was that Bitcoin could be purchased at a very low price, and there was nowhere for it to go but up. In November 2008, a paper was published on a cryptographic mailing list under the name Satoshi Nakamoto titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System." This paper detailed methods for using a peer-to-peer network to create what was described as "a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust." In January 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence with the release of the first Bitcoin client and the first coins mined.

One of the early supporters, adopters, and contributors to Bitcoin, and the first person to transact in Bitcoin, was programmer Hal Finney. Finney downloaded the Bitcoin software on the same day it was released, and received 10 coins from Nakamoto in the first Bitcoin transaction in the world. He was among the early supporters$BTC