Today in history: The first recorded Bitcoin exchange went live

[Abiky]

How time flies, on October 5, 2009, fourteen years ago, we have witnessed the birth of the first Bitcoin exchange, - The New Liberty Standard (NLS).

You can see the profile here for those who are curious: NewLibertyStandard.

And this is their post about it:
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https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=15.msg111#msg111

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https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/dawn-of-bitcoin-price-discovery-2009-2011-the-very-early-bitcoin-exchanges/

So from the initial price of $1.00 to our last all time high of $69,000. And it could be higher in the next bull run as there are predictions that we can reach as high as $100,000 bare minimum 2024-2025.

In the early days, no one would've imagined Bitcoin to become as big as it right now. After the first Bitcoin exchange went live, prices started to gradually gain momentum. If BTC went from $1 to $69k in just a few years, imagine how high it will go 1-2 decades from now. That's assuming demand stays high and block rewards continue to decline over time. It's funny to think how exchanges went from something "humble" to something as big and powerful as banks.

Nowadays, these entities hold "all of the cards" in the crypto/Blockchain industry. They can either move Bitcoin prices up or all the way down the drain in an instant. That primitive exchange (NLS) paved the way for centralized exchanges to take over the market. If it were decentralized, things would've been different now (decentralized exchanges dominating the market). At least, NLS helped introduce Bitcoin to the world. It's only been 14 years since BTC's inception, so I'd expect many great things to come in the long run. Just my opinion