It was four years ago, back in early 2010, when I first heard about Bitcoin. Like most people, I thought it was a little wild, very ambitious, but ultimately, extremely intriguing. I bought my first bitcoin for just five cents, and since then, Bitcoin has only grown in its significance and potential.

We bought, traded and mined bitcoin for a couple of years when we became frustrated that the available exchanges weren’t equipped for the kind of trading that we — and many others — wanted to perform. In general, despite the elegance and potential of Bitcoin, the infrastructure built on top of it was far from usable. So a few of us at Liberty City Ventures decided to tackle a pretty big proposition: incubate our own serious bitcoin exchange. We wanted to start an exchange that would operate on the same level of sophistication as the global exchanges of traditional finance: powerful enough to trade large volumes, protected by bank-level security, powered by state-of-the-art technology, and most importantly, regulatorily compliant and trustworthy.

It’s amazing how much has changed since then. We planted roots in bitcoin-friendly Singapore with Rich Teo leading the charge, building the company, the service, and partnerships around the world. He established our presence in Asia, and brought our vision to reality as we opened up the service to customers for the first time seven months ago. In the meantime, bitcoin prices have skyrocketed, the concept of Bitcoin has become mainstream, the volume of bitcoin trading has grown exponentially, and the majority of bitcoin trading now takes place in the US. Regulators are getting clearer about their policies, and we’re hopeful that we will be able to serve US investors soon.

So today, we’re growing our leadership team. I’ve joined the company full-time as CEO, Andrew Chang has joined me in New York as COO, and we’re actively hiring to add to our team of 19. We’re taking itBit’s operations to a global level, expanding our reach, offerings and customer base. Rich will continue to build out our Asia presence, and we’re lucky to have such a talented and distributed team that can serve the whole world.

Our current customers appreciate that we offer some of the lowest fees, highest security and best-in-class customer service. We look forward to the day when the improving regulatory environment in the US will allow us to serve customers here as well. When that day comes, we will be ready to provide them with an exchange they can trust.

Charles Cascarilla

Co-Founder and CEO of itBit

Originally published at www.itbit.com.