mt. gox to vancouver: Bitcoin history

The original Bitcoin ATM, as it is today (October, 2024)

In 2013, the first Bitcoin ATM in the world was installed in a Waves Coffee House on Howe Street in downtown Vancouver.

At that time, 1 Bitcoin was valued at approximately $134 USD.

There's a hand scanner on the right side of the machine that limits transactions to $3k per day.

This is the same machine that is still there today.

In 2013, few people knew what Bitcoin was. They may have heard of it, but had very little idea of its origin or function. It was simply “internet money”, or a scam.

It was quite difficult to acquire in those days. Over 70% of Bitcoin transactions were handled on a Tokyo-based exchange called Mt. Gox. It was active from 2010 until 2014 when it suspended trading and filed for bankruptcy* due to a compromised Bitcoin wallet and the theft of over 700 thousand of its Bitcoins, over a period of several years. That led to a series of security upgrades within the industry, and Japan created the first regulations for crypto.

A screenshot of the Mt. Gox exchange website.

While there were other exchanges and methods, the process was quite technical, often sketchy and felt like a risk to many. Not to mention, any public discourse at the time was focused on how Bitcoin was a scam or a haven for crime and money laundering.

Most anyone who managed to buy Bitcoin back in 2013 through an exchange is unlikely to have it now. Many were stolen as in the case of Mt. Gox, while many more cashed out when Bitcoin hit dozens of dollars each. A great many others were simply just lost as Bitcoin wallet addresses and private keys were found only on paper.

It’s estimated that approx 4-5 million Bitcoins are now considered lost or unrecoverable - approximately 20% of the total supply, which will cap out at 21 million somewhere around the year 2140. At the current price of Bitcoin (December, 2024), the value of lost Bitcoins is in the trillions.

A Bitcoin ATM met consumers where they were. It was a huge leap in terms of accessibility, allowing just about anyone with a common bank client card to acquire Bitcoin. And that is exactly what many people did, with a latte and a Nanaimo bar at Waves Cafe in Vancouver.

*In October of 2024, Mt. Gox began to repay nearly $9 billion to creditors, which is to continue into 2025.