The first exchange on record was seeded with a transfer of 5,050 bitcoin for $5.02, and actually ended up shutting down a few months later due to a lack of interest.16 Mt. Gox was the first mainstream exchange, but it took two weeks for a customer’s account to be cleared, and initially fiat currency had to be wired to Japan. However, as the assets and underlying technology have matured, so too have the means of buying and selling them. To this end, today numerous quality exchanges are available to investors looking to gain and transact the more than 800 cryptoassets that currently exist.17
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