The Story of BitKan
Founded back in 2012, look beyond with BitKan’s vibrant history.
In this article, we will be diving deeper into the story and timeline of BitKan’s growth as one of Asia’s first cryptocurrency startups.
Founded in November 2012, BitKan is currently the world’s most trusted cryptocurrency aggregated exchange with over 10,000,000 users worldwide in >170 different countries. However, BitKan was not operating like this when we first started; we evolved from a crypto data platform (like CoinMarketCap) to a full-fledged aggregated exchange as we saw demand for cryptocurrencies grow during the period of bull back in 2019.
Our expertise and time spent in the cryptocurrency space have allowed us to partner with high-profile investors and exchanges such as Binance throughout the years, culminating in one of the first few aggregated exchanges that could deliver liquidity across multiple exchanges to you in one single app. Moreover, BitKan holds the Digital Asset Exchange License from the Financial Services Agency of Japan.
Let’s take a look at the timeline of BitKan’s history.
BitKan History: A Timeline
BitKan Funding Stages: Full Timeline
BitKan is one of Asia’s largest and oldest providers of cryptocurrency information, offering bitcoin price alerts, news, mining information, e-wallet, and crypto brokerage services. The company was founded as a crypto data platform in December 2012 to meet the demand from Bitcoin community users in Asia for market alert tools and price monitoring. At that time, CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko had not been founded yet, and crypto information was much less user-friendly to obtain.
After the launch of the first crypto market data platform in Asia at the end of 2012, BitKan became one of the leading go-to crypto community sites in the region. As BitKan grew, investors were keen on expanding BitKan’s vision of extending cryptocurrency beyond the enthusiasts to the world. As such, BitKan has secured the following funding:
- 2015: BitKan secures $300,000 in funding from angel investors
- 2016: BitKan completes Series A funding round with $1.6 million from Bitmain and launches its OTC crypto trading services
- 2018: BitKan raises $10 million via a Series B funding round led by Bitmain and IDG Capital, and in the same year launches the KAN token and the decentralised cryptocurrency social community platform, K-Site
BitKan Features: Full Timeline
BitKan’s early funding did not go to waste, as these funds were used diligently to build up the foundations of BitKan. Evolving from a crypto data platform back in 2012, BitKan has continuously recalibrated its unique selling points to capture the ever-changing cryptocurrency needs. As such, new features were gradually introduced over the years:
- 2012: BitKan is founded
- 2013: BitKan launches an app providing cryptocurrency price monitoring, blockchain and crypto news, mining monitoring
- 2014: The founders of BitKan formally leave their day jobs to focus full-time on the company
- 2015: BitKan launches Crypto Wallet feature is introduced due to market demand
- 2016: BitKan completes Series A funding round with $1.6 million from Bitmain and launches its OTC crypto trading services
- 2017: BitKan sets up its Singapore and Japan offices
- 2018: BitKan raises $10 million via Series B funding round led by Bitmain and IDG Capital, and in the same year launches the KAN token and the decentralised cryptocurrency social community platform, K-Site
- 2019: Establishment of BitKan Exchange, with Smart Trade crypto exchange brokerage features
- 2020: BitKan Exchange’s Automated Bot Trading features go live
- 2021: BitKan Exchange launches Futures
- 2022: BitKan Exchange launches Savings
As the earliest cryptocurrency data startup in Asia, BitKan has withstood the ebb and flow of the crypto markets — including multiple crypto winters, and emerged even more resilient with every challenge.
BitKan Founding Team
BitKan was founded by former Fortune 500 executive Leon Liu, who saw the value in Bitcoin at a time when most people were skeptical of the technology.
Leon was formerly the Head of Research & Innovation for wireless technologies and was managing a team of over 2000 staff in an industry leader at the time when 4G was at its prime. He first bought Bitcoin in 2011 and created a Bitcoin price alert app for the Mt. Gox exchange out of his own need to monitor the markets, working on his project with the other co-founders and colleagues in the same department.
Eventually, with conviction about the future of cryptocurrency, he left his position in 2014 to focus on his passion.
As part of Asia’s pioneer generation of digital currency entrepreneurs, Leon led the company as CEO to grow from a small team of 4 in 2013 to a valuation of $100 million during the Series B funding round in 2018. BitKan is trusted by a strong community of deeply established investors and partners, including Bitcoin mining giant and market leader Bitmain, global VC firm IDG Capital (early investors of renowned unicorns, including Coinbase and KuCoin), and various institutional crypto hedge funds.
BitKan also works with strategic exchange partners such as Binance, OKx, Huobi, Bitfinex, Gate.io, MEXC, Poloniex, and Bit.com to help users buy and trade cryptocurrency at the best prices possible.
What Makes BitKan Unique?
Our Vision: Making cryptocurrency investment easy for everyone.
Our Mission: Building a one-stop cryptocurrency investment platform that empowers everyone to trade and invest in cryptocurrencies safely.
BitKan is unique because unlike other exchanges which have their own liquidity, BitKan aggregates the liquidity from multiple exchanges.
Our expertise and time spent in the cryptocurrency space have allowed us to partner with high-profile investors and exchanges such as Binance throughout the years, culminating in one of the first few aggregated exchanges that could deliver liquidity across multiple exchanges to you in one single app.
What this entails are the following:
- You can just use one BitKan account to access liquidity to multiple exchanges, which can prove advantageous especially if you need access to the liquidity. Because we do have a partnership with Binance (one of the largest crypto exchanges), you are able to tap on this huge liquidity by signing up with us.
- You can access >1200+ tokens across all our major partner exchanges, giving you the convenience to trade all of them without having to create multiple separate accounts in the respective partner exchanges.
- With BitKan’s aggregation, you can enjoy market-leading spreads which are made possible by our deep liquidity pools. Because different exchanges have different order books, we take the best buy and sell prices across all our partner exchanges at any one point in time to achieve narrow, negative spreads.
- This means that there are opportunities for you to enjoy arbitrage opportunities and other opportunities that can be enjoyed through BitKan’s negative spreads and deep liquidity pools. All these can be done with just one BitKan account.
Our strategic partners are innovative leaders in their respective niches, and BitKan provides the ability to access unique competitive advantages in one app. We are committed to building trust and assurance for our users. In 2019, BitKan obtained the Digital Asset Exchange License from the Financial Services Agency of Japan and continues to mark our progress towards crypto regulation and compliance.
Hence, BitKan aims to expand globally to serve users from all over the world and realize our vision of making cryptocurrency investment easy for everyone.
New to BitKan? Here are some crypto gifts for you!
1. Get a $100 BitKan Sign-Up Gift
2. Earn $100 Bonus For Every Friend You Refer
3. Receive Daily Crypto News 24/7 from BitKan News Bot
Benefits of BitKan Cryptocurrency Exchange:
- Receive the most recent daily news within the community
- Trade 1200+ coins across 8 exchanges with 1 BitKan account
- Use custom price alert and portfolio tracker at your fingertips
- Start a Spot, Futures, Automated Bot Trade, BitKan Earn & more
- Served 10+ million users in 170 countries with 9 years of experience
- Discover the latest events, coins & enjoy the best prices on Web & APP
- 8 Partner Exchanges Include Binance, OKX, Bitfinex, Gate.io, Huobi, MEXC, Poloniex, and Bit.com.
- Based in Singapore and Japan, BitKan holds the Digital Asset Exchange License from the Financial Services Agency of Japan.
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