August 2, 2019, marked a day of significant infrastructure expansion in the cryptocurrency industry, with Bitcoin.com announcing plans to launch a centralized exchange and Grayscale Investments selecting Coinbase Custody to safeguard its growing portfolio of digital asset products — developments that reflected the diverging paths of retail accessibility and institutional-grade crypto services.
TL;DR
- Bitcoin.com announces centralized crypto exchange launching September 2, 2019, with BCH, BTC, ETH, and USDT base currencies
- Roger Ver’s platform promises user-friendly interface, high liquidity, and SLP token support
- Grayscale Investments selects Coinbase Custody as custodian for its digital asset products
- Grayscale managed over $2.1 billion in cryptocurrency investment trusts at the time
- Bitcoin trades at $10,518 as both retail and institutional infrastructure expand
Bitcoin.com Enters the Exchange Arena
Bitcoin.com, the cryptocurrency platform led by executive chairman Roger Ver — widely known as “Bitcoin Jesus” for his early advocacy — announced on August 1 that it would launch a centralized cryptocurrency exchange on September 2, 2019. The new platform, dubbed Exchange.Bitcoin.com, was designed to complement the company’s existing suite of Bitcoin Cash-focused products, which already included wallets, a gambling site, and a peer-to-peer trading platform at Local.Bitcoin.com.
The exchange promised a user-friendly interface, easy navigation, high liquidity, and a powerful matching engine. At launch, BCH, BTC, ETH, and USDT were confirmed as base currencies, with dozens of trading pairs expected to be available from day one. In a strategic move aimed at the growing token economy, Bitcoin.com also announced plans to support Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) tokens shortly after launch — a feature that would allow users to create and trade custom tokens on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain, similar to the ERC-20 standard on Ethereum.
“We’re on the cusp of something very exciting with SLP tokens,” Ver said in the announcement. “It’s the beginning of a world where we can tokenize anything and, as people realize the potential this holds, they’re going to start demanding a place to trade their tokens.” To attract early users, Bitcoin.com offered fee discounts and prize draws for pre-registered accounts.
Grayscale Makes the Biggest Custody Transfer in Crypto History
On the same day, Grayscale Investments — the world’s largest digital currency asset manager and a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group — announced it had selected Coinbase Custody to serve as the custodian for the digital assets underlying its growing family of investment products. The move was described as one of the largest custody transfers in cryptocurrency history.
By mid-2019, Grayscale managed more than $2.1 billion in cryptocurrency investment trusts, including funds tracking Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, and Zcash. The company reported that 56 percent of the capital it raised in the first half of 2018 came from institutional investors, with an additional 20 percent from accredited individual investors and 16 percent from retirement accounts. The shift to Coinbase Custody, a regulated and insured custodian, was seen as a critical step in attracting larger institutional allocations.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the company’s flagship product, was one of the first securities solely invested in and deriving value from Bitcoin’s price. It enabled traditional investors to gain exposure to BTC without the challenges of directly buying, storing, and safeguarding the digital asset — a proposition that was becoming increasingly attractive as Bitcoin traded around $10,518 on August 2.
The Institutional-Retail Divide Narrows
The dual announcements on August 2, 2019, highlighted a cryptocurrency market that was simultaneously expanding in two directions. On one side, Bitcoin.com’s exchange represented the continuing push to make cryptocurrency trading accessible to retail users, with a focus on Bitcoin Cash and the emerging SLP token ecosystem. On the other, Grayscale’s partnership with Coinbase Custody underscored the growing demand from institutions for regulated, secure exposure to digital assets.
With Ethereum trading at $217.87 and the total crypto market capitalization exceeding $260 billion, both segments of the market were seeing renewed interest following the brutal bear market of 2018. The infrastructure being built in mid-2019 — from user-friendly exchanges to institutional-grade custody solutions — would prove foundational to the crypto industry’s next major growth phase.
Regulatory Considerations
Both developments also raised regulatory questions. Bitcoin.com’s exchange would need to navigate an increasingly complex patchwork of international regulations, particularly as U.S. authorities like the CFTC were actively investigating offshore exchanges for serving American customers without proper registration. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s reliance on Coinbase Custody — a New York State Department of Financial Services-regulated entity — represented a bet that regulatory compliance would be the key to unlocking institutional capital.
The contrasting approaches reflected a broader truth about the cryptocurrency industry in 2019: compliance and accessibility were no longer mutually exclusive goals, but achieving both required significant investment in infrastructure, security, and regulatory engagement.
Why This Matters
The events of August 2, 2019, illustrate a critical inflection point in cryptocurrency market development. Bitcoin.com’s exchange launch signaled that retail-focused platforms were maturing beyond simple wallets into full-service trading ecosystems, while Grayscale’s custody arrangement with Coinbase demonstrated that the institutional infrastructure for digital assets was becoming robust enough to handle billions of dollars in assets. For investors, these developments represented growing confidence that the cryptocurrency market could support both retail participation and institutional-scale investment — a duality that would define the industry’s trajectory through the bull runs of 2020 and 2021.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.
people forget grayscale was basically the only regulated way for institutions to get btc exposure back then. GBTC premium was like 30%+, absolute premium trap
roger ver launching a centralized exchange with BCH as the base pair at $10,518 btc. what a time to be alive lol
roger ver launching an exchange with bch as a base currency in 2019. what could go wrong
the article mentions $10,518 btc price. funny how both these announcements aged so differently. grayscale became a juggernaut, bitcoin.com exchange… not so much
ngl i actually used that exchange for like 2 weeks. it was not great
roger ver exchange with bch base at ten k btc price
grayscale going with coinbase custody was such a no-brainer. who else was even offering institutional custody back then
dex_gramps funny enough the exchange actually worked fine for basic trades. the bch base currency thing was the real weird part
dc_crypto_law Coinbase Custody was the only real institutional option in 2019. Anchorage existed but barely. Grayscale had no alternatives
grayscale managing $2.1B in trusts was legitimately huge for 2019. GBTC premium was like 30% and institutions paid it anyway because there was no other door in
Helena R. GBTC premium at 30% was insane. institutions literally paid 1.3x spot because there was no easier onramp. crazy to think about now
$2.1 billion in grayscale trusts seems so quaint now. single quarter inflows were bigger than that in 2024
Kofi N. grayscale had a monopoly on institutional access back then. $2.1B was massive for 2019 standards
grayscale only for institutions with two point one billion