After knowing each other since we were kids, in 2014, us Bitit founders finished university and became obsessed with Bitcoin (but, like, REALLY obsessed).

We started to mine some in our tiny, still student-esque Parisian flats. There was lots of noise, lots of heat, lots of complexity. All we really wanted to do was grab a bunch of Bitcoin easily, to be part of the culture. Was that too much to ask?

Well, back then, yes. Because no platform in 2014 provided an easy way to buy Bitcoin. NOBODY. There were a few crappy websites that you wouldn’t want to get close to even by tapping on your keyboard with a wooden stick (and, OK, there was Coinbase gaining traction, but it was still pretty early).

So in 2015 we started Bitit to allow everyone, even those in the most remote areas of the world, to access the leading crypto assets seamlessly, to give them the tools that protect and manage their financial wellbeing.

The goal was simple: whether you’re an expert or just beginning, we’d push every day to make Bitit simple and intuitive, no headaches. We were solving one problem, accessibility.

And in 6 years of activity, we created a platform that lets you go from KYC to Purchase to Token Delivery with essentially zero friction.

Bitit became one of France’s leading fiat-to-crypto platforms and served over half a million customers since its founding back in 2015.

And we did it all with just €5000 in initial capital and no marketing, just word of mouth. We didn’t raise big amounts of money, we just stayed resilient and tried to nurture the company each day.

We fought to build a product that worked for you, with no compromises. And damn, it was worth the fight! It was a crazy ride, 6 years of a continuous roller coaster, 6 years of falling and recovering, 6 years of resilience.

It really was an incredible journey, including for the 12 people who joined the team over the years. But we’re a startup - and in startups, sh*t happens.

Our team put in a tremendous amount of effort to avoid this situation, and despite rising interest in cryptocurrencies over the past years, interest which was then accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis, our team ran up against operational issues. We also faced multiple delays from our local French regulator that would have clarified our regulatory status, which is a huge deal when you’re operating in an extremely competitive environment requiring fast action. We’ve always been a small company that relied on agility and responsiveness, and we simply don’t have the resources to survive what became an extended period of uncertainty. These issues forced us to make the difficult decision to close the company down, effective today, April 15, 2021.

And so now we are all moving on to new adventures. We went from broke students coming out of nowhere to being grown adults who stayed true to our original ambition. We’re proud of the products we’ve built, products that enabled hundreds of thousands of customers to access financial freedom. The only regret is that the problem we were trying to solve is still enormous today.

We want to thank you, our customers, for all the support you’ve given us along the way. We also want to thank our employees, investors and financial partners who trusted us from the beginning.

We share a focus on building products that enable consumers to significantly improve their financial lives, and are honored to have been a small part of your journey.

To the moon,

Nicolas, Ugo, Simon and the Bitit Team