<p>They don't sell nor buy anything they are in the middle of a transaction. Check <a href="https://eur.bitcurex.com/" rel="nofollow">this</a> out, Active buy orders are people who want to buy, and active sell orders are people who want to sell. The exchange is the place where all that people meet.</p>

<p>If you have Bitcoins and want to sell them for real money you have two options, you can sell it to the first buy order for the specified price and the transaction will be finished in that exact moment (if the buy order is for the exact or more amount of Bitcoins that you are selling) and you will be credited with real money that you can withdraw to your bank. Or you can set your own price and wait to see if someone wants to buy it for that price. Depending on the price you set it may take little time, longer or forever.</p>

<p>For every acount a wallet is created where you transfer your Bitcoins, real money is deposited in real banks and transfered to and from those banks.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-16T21:52:56.477Z
2014-01-16T21:52:56.477Z
YoMismo
<p>No, in a strict sense. The first bitcoin transaction predated the first wallet by several months, and there's no reason that couldn't have been a p2p cash for btc transaction. The first transaction was with Hal Finney in January 2009 (the 10 BTC test), and the first wallet was, I think, with v0.3 of bitcoin, sometime later in 2009. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-16T05:00:29.140Z
2014-08-16T05:00:29.140Z
william_grisaitis
<p>You could buy or sell a physical bitcoin like a casacious coin or BitBill (or even a funded gift wallet like aLittleBitOfCoin). That kind of exchange does not even require computer access. You could exchange offline paper wallets but then there is more reason to question the secrecy of the private key.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-17T20:16:34.603Z
2013-11-17T20:16:34.603Z
user7636
<p>There appears to be so many exchanges / middle-mans on a bitcoin market (e.g coinjar.com) which can help to buy / sell bitcoin for a cut (usually 2-4%). Do they simply trade bitcoins using their own bitcoin wallet and just keep the client's balance of cash/bitcoins in their system?</p>

<transaction-fees>
Does one need to have a bitcoin wallet to buy/sell bitcoins?
Mitten
# Does one need to have a bitcoin wallet to buy/sell bitcoins?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-11-16)

There appears to be so many exchanges / middle-mans on a bitcoin market (e.g coinjar.com) which can help to buy / sell bitcoin for a cut (usually 2-4%). Do they simply trade bitcoins using their own bitcoin wallet and just keep the client's balance of cash/bitcoins in their system?

**Tags:** transaction-fees


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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-01-16. Score: 1

They don't sell nor buy anything they are in the middle of a transaction. Check [this](https://eur.bitcurex.com/) out, Active buy orders are people who want to buy, and active sell orders are people who want to sell. The exchange is the place where all that people meet.

If you have Bitcoins and want to sell them for real money you have two options, you can sell it to the first buy order for the specified price and the transaction will be finished in that exact moment (if the buy order is for the exact or more amount of Bitcoins that you are selling) and you will be credited with real money that you can withdraw to your bank. Or you can set your own price and wait to see if someone wants to buy it for that price. Depending on the price you set it may take little time, longer or forever.

For every acount a wallet is created where you transfer your Bitcoins, real money is deposited in real banks and transfered to and from those banks.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2014-08-16. Score: 0

No, in a strict sense. The first bitcoin transaction predated the first wallet by several months, and there's no reason that couldn't have been a p2p cash for btc transaction. The first transaction was with Hal Finney in January 2009 (the 10 BTC test), and the first wallet was, I think, with v0.3 of bitcoin, sometime later in 2009.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2013-11-17. Score: 0

You could buy or sell a physical bitcoin like a casacious coin or BitBill (or even a funded gift wallet like aLittleBitOfCoin). That kind of exchange does not even require computer access. You could exchange offline paper wallets but then there is more reason to question the secrecy of the private key.


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