The virtual currency Bitcoin can now be exchanged stateside.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco-based, Coinbase Inc., is the first licensed U.S. exchange for Bitcoin. The startup opened Monday.  

The company is backed by $106 million from the New York Stock Exchange, banks and venture-capital firms.

The Coinbase founders say the company offers greater security for individuals and institutions to trade Bitcoin and to monitor pricing of the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin can be sent from one person to another without the use of a bank or other financial institutions.

Satoshi Nakamoto released Bitcoin as a form of software in 2009.

Anyone can run this software on their computer and therefore use the currency to exchange for other forms of currency, goods or services.

Ownership and any transactions are recorded in Bitcoin's blockchain. This is a public ledger that contains the history of every Bitcoin transaction. Anyone can download these records. These transactions are not linked to real identities, and Bitcoin is essentially anonymous.

The opening of a legitimate exchange comes at a good time for the currency as Bitcoin has fallen on rough times. The currency has no legitimate backing from a central government, and investors and traders struggle with the idea of Bitcoin because of its volatility.

There have been other bitcoin exchanges prior to Coinbase. Last year the Japan-based Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, collapsed, taking half a billion dollars worth of investors' money. Earlier this month the Slovenia exchange, Bitstamp, suffered a security breach.

According to CoinDesk, a website that monitors Bitcoin's price and use, values the currency at $268.07 as of Monday afternoon. The price has fallen from its peak of $1,200 in 2013. The value of the Bitcoin is determined by trading on existing exchanges.

Coinbase will take 0.25 percent of most transactions that happen through the exchange. For the first two months of its operation, they will not take any fees. They will trade only with account holders in states that have its approval. Eventually they plan to expand across the U.S. and into other countries.

Coinbase was founded by Chief Executive Brian Armstrong, 32, and Fred Ehrsam, 26.

"Our goal is to become the world's largest exchange," Armstrong said.

So far Coinbase has about 2.2 million consumer wallets and 40,000 merchants that use its services. CoinDesk says the currency is accepted by 82,000 businesses, including Overstock.com and Expedia