The compound Bitcoin is formed from the nouns bit, in its computational sense of ‘a unit of information’, and coin. It’s an example of the less frequent scenario of a compound immediately appearing in a ‘closed’ form. More usually, compounds start out as two words, and then after a number of years (and if their orthography permits) sometimes, though by no means always, become fused together.

The compound Bitcoin is formed from the nouns bit, in its computational sense of ‘a unit of information’, and coin. It’s an example of the less frequent scenario of a compound immediately appearing in a ‘closed’ form. More usually, compounds start out as two words, and then after a number of years (and if their orthography permits) sometimes, though by no means always, become fused together.