If we were to choose the best performing asset over the past decade or so, Bitcoin would undoubtedly be at the top. Data shows that Bitcoin has been the best performing asset class in 8 out of the past 11 years, as shown in the image below.
So, how did Bitcoin grow from being worthless to a market capitalization of over $2 trillion? On the 16th anniversary of Bitcoin's birth, let's take a look back at the evolution of Bitcoin over the past 16 years:
(1) Bitcoin's value was $0 in 2009
On January 3, 2009 (2:15 AM Beijing time on January 4, 2009), Satoshi Nakamoto created the first block, the Genesis Block of Bitcoin, on a small server in Helsinki, Finland, and received the first 50 Bitcoins automatically generated by the system, marking the birth of the first Bitcoin. As shown in the image below.
Satoshi Nakamoto also embedded a message:
"The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks"
Satoshi Nakamoto deliberately quoted the headline from The Times, which seems to also reflect his commentary on the economic challenges at the time and the potential demand for an alternative financial system.
(2) Bitcoin's highest value was $0.5 in 2010
On May 22, 2010, Bitcoin gained its first market value recognition, as it was on that day that a Bitcoin enthusiast named Laszlo Hanyecz used his 10,000 Bitcoins to purchase two pizzas. As shown in the image below.
At the time, the market value of the two pizzas was $30, which means that the price of 1 BTC was equivalent to $0.003. This pioneering experimental attempt also marked the first time that BTC was priced in the real world, and May 22nd has since been dubbed "Bitcoin Pizza Day".
As 2010 progressed into the summer, Bitcoin began to see small-scale exchange/trading activities in a very niche circle of tech experts and financial enthusiasts, with the BitcoinTalk forum being the main platform for discussion and exchange at the time.
In July 2010, Mt. Gox (Meng Tou Gou, which we will also mention later) was established, and it was around this time that Bitcoin finally had its own "trading price". By October of the same year, the price of Bitcoin had risen to $0.1, and by November it had reached a high of $0.5, before falling back to $0.3, which remained the price until the end of the year.
In January 2010, the price of Bitcoin was $0, in December 2011 it was $0.3, and the highest price that year was $0.5.
(3) Bitcoin's highest value was $31.9 in 2011
In January 2011, the trading price of Bitcoin broke through $1 for the first time, and was then featured and reported on by Forbes magazine, marking an important milestone, as the price of Bitcoin was to some extent catalyzed. By the end of May 2011, the price had risen directly to $8.89.
On June 1 of the same year, the Gawker website (an American internet gossip website that closed in 2016) published an article stating that Bitcoin was very popular on the Silk Road website, further causing Bitcoin to soar to $27, with the total market value of all Bitcoins in circulation reaching $130 million.
Note: The Silk Road website may be a bit sensitive, you can Google it yourself for more details. The website was a Hei market trading website that operated from 2011 to 2013, allowing users to anonymously buy and sell various services or goods using Bitcoin, as shown in the image below. This did bring Bitcoin to a wider audience at the time, but it was also a controversial website. In October 2013, the FBI arrested the operator of the website and shut down its operations, also seizing a large amount of Bitcoin.
In January 2011, the opening price of Bitcoin was $0.3, in December 2011 the closing price was $4.7, and the highest price that year was $31.9.
(4) Bitcoin's highest value was $15.4 in 2012
In June 2012, Coinbase was officially founded, and that year there were only a few exchanges like Mt.Gox and Bitstamp providing Bitcoin trading. On November 28 of the same year, Bitcoin experienced its first halving, with the block reward reduced from 50 BTC to 25 BTC, laying the foundation for the scarcity-driven value of Bitcoin.
In January 2012, the opening price of Bitcoin was $4.7, in December 2012 the closing price was $13.5, and the highest price that year was $15.4.
(5) Bitcoin's highest value was $1156.14 in 2013
On November 30, 2013, Bitcoin broke through $1000 for the first time, reaching $1156.14, marking Bitcoin's first major bull market. That year, Mt. Gox also quickly rose to become the largest exchange at the time, with nearly 7 out of every 10 Bitcoin transactions being completed on Mt. Gox.
In January 2013, the opening price of Bitcoin was $13.5, in December 2013 the closing price was $754.01, and the highest price that year was $1156.14.
(6) Bitcoin's highest value was $1017.12 in 2014
One of the important events that year was the collapse of Mt. Gox. In February 2014, Mt. Gox declared bankruptcy after being hacked, resulting in the theft of 850,000 Bitcoins. This event had a huge impact on Bitcoin at the time, leading to a sustained price decline and widespread concern about the security of cryptocurrencies. It also led to protests from some Bitcoin holders, as shown in the image below.
Also that year, multi-signature wallets and other innovations began to become mainstream. In early 2014, only 0.02% of Bitcoin used this technology for security, but by the end of the year this number had increased to 5%, and the daily transaction volume using multi-signature increased 79-fold in one year.
In March of the same year, the People's Bank of China issued a "Notice on Further Strengthening the Risk Prevention of Bitcoin", requiring all banks and third-party payment institutions to close the accounts of domestic Bitcoin trading platforms. As shown in the image below.
The opening price of BTC in January 2014 was $754.97, the closing price in December 2014 was $320.19, and the highest price that year was $1,017.12.
(7) The highest value of BTC in 2015 was $495.56
This year also marked the first real bear market for BTC, but its price continued to rise, indicating that BTC was gaining more attention, and some individuals and institutions were preparing for the next crypto boom. As shown in the figure below.
The opening price of BTC in January 2015 was $320.43, the closing price in December 2015 was $430.57, and the highest price that year was $495.56.
(8) The highest value of BTC in 2016 was $979.40
On July 9, 2016, the second BTC halving occurred, reducing the block reward from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC. On April 28 of the same year, the popular gaming platform Steam announced that it would accept BTC payments.
That year, BTC even appeared on CCTV, with Li Lin from Huobi being interviewed on camera, as shown in the figure below.
Additionally, it was also in this year that the debate over BTC's scalability, with the community's efforts on SegWit and the Lightning Network, began to intensify, laying the foundation for BTC's future development.
The opening price of BTC in January 2016 was $430.72, the closing price in December 2016 was $963.74, and the highest price that year was $979.40.
(9) The highest value of BTC in 2017 was $20,089
This year marked the second bull market for BTC since its inception, and it was the largest crypto bull market experienced at the time, with BTC's price successfully breaking through $20,000, with an annual increase of 1984.66%. It was during this bull run that the "big dragons" officially entered the crypto space and encountered BTC, with the first purchase being a trial investment of 2,000 RMB.
This year also saw several important events, such as:
On August 1, 2017, SegWit was successfully activated, and the first BTC fork (Bitcoin Cash) appeared.
On September 4, 2017, the People's Bank of China and six other departments jointly issued a "Notice on Preventing the Risks of Token Issuance Financing", defining ICOs as illegal financial activities and temporarily suspending all related transactions in China. This day was later referred to as the "9/4" event in the crypto space.
On September 14, 2017, six departments issued another joint statement, announcing the shutdown of all crypto exchanges in China and the closure of the RMB-crypto exchange channel. Subsequently, various exchanges went overseas and ushered in a new era of crypto-to-crypto trading and OTC trading.
On December 11, 2017, the CBOE (Chicago Board Options Exchange) began trading BTC futures using the code XBT, which was the world's first listed BTC futures.
On December 17, 2017, BTC broke its previous all-time high, reaching $20,089.
During this bull run, due to BTC's skyrocketing price and the wealth creation from ICOs, many "get-rich-quick" stories emerged, and BTC began to gain global attention.
Additionally, this year also saw significant changes in the exchange rankings, with exchanges like Binance, in addition to the 2013 bull market-originated Huobi and OKCoin, being established, ushering in a era of exchange proliferation.
The opening price of BTC in January 2017 was $963.66, the closing price in December 2017 was $14,156.40, and the highest price that year was $20,089.
(10) The highest value of BTC in 2018 was $17,712.40
With the collapse of the ICO craze, the first speculative frenzy also came to an end. As thousands of Altcoins saw their prices plummet or go to zero, the crypto market entered a new bear market cycle, which many referred to as the "crypto winter". However, despite this, BTC's price remained relatively stable overall. As shown in the figure below.
The opening price of BTC in January 2018 was $14,112.20, the closing price in December 2018 was $3,742.70, and the highest price that year was $17,712.40.
From the release of the BTC whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 to this year, BTC had been around for 10 years. Although it had experienced many ups and downs, the world seemed unable to stop BTC.
(11) The highest value of BTC in 2019 was $13,796.49
With the launch of the Lightning Network on the BTC mainnet in March 2018, the Lightning Network had developed to the point where it began to be noticed by some people in 2019, and it could now make BTC payments faster and cheaper. However, BTC's performance that year was rather volatile, with its price fluctuating along with major events affecting the industry, seemingly constantly attempting a bull-bear transition.
2019 was also referred to by many as the "Year of DeFi", with various DeFi products and business models emerging like mushrooms after the rain, including MakerDao, Compound, dYdX, and others.
Additionally, some other notable events occurred that year, such as:
In January 2019, Binance kicked off a new round of fundraising frenzy, a model known as IEO (Initial Exchange Offerings), marking the crypto space's adoption of a new fundraising model.
In June 2019, the collapse of the Plus Token wallet (a Chinese project) exposed the first Ponzi scheme in the crypto space.
In November 2019, Canaan Creative (founded in 2013, the world's second-largest BTC mining rig manufacturer at the time) went public on the Nasdaq, marking the first step for crypto to enter the traditional capital market, also known as the "first blockchain stock".
The opening price of BTC in January 2019 was $3,746.71, the closing price in December 2019 was $7,193.60, and the highest price that year was $13,796.49.
(12) The highest value of BTC in 2020 was $29,244.88
After entering 2020, with the uncertainties brought to the global economy by the COVID-19 pandemic, the crypto market began to experience another important moment, with BTC starting to shine like digital gold, being increasingly seen by more people as "digital gold". This was because, as the Federal Reserve printed trillions of dollars to combat the pandemic, some investors turned their attention to BTC, making it a new financial force capable of hedging against inflation.
It was also from this year that the global corporate adoption of Bitcoin was triggered, as MicroStrategy (MicroStrategy) began to purchase Bitcoin. This year also became the long-awaited year for institutional capital to flow into Bitcoin.
Moreover, the DeFi craze (DeFi Summer) also started this year, beginning with Maker as the representative, and later, with the launch of the governance token COMP by Compound in June, the landscape of DeFi changed, and a wave of "yield farming" craze was triggered. In September of the same year, Uniswap also conducted a large-scale airdrop.
Additionally, the event that may need to be mentioned here is OKEx (now OKX). In October 2020, it was revealed that the founder of OKEx, Star Xu, had been taken away by the domestic police to assist in the investigation, and the OKEx platform temporarily suspended user withdrawals. Affected by this news, the mainstream Altcoins plummeted across the board, and BTC also fell below $11,200 at one point. (In fact, I used to use OK quite frequently, but it was after this incident that I didn't use this exchange for a long time. However, with Star Xu's going overseas and the upgrade of the OKX brand, and OKX seizing the wallet layout opportunity in 2023, the number of OKX users has become increasingly high.)
The opening price of Bitcoin in January 2020 was $7,194.89, the closing price in December 2020 was $29,001.72, and the highest price that year was $29,244.88.
(13) The highest value of Bitcoin in 2021 was $68,789.63
2021 was also the third major bull market for Bitcoin, with Bitcoin reaching (approaching) $69,000 this year, setting a new historical high.
At the same time, a lot of major events happened this year, such as:
Musk was very active in this bull market. On January 29, 2021, Musk changed his Twitter bio to "#bitcoin", causing Bitcoin's price to rise 18% that day, reaching $38,000. It was also under Musk's strong promotion that DOGE completed a surge of over 16,000.00% and successfully went viral, leaving a deep impression on me. I remember that at that time, even those friends who had never paid attention to the crypto market before started discussing DOGE.
On February 8, 2021, Tesla announced that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and would also consider accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for its products (cars). The news caused Bitcoin's price to reach a high of $56,563.72 that day.
On April 13, 2021, Coinbase went public on the Nasdaq, becoming the first crypto company to be listed in the US.
Starting in May 2021, China launched a multi-dimensional crackdown on cryptocurrencies, including:
On May 18, the three associations issued the "Announcement on Preventing the Risk of Virtual Currency Trading Speculation", followed by the famous "519" crash, with Bitcoin's price plummeting 40% in a single day, reaching a low of $30,000.
On May 21, the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council held its 51st meeting and specifically emphasized cracking down on Bitcoin mining and trading activities, and resolutely preventing individual risks from spreading to the social sphere.
On May 26, the website of the Development and Reform Commission of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region released the "Eight Measures to Resolutely Crack Down on and Punish Virtual Currency 'Mining' Behavior".
On June 9, the Development and Reform Commission of Changji Prefecture, Xinjiang, issued the "Notice on Immediately Suspending Production and Rectification of Virtual Currency Mining Enterprises".
On June 9, the Industry and Information Technology Department of Qinghai Province issued the "Notice on Carrying out Cleaning and Rectification of Virtual Currency 'Mining' Projects", and carried out cleaning and rectification of relevant virtual currency mining activities.
On June 18, the Development and Reform Commission of Sichuan Province and the Energy Bureau of Sichuan Province issued the "Notice on Cleaning up and Shutting Down Virtual Currency 'Mining' Projects".
On June 21, the People's Bank of China issued a statement, summoning some banks and payment institutions such as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Postal Savings Bank of China, Industrial Bank, and Alipay, and subsequently, major banks and Alipay responded and stated that they would "resolutely not engage in or participate in any business activities related to virtual currencies".
On June 9, 2021, the South American country of El Salvador passed a law making Bitcoin legal tender in the country. El Salvador is the first country in the world to grant Bitcoin legal status.
On November 10, 2021, the price of Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $68,790.
The opening price of Bitcoin in January 2021 was $28,994.01, the closing price in December 2021 was $46,306.45, and the highest price that year was $68,789.63.
(14) The highest value of Bitcoin in 2022 was $48,086.84
This year, the price of Bitcoin has been declining, and the crypto market has once again entered a bear market. Due to the collapse of Luna/UST and FTX, people's confidence has also been greatly shaken, giving the impression of a prolonged bear market. However, it was also this year that I decided to do something publicly and ultimately chose the path of self-media, founding the self-media IP "BlockBeats".
A few things that left a deep impression on me this year:
Many people around me have left this circle, and various communities have also become gloomy. This year, I also chose to withdraw from and block all circles and group messages, and spent most of my time quietly writing and publishing articles.
On February 24, 2022, the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in full scale.
From May 7 to May 13, 2022, the then leading algorithmic stablecoin UST experienced two depeggings in succession, ultimately plunging into a death spiral, causing LUNA and UST to collapse.
On July 14, 2022, the well-known crypto lending platform Celsius, due to insolvency, fell into a vicious cycle and eventually filed for bankruptcy protection.
On July 2, 2022, Three Arrows Capital filed for bankruptcy protection.
On November 9, 2022, the FTX exchange entered a full-blown collapse and filed for bankruptcy on November 11. At the time, I was also using this exchange, but had withdrawn most of the assets before that, so I didn't suffer much loss.
In retrospect, 2022 should be considered one of the most tumultuous years in the history of the crypto market. However, opportunities are often born in despair. It was from May 2022 that we started a new round of the "20-month" Bitcoin dollar-cost averaging plan, which we reviewed and summarized in the previous article (January 1).
The opening price of Bitcoin in January 2022 was $46,311.74, the closing price in December 2022 was $16,547.50, and the highest price that year was $48,086.84.
(15) The highest value of Bitcoin in 2023 was $44,705.52
For the crypto market, this year has been a rather difficult one, but for BlockBeats, 2023 has also been a year of rapid growth. BlockBeats' articles have gradually evolved from being unnoticed to being able to gather a circle of like-minded partners who share a common focus. This year, we also launched BlockBeats' first e-book "Blockchain Thinking Advancement".
Although the market is still experiencing a bear market this year, the fundamentals of Bitcoin have not been shaken. Many people (including myself) are looking forward to the big bull market opportunity in 2024-2025, and many are also full of expectations for the potential approval of ETFs.
There have also been a number of major events this year, such as:
In January, the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol appeared, and soon after, the BRC-20 related concept became one of the most important new narratives of the year.
In February, with the launch of the Blur token, the NFT market ushered in a small boom, and many people also obtained considerable returns through the Blur airdrop.
In March, many people received airdrops from ARB, and Ordinals also became popular on a small scale. However, most people's attention seemed to be focused on the banking crisis in the United States, as US banks faced a severe bank run, leading to a plunge in bank stock prices and the collapse of some individual banks (such as Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank).
April seemed to belong to Hong Kong, as the Global Blockchain Conference was held in Hong Kong at that time, and Hong Kong also announced that it would introduce a number of favorable policies for cryptocurrencies. In addition, the Ethereum upgrade (the Shanghai upgrade and the Capella upgrade) was also a relatively important event.
In May, a MemeCoin craze broke out, with Pepe frog (the PEPE token was launched on April 14, 2023) and various derivative meme images occupying the attention of the entire crypto community. After PEPE was successfully listed on Binance on May 6, its market value reached a historical high at that time.
In June, the SEC started to cause trouble again, but people seemed more concerned about whether CZ would go to jail, and some were also following the progress of BlackRock's application for a spot Bitcoin ETF.
In July, Ripple won a partial victory in its lawsuit against the SEC, and the XRP price rose from $0.47 to $0.82, reaching a new high since January 2018. This event also led to the rise of several tokens (such as SOL, MATIC, ADA, XLM, etc.) that were previously identified as securities by the SEC in the Coinbase case.
In August, Grayscale also won a lawsuit against the SEC, which seemed to lay the foundation for BlackRock's Bitcoin spot ETF approval, as Grayscale's victory could be seen as accelerating the SEC's approval trend.
In November, CZ decided to go to jail, signing a plea agreement, and Binance also paid a fine of up to $4.3 billion to the US Treasury Department.
December belonged to the glory moment of Ordinals, as the large number of Ordinals transactions even caused the Bitcoin network's daily transaction fees to temporarily exceed Ethereum's.
The opening price of Bitcoin in January 2023 was $16,547.91, the closing price in December 2023 was $42,265.19, and the highest price that year was $44,705.52.
(16) The highest price of Bitcoin in 2024 is $108,268.45
This year, we finally waited for the long-awaited bull market again. The BTC ETF was officially approved in January, and the price of BTC successfully broke through $100,000 in December, which are all new milestones for Bitcoin.
In the future, Bitcoin will be unstoppable. As mentioned in the previous article (January 1): The crypto industry may usher in or begin to enter a new era, and we will all become participants and witnesses.
Welcome to join the official community of BlockBeats:
Telegram subscription group: https://t.me/theblockbeats
Telegram discussion group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App
Twitter official account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia
