Bitcoin has carved out its name in history forever. It put down the building rocks for the entire cryptocurrency market. Despite the inevitable ups and downs, the blockchain continues to stand solid amidst all the world’s chaos. How did a project launched by an anonymous individual score this much success? Let’s take a trip down memory lane and discover Bitcoin history together!
Birth of Bitcoin History: 2008 – 2010
- October 2008: Anonymous individual under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto releases the white papers for Bitcoin.
He describes it as “a peer-to-peer version of electronic cash [that] would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution”.
This is what we now know as a ‘decentralized’ blockchain.
It’s important to note that we’re not sure who Satoshi is and whether he’s one person or a group of individuals. Or, if he’s even a guy. - January 3rd, 2009: Bitcoin launches into the public introducing the first block to be mined “the genesis block”.
- January 12th, 2009: Hal Finney, an American software developer, becomes the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction after he mined block “70-something”.
Finney had in-depth email conversations with Satoshi where he described bugs and the latter fixed them.
Finney said about Satoshi “I thought I was dealing with a young man of Japanese ancestry who was very smart and sincere.” - May 22nd, 2010: First public Bitcoin transaction that exchanges value also known as “Bitcoin Pizza Day”.
Laszlo Hanyecz pays 10,000 BTC to buy two Papa John’s pizzas (retailed for $25).
Note: 10,000 BTC are currently estimated to be around $288.6 Million!
During this launch period, Bitcoin began trading at $0.0008 and even climbed to $0.08.
Bitcoin Gains Shady Popularity: 2011 – 2013
- February 2011: BTC reaches $1
- June 2011: Price Jumps to $26.90
- October 2011: Launch of new cryptocurrencies to build on Bitcoin and improve its problems.
Litecoin (LTC) launches and starts trading at around 30 cents.
Note: 1 LTC is currently estimated to be around $91.05! - Starting 2011, Jed McCaleb, an American programmer, and entrepreneur convert his website from a marketplace to card game magic into an online BTC exchange. It becomes the very first Bitcoin exchange.
He explained that the space “needs an exchange for trading bitcoin and regular currencies”. McCaleb then sells it to another developer, Mark Karpeles.
A few years later, Karpeles filed for bankruptcy, shut down the exchange, and got arrested for manipulating the exchange’s balance sheet. People rallied asking for their money.
- November 2011: Severe drop to $2.05
- In 2012: Bitcoin had its first halving
- Q2 of 2012: Jump to $13.50
- April 2013: Noticeable increase to $230
- July 2013: Price then dropped $68.50
- December 2013: Insane pump to $1,237.55
How did Bitcoin jump from $1 to more than $1K in this time period? Well, Bitcoin started catching people’s attention during these years. As mentioned above, new projects and cryptocurrencies started joining. But, a key factor is The Silk Road marketplace.
The silk road was a cyber black market for illicit goods and illegal activities. Plot twist: all payments were done using cryptocurrencies. Hence why Bitcoin had a huge boom. However, at the end of 2013, the FBI shut down the Silk Road marketplace.
Fall and Beginning of Bitcoin’s Biggest Pump: 2014 – 2018
- August 2015: Insane price drop to $200
- June 2016: Pump to $770
- In 2016: Bitcoin has its second halving
- December 2017: Bigger pump to $19,345.99
After the Silk Road marketplace shut down, Bitcoin prices soared. However, during the 2015-2017 phase, we saw an insane Bitcoin pump. It went from $200 to $19K!
What caused this astronomical growth?
Well, it could be because, during this time period, Bitcoin was becoming more famous and known among investors. At that point, Bitcoin had been circulating for a while and new projects continued to join. Moreover, NFTs also started becoming more popular.
This could be why but some said that it’s all market manipulation.
University professor, John Griffin, and his graduate student, Amin Shams, published a 66-page paper on how certain parties were singlehandedly pumping Bitcoin. They noted that Tether (USDT) was used to buy Bitcoin when it was declining. The academics explained that 87 hours (or 1%) of heavy tether trading could be behind:
- 50% of the rise of Bitcoin
- 64% of the rise of other cryptocurrencies
This helped “stabilize and manipulation” the cryptocurrency’s price. Griffin noted “It was creating price support for Bitcoin, and over the period that we examined, had huge price effects. Our research would indicate that there are sophisticated people harnessing investor interest for their benefit.”
Infamous Bitcoin History Bull Run 2019 – 2021
- Q1 of 2020: Severe crash $6,965.72
- May 2020: Bitcoin has its third halving
- Q4 of 2020: Another pump to $19,157.16
- January 2021: Continous increase to $40,000
- April 2021: Another continuous increase to $63,558
After each halving, Bitcoin experiences a short bull run. Bitcoin halving is the event where the rewards for each mined block decrease. Basically:
- Supply decreases
- Demand increases
It increases the scarcity of Bitcoin. And, in normal supply and demand style, the halving causes Bitcoin to pump. So, the halving played part in the infamous Bitcoin bull run in history. However, that is not all. The halving alone cannot induce such a long bull run. What caused it then? Covid.
The COVID-19 pandemic had drastic consequences on the worldwide economy. Most countries were struggling financially. But, the pandemic was noticeably beneficial for the cryptocurrency market in general and specifically for Bitcoin. Everyone was quarantined at home and was constantly on the Internet. Bitcoin caught most people’s attention leading to its insane boom.
Cold Bitcoin History: Market Crash and Crypto Winter 2022
- March 2022: Fall to $47,445
- May 2022: Severe drop to $28,305
- Q4 OF 2022: Continuous drop of $20,000
2022 was a very dark year in Bitcoin history. It was the year when everything went south. Starting with the Terra Luna crash that punched the cryptocurrency market in the gut. Then, most countries were struggling from a soaring inflating. Adding to that is the geopolitical turmoil due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. All of this massively affected Bitcoin’s price.
However, that wasn’t all. Later in November 2022, the crypto exchange company FTX came crashing down. Binance was going to save it but the damage was too much to salvage. This caused every cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin, to shoot down. Even blue-chip NFTs drastically dropped in value.
To say the least, the market took too big of a hit and slowed down afterward.
Bitcoin in the Present: 2023
- End of January 2023: Small Increase to $22,840
- March 2023: Short fall to $20,521
- April 2023 (currently): Heavy pump back to $30,340
Bitcoin history was definitely packed with ups and downs leading us to the present. This year is the year that all of us hope the crypto market, including Bitcoin, will recover. And as you can see, Bitcoin is currently pumping.
Is the bull market near? Calm your horses. There are multiple reasons why Bitcoin is pumping.
First, the fourth Bitcoin halving is just around the corner in 2024. Investors usually start trading BTC leading up to the halving. Again, after the halving BTC pumps so it’s like a preparation process.
Second, the infamous Silicon Valley Bank collapsed the US economy and pushed people to lose trust in banks. To compensate for the losses, the US federal reserve pumped $300 billion. This increased liquidity in the global market and also benefitted the crypto market pushing Bitcoin to pump.
Third, important personnel outside of the crypto market noted the importance of Bitcoin. Robert F. Kennedy’s commented on the US bank crisis saying: “Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin give the public an escape route from the splatter zone when this bubble invariably bursts.” This brought attention to BTC.
Fourth, Bitcoin NFTs, or digital artifacts, were successfully launched this year. They gathered unmatched success with major collections expanded to Bitcoin like Yuga and Sappy Seals. The numbers were insane as Ordinal Punks made an ATH sale of 4.069 BTC ($92.2K then). And, on chain monkey’s floor price doubled after it expanded to Bitcoin!
What Does Bitcoin History Tell Us?
Bitcoin history is rich with pumps and dumps, bulls, and bears. One time the price is tumbling down. The other, it’s skyrocketing. However, Bitcoin has managed to keep its legacy throughout all these years. Even the ones who are completely unaware of what crypto is, know Bitcoin. Given this information, this makes us wonder, should web3 be built on Bitcoin?