Happy 10th Anniversary Bitcoin! The 10 Year Rollercoaster Ride of the De-Facto Cryptocurrency

For those unaware, today marks a rather special day in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. 10 years ago on this very day — January 3rd 2009, the world of Bitcoin begun its revolutionary journey. Specifically, it was this day that facilitated the first ever Bitcoin transaction, known as the “Genesis” block, which resulted in the creation of 50 BTC. Since then, the first, original and still de-facto cryptocurrency has gone through a somewhat turbulent ride, experiencing both highs and lows along the way. To celebrate the first decade of Satoshi Nakamoto’s innovative and groundbreaking creation, we have compiled a timeline of the most notable events to date!

January 3st 2009 — The “Genesis” Block

The story of Bitcoin began on January 3rd 2009, where its anonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto created the first Bitcoin block of 50 BTC — known today as the “Genesis Block”. Interestingly, the proceeding block — “Block 1”, took more than 6 days to mine, a stark contrast to the standardized 10 minute time frame it now takes. It is believed that Nakamoto utilized a slow and steady approach for block 1 to ensure perfection.

October 12th 2009 — The world’s first ever fiat-to-Bitcoin transaction is completed

Just nine months after the Genesis block was created, the first ever known fiat-to-Bitcoin trade took place. Martti Malmi, who went by the name “Sirius”, sold 5,050 BTC for a grand total of $5.02 to NewLibertyStandard.

May 22nd 2009 — Bitcoin Pizza Day

The infamous case of Bitcoin Pizza Day, which is now comically celebrated on an annual basis, was the first Bitcoin sale made to facilitate real-world goods. Laszlo Hanyecz — the programmer behind the sale, agreed to transfer 10,000 BTC in exchange for two Papa John Pizzas. The Bitcoin Talk forum user agreed to the deal, which at the time was valued at approximately $25. And now? During the heights of late 2017 those very coins would have been worth close to $200 million. Ouch!

July 18th 2010 — Exchange platform Mt. Gox launches

Jed McCaleb, the brain child behind hugely successful blockchain projects Ripple and Stellar, launched the world’s first ever fully fledged Bitcoin exchange platform. Although the bank deposit process often took a grueling month before funds were credited, over the course of the next few years Mt. Gox became so popular that at one point, the platform was responsible for over 70% of all Bitcoin transactional activity.

February 9th 2011 — Bitcoin reached parity with the U.S. dollar

In just over two years since the protocol was launched to the masses, the market value of Bitcoin reached $1 for the very first time.

March 1st 2012 — First major Bitcoin exchange hack

Although in today’s market, cryptocurrency exchange hacks seem to be a somewhat all too common event, it wasn’t until March 2012 that the first major heist occurred. The exchange in question was the now defunct Bitcoinca and the amount stolen was a reported 43,000 BTC. Although back then this amounted to a real-world market value of approximately of $260,000, in late 2017 this would have been in the hundreds of millions.

August 17th 2012 — Bitcoin Ponzi schemes become a thing

Much like the previous milestone, in today’s market cryptocurrency-related Ponzi schemes seem to be a common occurrence in some sections of the industry. However, it wasn’t until August 2012 that the first major scheme came to light. An individual known as Trendon T. Shavers promised investors a weekly interest payment of 7%, for those willing to invest a minimum of 50 BTC. Although the exact figures are yet to be ascertained, it is believed that the Ponzi scheme was able to cypher up to 500,000 BTC from unsuspecting victims. Fortunately, the Securities and Exchange Commission subsequently filed charged against the crook the following year.

November 28th 2012 — First halving of Bitcoin mining reward

When Satoshi Nakamoto originally designed the Bitcoin system, he did so in such a manner that the amount of BTC awarded to successful miners would halve in value every four years. In November 2012, this reduced the block reward from 50 BTC to 25 BTC.

March 25th 2013 — Cyprus banking crisis results in account holders turning to Bitcoin

In early 2013, with the financial services industry of Cyprus close to economic collapse, the European Union sanctioned a new policy that would allow domestic banks to enforce a levy on those with balanced of 100,000 EUR or more. With account holders rightly reluctant to the policy, it is widely believed that many decided to purchase Bitcoin as a way of avoiding the levy. In the following 5 weeks alone, Bitcoin went from $80 right up to $260.

October 1st 2013 — Silk Road created Ross Ulbricht arrested

Silk Road — The infamous online marketplace for illegal goods and services that used Bitcoin as its native currency, had its founder Ross Ulbricht arrested in October 2013. U.S. law enforcement agencies were able to recover more than 144,000 Bitcoin in the subsequent seize, later netting $48 million at auction. Ulbricht was later convicted, earning himself a sentence of 40 years without parole.

November 27th 2013 — Bitcoin breached $1,000 for the first time

In a somewhat remarkable move, Bitcoin surpassed the $1,000 mark for the very first time in November 2013. Interestingly, the milestone was relatively short lived, with BTC failing to return to four figures for a further three years.

February 24th 2014 — Mt. Gox finally closes its doors

With the Mt. Gox team claiming that their internal servers were hacked, the platform finally closed its doors in February 2014. It is believed that more than 744,000 BTC were “lost” in the process.

January 4th 2015 — Major cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp hacked

It wasn’t the best start into 2015 for Bitcoin, with major exchange Bitstamp hacked for more than $5.2 million worth of Bitcoin stolen from their hot wallet. Bitstamp did the right thing by not charging the loss to customer account balances and the platform is still hugely popular today.

October 22nd 2015 — European Union determines Bitcoin as a currency

In October 2015, the European Union officially ruled that Bitcoin should be classified as a currency, rather than a commodity, as determined by the U.S. As a result, it ensured that no VAT should be applied on Bitcoin transactions.

January 3rd 2017 — Bitcoin regains a market value of $1,000

Although it took the digital currency close to three years, in January 2017 Bitcoin finally regained its market value of $1,000. Although Bitcoin lost close to 20% in value just 10 days later, it wouldn’t be long before crypto-craze of late 2017 would arrive.

August 1st 2017 — Bitcoin splits and Bitcoin Cash is born

With the Bitcoin community unable to reach consensus on the future direction of the project, in August 2017 the cryptocurrency eventually split, resulting in the creation of Bitcoin Cash. Led by well-known crypto evangelist Roger Ver, the split eventually ended up in a windfall for those holding Bitcoin at the time of the hard fork, as Bitcoin Cash coins were subsequently distributed on a 1:1 basis.

September 3rd 2017 — China officially prohibits ICOs

With Bitcoin now averaging $4,600 and the markets attracting a significant increase in awareness, the Chinese government made the decision to ban domestic ICO campaigns. This was the beginning of an eventual countrywide ban on most things crypto for the Chinese regime.

October 13th 2017 — Bitcoin breaches $5,000

With some fearing the Chinese ban on crypto could have a trickledown effect on the industry, Bitcoin defied the odds to breach the $5,000 mark for the very first time in October 2017.

November 28th 2017 — Bitcoin breaks $10,000

In just over a month, Bitcoin increased its value from $5,000 to surpass the $10,000 mark. It is widely believed that this all important psychological level was the catalyst to spurn on the pricing explosion of late 2017.

December 11th 2017 — World’s first fully regulated Bitcoin Futures market opens

In a further rubber stamp for the legitimacy of Bitcoin and blockchain technology, the Chicago Board Options Exchange launched the world’s first Bitcoin futures market. The move subsequently opened the floodgates for institutional investment. As a point of reference, Bitcoin fell just short of $15,000 on this particular date.

December 18th 2017 — Bitcoin reaches all-time high of just under $20,000

A day that no one within the cryptocurrency will forget, on December 18th 2017 Bitcoin reached a remarkable all-time high, subsequently falling just short of the $20,000 mark. The industry has yeaned for a similar experience ever since. In the wider cryptocurrency markets, the industry would peak at just under $800 billion in market capitalization.

March 26th 2018 — Social media platforms ban cryptocurrency ads

Following on from major social media platforms Facebook and Google; Twitter announces that it will no longer support advertisements linked to cryptocurrency.

May 6th 2018 — Bullish month of April sees Bitcoin fall just short of $10,000

With the cryptocurrency markets experiencing an excellent month in April, many believed that the industry was set to regain its previous 2018 losses. Unfortunately, Bitcoin fell short just below the $10,000 mark, failing to recover since.

November 15th 2018 — Bitcoin Cash fork causes market mayhem

Due to disagreements about the future direction of the project, on November 15th 2018, Bitcoin Cash engaged in a chain split. However, with two influential parties in particular — Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash Satoshi Vision, fighting a hash war to determine the dominant chain, the markets begin to go in free fall. In less than a week, Bitcoin loses significant ground, reducing its value from a somewhat stable $6,400 down to $4,500.

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