18 years ago today, in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis, an unknown person called Satoshi Nakamoto published a 9-page paper on a new kind of money called Bitcoin.
Since then:
- 2009: The Bitcoin network goes live, Satoshi sends the first Bitcoin transaction to Hal Finney.
- 2010: Someone pays 10,000 BTC for two pizzas
- 2011: Bitcoin hits $1
- 2012: First halving
- 2013: Bitcoin crosses $1,000
- 2016: Second halving
- 2017: Bitcoin crosses $10,000, and CME launches Bitcoin futures
- 2020: Third halving, and Strategy starts buying Bitcoin
- 2021: Tesla buys $1.5B of Bitcoin, and El Salvador makes it legal tender, Bitcoin reaches a $1 trillion market cap
- 2024: Spot Bitcoin ETFs launch, fourth halving, and Bitcoin crosses $100,000
- 2025: The US creates a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and Bitcoin hits a record $126,198
- The 20 millionth Bitcoin is mined.
All of this without its creator, who disappeared in 2011 and has never been found.
Happy 18th birthday, Bitcoin.
@CoinDesk@Apple@Google Apple and Google entering the stablecoin game?
The floodgates just opened.
No amount of regulatory whining is stopping this now.
@Cointelegraph $210B in market cap isn't a verdict on a bill — it's beta.
Same liquidity that lifts everything.
Regulation and price are two different scoreboards.