Here’s a quick timeline of the history of Bitcoin:
2008
- October: The Bitcoin whitepaper is published by an unknown person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
2009
- January 3: The first block, also known as the genesis block, is mined.
- January 9: The first Bitcoin transaction takes place between Satoshi Nakamoto and Hal Finney.
- October: The first Bitcoin exchange rate is established, at 1 USD to 1,309.03 BTC.
2010
- May 22: The first real-world transaction using Bitcoin takes place, with 10,000 BTC used to purchase two pizzas.
- July: Mt. Gox, the first Bitcoin exchange, is established.
2011
- February: Bitcoin reaches parity with the US dollar for the first time.
- June: WikiLeaks begins accepting Bitcoin donations.
- July: Mt. Gox is hacked, resulting in the theft of thousands of Bitcoins.
2012
- May: The first Bitcoin halving takes place, reducing the block reward from 50 BTC to 25 BTC.
- November: The first Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) is submitted.
2013
- February: The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issues guidance on the regulation of virtual currencies in the US.
- March: The Cyprus banking crisis leads to a surge in Bitcoin adoption.
- November: Bitcoin reaches a price of $1,000 for the first time.
2014
- February: Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy after losing 850,000 Bitcoins in a hack.
- July: The first Bitcoin ATM is installed in Vancouver, Canada.
- November: Microsoft begins accepting Bitcoin payments for Xbox games and Windows apps.
2015
- September: The Winklevoss twins launch Gemini, a regulated Bitcoin exchange.
2016
- July: The second Bitcoin halving takes place, reducing the block reward from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC.
- August: The DAO hack leads to a hard fork in the Ethereum blockchain.
2017
- January: Bitcoin reaches a price of $1,000 for the second time.
- August: Bitcoin forks to create Bitcoin Cash.
- December: Bitcoin reaches an all-time high price of nearly $20,000.
2018
- January: Facebook bans all cryptocurrency advertising on its platform.
- February: Major credit card companies begin banning Bitcoin purchases.
- March: Google bans all cryptocurrency advertising on its platform.
2019
- April: Bitcoin reaches a new 2019 high of nearly $5,500.
- June: Facebook announces the launch of its own cryptocurrency, Libra.
2020
- May: The third Bitcoin halving takes place, reducing the block reward from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.
- August: MicroStrategy announces that it has purchased $250 million worth of Bitcoin as a reserve asset.
- December: Bitcoin reaches a new all-time high price of over $23,000.
2021
- January: Tesla announces that it has purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin as a reserve asset.
- April: Coinbase becomes the first cryptocurrency exchange to go public on the NASDAQ stock exchange.