Bitcoin’s price has been on a roller coaster ride since it first debuted in January 2009, but the long-term trajectory has been higher – “up and to the right,” as they say. Bitcoin ushered in the age of cryptocurrency, but it took quite a while before the public sat up and took notice.
Still, in little more than a decade, it seems that cryptocurrency, and in particular, Bitcoin, has become the most exciting trading opportunity in a long time. Bitcoin trading has created millionaires, though given that persistent rise since its debut, plenty of traders would have done fine just holding – or HODLing – on for the ride, as many long-term bullish owners have done.
Despite the long-term rise, Bitcoin has been dogged by periods where it’s fallen precipitously. The most recent has been since November 2021, when the prospect of rising interest rates and reduced liquidity in the financial markets have dropped Bitcoin’s price much lower.
Bitcoin was unleashed in the months after the global financial crisis obliterated economies. It was created by a mysterious individual or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto, and early proponents touted the currency’s promise of moving monetary policy out of the hands of governments and central banks and into an autonomously managed system.
Bitcoin famously has a maximum of 21 million coins that can ever be created. In the face of this fixed supply, an ever-increasing demand can send the cryptocurrency soaring. Given these dynamics, speculators have rushed into the space to take advantage of the anticipated price appreciation.
The price of Bitcoin is notoriously driven by sentiment. When the market shifts to its “greed” phase, Bitcoin soars amid the utopian promises and speculators dismiss the risks of an asset that generates no cash flow. In the “fear” phase, Bitcoin’s price seems to find no traction, as sellers push its price lower amid bad news or general market malaise.
Amid all of this speculation, however, it’s important to remember that Bitcoin is tough to use for everyday purchases. Major companies that introduced ways to pay with Bitcoin have quietly walked back those initiatives. Now the market has rewritten the narrative from Bitcoin as a medium of exchange to one where it’s a store of value, “digital gold.” However, gold has a few thousand years of history as a store of value, compared to little more than a dozen for Bitcoin.
Bitcoin's price history since its creation
Bitcoin has risen since its creation in 2009, but not without some bumps along the way.
Bitcoin prices over time:
- January 2009 – July 2013: Bitcoin gets started
- August 2013 – December 2017: Bitcoin draws in the public
- January 2018 – December 2020: Bitcoin recovers and soars
- January 2021 – June 2022: Bitcoin gets hit by regulations and rising rates
- Bitcoin returns by year
January 2009 – July 2013: Bitcoin is created and attracts techies
The New Liberty Standard Exchange recorded the first exchange of Bitcoin for dollars in late 2009. Users on the BitcoinTalk forum traded 5,050 bitcoins for $5.02 via PayPal, making the first price mediated through an exchange a bargain basement price of $0.00099 per bitcoin. In other words, the price was about one-tenth of one cent.
While
currency was officially launched on January 3, 2009, it’s tough to find any standard pricing before mid-2010. That’s because there weren’t exchanges in the same way that there are today. However, data became available from July 2010 and continues up until the present.
It was in 2010 that the most expensive pizzas of all time were purchased. One Bitcoin owner offered 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas, an offer that continues to live on in Bitcoin lore. It’s considered the first time that anyone used virtual currency to buy something in the real world.
According to historical data at Investing.com, Bitcoin’s price never broke above $0.40 per bitcoin in 2010, but did manage to hit that level in early 2011. Then in February it crossed $1. Just a few months later, in May, it briefly exceeded $8 – a stunning 8-bagger in mere months!
Bitcoin's price history during its early years
Bitcoin saw its first major rise in 2011, then spiked again in 2013 as it gained popularity.
By June 2011, Bitcoin’s price had hit nearly $30, a seemingly unimaginable rise from just months before. And that’s where it topped out for the year.
Bitcoin spent the remainder of 2011 just dwindling to as low as $2, before finishing the year at $4.70. After this bubble burst and a more than 90 percent fall from its all-time high, it might have seemed as if the Bitcoin fad was over.
Crypto started out 2012 and spent much of the year consolidating, slowly growing stronger throughout the year. In November 2012, Bitcoin went through its first “halving,” a change in the reward structure for miners, where they receive half as many bitcoins for mining blocks on the blockchain. As 2012 came to an end, Bitcoin finished at $13.50, just off the highs for the year.
That consolidation set up Bitcoin for a strong run in 2013, when it began to attract more notice outside a niche audience of techies and hobbyists. The world’s first Bitcoin ATM was installed in Vancouver, allowing buyers to change fiat money for crypto. By the end of January, Bitcoin’s price had already risen to more than $20. The momentum built from there, as interest spread.
By early March, Bitcoin had already doubled again, rising to more than $40. A couple weeks later it surpassed $50, and then days later $60. It climbed to $70 the next day after that. By the start of April 2013, Bitcoin had passed $100 in breathtaking fashion. Then eight days later it spiked to $230!
From there, it was just a week until
Bitcoin was back at $68, as the bottom fell out. But then a week later, it had doubled again and traded north of $150. After the strong trading action in April and May, Bitcoin spent June and July settling down. Surely this was the peak of insanity for Bitcoin volatility.
August 2013 – December 2017: Bitcoin breaks through to popular consciousness
After months of consolidating from its rise earlier in the year, Bitcoin reached new heights in November 2013. Priced at $213 entering the month, Bitcoin doubled to nearly $435 just 12 days later. By the end of the month, it had nearly tripled from there, up to more than $1,200, before ending the year at $805, a real downdraft, but still up from just $541 a couple weeks before. Late in the year the People’s Bank of China banned financial institutions from using bitcoins.
Bitcoin's price history, from mid-2013 to 2017
Bitcoin flew under the radar for a bit before exploding into popular consciousness in 2017.
The year 2014 saw Bitcoin retain its signature volatility. After hitting $1,000 in early January,
Binance bottomed at $111.60 on Feb. 21 – a decline approaching 90 percent! Behind the turbulence were problems at Mt. Gox, one of the earliest crypto exchanges. The exchange had stopped withdrawals, then filed for bankruptcy after losing 744,400 bitcoins of users’ funds.
Then a mere five days later, Bitcoin recorded a price of $593.10 – more than a 5-bagger in days! Bitcoin spent the rest of the year gradually declining and closed 2014 at about $318.
The year 2015 started with Bitcoin declining, but most of the year was a slow uptrend, unusual for Bitcoin, and it ended the year at $430. In November, the official Bitcoin B symbol was adopted.
The first half of 2016 continued the same, relatively muted volatility and price consolidation. But by the end of May, the price was picking up and by mid-June Bitcoin was hitting $700. It didn’t last, though, and Bitcoin was back in the $600s until November 2016. It peaked back over $700 and then quickly $800 and $900. As the year ended, Bitcoin was flirting with $1,000, a level it broke through in early 2017, a watershed year for Bitcoin, when it came to national awareness.
January 2018 – December 2020: Bitcoin recovers and soars even higher
After the huge melt-up of 2017,
Bitcoin spent most of 2018 in a downtrend, falling throughout the year, following a brief surge to start the year. By the end of the first quarter, Bitcoin was down nearly 50 percent from where it had started the year. It spent much of the year bouncing between $6,000 and $8,000 before closing 2018 at $3,709 – down 73 percent for the year.
The year 2019 kicked off with more of the same, as Bitcoin looked for direction. It tried to burst through $4,000 for the first few months, but finally hit it in April and then rose to $5,000. May came and Bitcoin reached $6,000, then $7,000, then $8,000 before settling back in early June. That month Bitcoin swiftly spiked to $13,000 before coming back.
By September, Bitcoin was back solidly under $10,000, and it continued to search for direction and fell until the end of the year, finishing out 2019 just under $7,200.
Comments
Post a Comment