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.
Here’s how the price of Bitcoin has risen and fallen over time as well as some of the trends driving those moves.
Bitcoin's price history since its creation
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
Bitcoin 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!
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.
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.
But with the turn of the calendar to 2020, Bitcoin picked up, rising over the next six weeks to above $10,000. In the midst of the stock market downturns during the initial COVID pandemic wave,
Bitcoin wavered, falling to $8,000. Then during the drawdown, it plummeted on March 12, 2020 – from $7,935 to $4,826 in a single day, a decline of more than 39 percent!
January 2021 – June 2022: Bitcoin gets pressured
After what can only be described as a thrilling end of 2020 for Bitcoin, the digital currency started 2021 with a bang. The cryptocurrency climbed to start the year, peaking above $64,000 by mid-April, following a strong first quarter. Promises of seemingly never-ending liquidity from the Federal Reserve gave markets – both crypto and stocks – unbridled optimism.
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