Bitcoin’s long march, from 9 cents in 2010 to $100,000 in 14 years

A single Bitcoin whose value was virtually negligible when it was introduced in 2009, is today priced over $100,000. The oldest and the most traded cryptocurrency has been through a roller coaster ride and has a lot of story attached to it.

Who is the founder of Bitcoin?

It has been over 16 years since Bitcoin was invented but no one has known the name of its founder.

The Bitcoin’s journey vaguely started sometime in October 2008, when a nine-page Bitcoin “white paper” titled - ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’ - was introduced.

The Bitcoin “white paper” attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto theorised “a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash (that) would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another.”

Soon this “white paper” began circulating on the internet and it became a hot topic for discussion against a backdrop of failing financial institutions, massive bailouts, rising unemployment and falling economic output.

The idea was to break free from the control of central banks, traditionally the only financial institution who can create money.

For the next few months, developers worked on the schema outlined in the “white paper” as described by pseudonymous author Satoshi Nakamoto.

In late 2009, the New Liberty Standard Exchange recorded the first exchange of Bitcoin for dollars.

Why was Bitcoin designed?

Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous inventor, designed Bitcoin for use in daily transactions, but it soon became way more than a payment method.

In no time, Bitcoin started attracting traders who began to bet on its price changes. Investors turned to the cryptocurrency as a way to store value, generate wealth, and hedge against inflation, and institutions worked to create Bitcoin investment instruments.

Bitcoin’s pizza connect

Bitcoin, which was just a digital currency worth a few cent, experienced first-ever-real-world transaction on May 22, 2010 when Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer and an early cryptocurrency enthusiast, made history by purchasing two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins, which was roughly $41 at the time.

Today, it would have turned out to be the most expensive meal.

May 22 has become historic since then and each year the day is marked as Bitcoin Pizza Day.

Bitcoin’s journey

When it was introduced in 2009, Bitcoin used to cost nothing. Soon it started experiencing ups and downs, rallies and massive crashes.

It stood at $0.10 for a long time after increasing marginally to $0.20 on October 26, 2010. The cryptocurrency ended the year at $0.30.

By 2011, Bitcoin managed to quote itself above $1 and it peaked to $29.60 on Jun 8, 2011. However, by the end of the year it fell to around $5 due to a sharp recession in the cryptocurrency market.

Also Read: King of crypto: Bitcoin races past $100,000, these 5 factors pushed it to a historic high

The next year, 2012, was not an eventful year for Bitcoin, though it managed to increase by a few dollars, but it experienced strong gains in 2013 when the cryptocurrency began the year trading at $13 and by April the price surpassed $100. By October, it was over $200.

2013 was historic for Bitcoin as it rose above $1,000 before closing the year at $731.

Bitcoin prices gradually started moving to over $900 by the end of 2016 and in 2017 they hovered around $1,000. By mid-May, it crossed $2,000 abd by December 16, 2017, it zoomed to close at $19,188.

There wasn’t much movement in Bitcoin price in 2018 and 2019. In June 2019, the price surpassed $10,000 but fell to $6,612 by mid-December.

Bitcoin price saw a cheer in 2010 during the economy shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It opened the year at $7,161 and at the close in November it was trading for $18,383.

The price of Bitcoin closed at $28,993 on December 31, 2020, increasing a whopping 416 per cent from the start of that year.

It happened as pandemic shutdown, followed by government policies made investors fear about the global economy and therefore, accelerated Bitcoin’s rise.

Within days, Bitcoin broke its 2020 price record and surpassed $40,000 by January 7, 2021.

By mid-April, 2021, prices of Bitcoin touched new all-time highs of over $60,000 after Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, went public. On April 14, it reached a peak of $64,895.

However, the prices could not sustain high and by summer 2021 they fell by 50 per cent, closing at $30,829 on July 19. Within a couple of months, there was another bull run, with BTC scraping $52,956, but a large drawdown took it to a closing price of $40,597 about two weeks later.

Bitcoin again reached an all-time high of $69,000 on November 10, 2021, before closing at $64,921. In mid-December 2021, the prices fell to a close of $46,211.

There were many fluctuations in price due to uncertainty about inflation and the emergence of a new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, continued to keep investors jittery.

By March-end 2022, Bitcoin’s closed at $47,459 and fell further to $29,000 on May 11. It continued to fall and by the end of the year, it was under $20,000.

The Bitcoin’s price in 2023 start was $16,530 and it mostly retained the upward trend throughout the year, before ending at $42,258.

2014: Bitcoin’s eventful year

Bitcoin’s price rose rapidly after the fund approvals. In February-March, it again breached $60,000, setting a high of $69,210 on March 6 and another of $70,184 on March 8. On March 1, Bitcoin continued setting records, reaching $73,835 on Coinbase.

On November 7, Bitcoin’s price hit another all-time high of $76,999 following Donald Trump’s win in the 2024 US Presidential election. It closed at $75,820, a 9 per cent increase from the closing price on November 5.

On November 10, Bitcoin reached another milestone, surpassing the $80,000 threshold and the rally continued. On the morning of November 13, it breached $91,000 ($91,203.83) on Coinbase.

On Thursday, December 10, Bitcoin surpassed $100,000 penning another history in its journey.

The significant surge is attributed to investor exuberance following Trump’s many promises on the campaign trail including making the US “the crypto capital of the world,” and creating a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.”

On December 4, nominated cryptocurrency backer Paul Atkins to head the US securities regulator, reinforcing optimism the incoming president will deregulate the sector.

Bitcoin has jumped more than 50 per cent since Trump’s win and around 140 per cent since the turn of the year.

With inputs from agencies.