Celebrating Bitcoin’s 16th Birthday: A Look at Achievements in the Crypto Space


October 2008: “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” whitepaper released on Halloween, about making payments “without going through a financial institution.” 

January 2009: Genesis block mined, containing the following quote: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”

March 17, 2010: First-ever recorded price of bitcoin at a value of $0.003. 

May 22, 2010: First real-world transaction for purchase of goods: two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin. 

July 18, 2010: Mt. Gox, the first crypto exchange, was launched.. 

February 2011: Dark web Silk Road exclusively accepted bitcoin as payment, transacting ₿9.9 million (≅ $214 million). Bitcoin price rose to $30 in June and dropped to $2 by year-end. 

November 28, 2012: First bitcoin halving event, setting stage for subsequent halving events.

March 28, 2013: Bitcoin’s market cap surpassed $1 billion for the first time.
First bitcoin ATM installed in Canada.

November 28, 2013: As media attention intensified and more merchants accepted bitcoin as payment, bitcoin topped $1,000 for the first time. 

February 28, 2014: Bitcoin’s first real challenge: Mt. Gox exchange filed for bankruptcy after hackers stole 850,00 bitcoin (≅ $500,000,000 in value), underscoring security flaws and risks faced by investors.

2015: Microsoft began accepting bitcoin for Xbox and Windows software purchases.
Number of merchants accepting bitcoin exceeded 100,000. 

2016: Cabinet of Japan officially recognised that digital assets such as bitcoin had a similar function to fiat currency.

July 2016: Bitcoin’s second halving event, reducing mining rewards from 25 bitcoins to 12.5 bitcoins.

November 2016: CME Group and CF Benchmarks introduced CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR): a reliable, transparent, once-a-day bitcoin price benchmark.

August 1, 2017: Hard fork in bitcoin’s underlying code created Bitcoin Cash, a new blockchain meant to increase its capacity to process transactions.

December 18, 2017: CME Group launched cash-settled Bitcoin futures, enabling global investors to hedge the price risk on a regulated exchange. Bitcoin reached a record high of $19,666 the following week. 

May 2018: Third bitcoin halving event: mining rewards were cut from 12.5 bitcoins to 6.25 bitcoins per block.

Early 2020s: Institutional investment surged, signaling growing acceptance of bitcoin:

  • MicroStrategy ($250 million investment as a treasury reserve asset)
  • Square ($50 million investment)
  • MassMutual ($100 million investment) 
  • Tesla (multiple substantial investments) 

Financial giants like Fidelity and Goldman Sachs launched services to facilitate crypto trading, further legitimizing its status. 

February 2021: Bitcoin’s market capitalization reached $1 trillion for the first time. 

April 14, 2021: Coinbase became a public company on the Nasdaq exchange via a direct stock listing. 

September 7, 2021: Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador, the first country to do so.

October 2021: First futures-based Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. BITO from ProShares approved by the SEC, based on Bitcoin futures from CME Group.

2021-2022: As traditional financial markets suffered from the effects of quantitative tightening and high-interest rates, crypto markets suffered a deep retracement.

Over-leveraged crypto lending firms such as Celsius, Voyager, BlockFi and Genesis collapsed.

Prominent crypto hedge fund 3 Arrows Capital collapsed.

Crypto exchange FTX, led by Sam Bankman-Fried, collapsed.

January 2024: First 11 U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs began trading, offering direct exposure to bitcoin for the first time on U.S. stock exchanges. Of those, six use the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate New York Variant as their benchmark.

Collectively is the most successful ETF launch in history, building $5 billion in AUM overnight, amassing $65 billion in AUM to date. 



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