Bitcoin’s price has fluctuated up and down ever since its inception in 2009, leaving some investors with notable gains — or losses — and others left wondering what might have been if only they had invested sooner or held.
Remember the guy who made the first real-world bitcoin transaction in 2010? He paid 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas. The coins were worth about $40 then, and more than $990 million when Bitcoin’s price hit another all-time high in November 2024.
For those who invested early in Bitcoin and stayed invested, the rewards have been nothing short of staggering, but could just as likely have been a total loss. Crypto is highly speculative, driven solely by investor sentiment, and thousands of coins never crack even $0.01 in value.
Still, just how much would you have if you had bought $1,000 worth of Bitcoin a decade ago?
Every crypto investor wants a time machine to invest yesterday in the best-performing crypto, but let’s look at where Bitcoin started and how it’s going now.
Bitcoin’s price has experienced several swings over the years, driven almost entirely by investor sentiment, though crypto isn’t immune to other shifts in the market, such as fluctuating interest rates and the introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Debuting in January 2009, Bitcoin’s price broke the $1 milestone for the first time in February 2011. Fast-forward to November 2024 when Bitcoin soared to several record highs, even briefly hitting $99,000 on Nov. 21 — up from a previous all-time high of $73,750 in March this year.
With those price fluctuations in mind, here’s how much a $1,000 investment in Bitcoin is worth today if you’d invested one year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago and 15 years ago. The calculation is based on $98,000, which is about where Bitcoin traded today, Nov. 21, 2024. Historical price data are from CoinMarketCap.
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1 year ago: If you invested $1,000 in Bitcoin in 2023, your investment would be worth $2,621.
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5 years ago: If you invested $1,000 in Bitcoin in 2019, your investment would be worth $11,942.
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10 years ago: If you invested $1,000 in Bitcoin in 2014, your investment would be worth $257,522.
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15 years ago: If you invested $1,000 in Bitcoin in 2009, your investment would be worth $99 billion. Bitcoin traded at $0.00099 per bitcoin in late 2009, when $1 equaled 1,309.03 bitcoins.
Those gains are wild but it bears repeating: Crypto is speculative. You could have lost the entire $1,000. Still, let’s double down on the regret and say you took the speculative nature to heart and only invested $1 in Bitcoin.
