The History of Cryptocurrency
The History of Cryptocurrency#
Cryptocurrency was born of a vision: to create a decentralized monetary system, free of intermediaries and resistant to censorship. In under 15 years it has gone from an obscure concept to a $2.5 trillion asset class.
Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper
On 31 October, a person (or group) using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto publishes "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System". The first block (the genesis block) is mined on 3 January 2009.
The first real transaction
On 22 May, Laszlo Hanyecz buys two pizzas for 10,000 BTC (roughly $40). It became known as Bitcoin Pizza Day. Those 10,000 BTC are worth more than $700 million today.
The first bull run
Bitcoin rises from $13 to $1,200, then crashes to $200. China bans bank transactions in BTC. Mt. Gox, the largest exchange, loses 850,000 BTC.
Ethereum launches
Vitalik Buterin launches Ethereum, introducing smart contracts. It is the beginning of programmable money and decentralized applications (dApps).
ICO mania
Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) raise $5.6 billion. Bitcoin reaches $20,000. Euphoria, scams, and projects with no substance multiply. An 80% crash follows in 2018.
DeFi Summer
Decentralized finance (DeFi) explodes. Uniswap, Aave, and Compound enable lending, trading, and yield farming without intermediaries. DeFi TVL rises from $1 billion to $15 billion.
NFTs and adoption
NFTs become a cultural phenomenon (a Beeple work sells for $69 million at Christie's). Bitcoin reaches $69,000. El Salvador adopts BTC as legal tender.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs approved
The SEC approves the first spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States. BlackRock, Fidelity, and other managers launch their funds. Mass institutional adoption begins.
$0.001
BTC price in 2009
$73,000
Bitcoin all-time high (2024)
$2.5tn
Crypto market cap (2024)
Did You Know?
Satoshi Nakamoto's identity remains unknown to this day. Satoshi is believed to hold around 1 million BTC (never moved), worth roughly $70 billion, which would make them one of the wealthiest people in the world.
Regulatory Warning
Crypto-assets are high-risk investments. They are not regulated in the same way as traditional financial instruments. You can lose your entire investment. France's market regulator, the AMF, recommends investing only what you can afford to lose.
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