Bitcoin Timeline
Every major milestone from the whitepaper to $100K+ — halvings, price peaks, adoption breakthroughs, and the moments that shaped a new monetary system.
Why the timeline matters
Bitcoin's current price and global adoption are incomprehensible without understanding the arc of events that got here. A pseudonymous developer published a nine-page whitepaper in October 2008. The first block was mined in January 2009. The first real-world transaction — two pizzas for 10,000 BTC — happened in May 2010. The first exchange launched the same year. By 2013, Bitcoin had its first brush with mainstream attention. By 2021, it had been adopted as legal tender by a sovereign nation. By 2024, Wall Street's largest asset manager had launched a Bitcoin ETF. The timeline is the argument.
Key milestones to understand
The four halvings (2012, 2016, 2020, 2024) are the most structurally important events — each one cut the rate of new Bitcoin issuance in half, making the asset demonstrably more scarce. The Mt. Gox collapse in 2014 was the first major trust test: Bitcoin survived it. The 2017 ICO bubble and 2022 FTX collapse were the same test in different forms — both times, Bitcoin continued to exist and recover while the broader crypto ecosystem suffered. Each crisis has, so far, resolved in Bitcoin's favour.
Events sourced from public records, Bitcointalk.org archives, Coinmarketcap historical data, and CoinGecko. Dates verified against blockchain timestamps where applicable.
2008-2009
Bitcoin Whitepaper Published
Genesis Block Mined
First Bitcoin Transaction
First Exchange Rate
2010-2013
Bitcoin Pizza Day
Mt. Gox Exchange Launches
Bitcoin Reaches $1
First Major Bubble: $31
First Halving
Market Cap Hits $1 Billion
Silk Road Shut Down
Price Peaks at $1,163
2014-2017
Mt. Gox Collapse
Second Halving
Bitcoin Cash Fork
SegWit Activates
CME Futures Launch
All-Time High: $19,783
2018-2021
Lightning Network Grows
Third Halving
MicroStrategy Buys Bitcoin
PayPal Adds Bitcoin
Tesla Buys $1.5B in Bitcoin
Coinbase IPO
El Salvador Adopts Bitcoin
All-Time High: $69,044
2022-Present
FTX Collapse
US Spot Bitcoin ETFs Approved
New All-Time High: $73,794
Fourth Halving
Bitcoin Breaks $100,000
US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
Bitcoin is
years
months
days
6,280 days since the genesis block (Jan 3, 2009)
Producing a block every ~10 minutes, 24/7, with zero downtime.
Supply Perspective
Bitcoin's supply schedule runs for approximately 131 years — from 2009 to ~2140. The last fraction of a Bitcoin won't be mined for another ~113 years.
Over 95% of all Bitcoin has already been mined, yet the supply schedule continues for over a century. The decreasing issuance through halvings means the remaining supply is released at an ever-slower rate — making each sat harder to earn over time.
Bitcoin is older than...
It didn't arrive yesterday.
...but younger than
Still early in the grand scheme.
Bitcoin has survived 17 years of crashes, bans, exchange failures, forks, and FUD — and keeps producing a new block every ~10 minutes. It's older than most apps on your phone, yet still has ~113 years of new supply left.
You're still early. The network never stops.