Quantcast
Published On: Wed, May 2nd, 2018

History of Bitcoin price changes

Bitcoin is currently the leading cryptocurrency in the world. It became a global phenomenon after its bullish run in 2017 that saw its price attain the $20, 000 all-time high. However, Bitcoin started almost a decade before that, and it has endured some very low and high times since it was created.

The events listed above help us track the price of Bitcoin since its creation.

October 2009

The U.S Dollars was the first fiat currency to be used in purchasing Bitcoin. This happened not long after Bitcoin was created. The transaction occurred between NewLibertyStandard and SIrus, with the former purchasing 5,050 BTC for $5.02 dollars. At this point, Bitcoin was selling for roughly $0.00099 per coin.

Bitcoin
Image/CASASCIUS

May 2010

The price of Bitcoin has gone up by over 60% after the first trade. Laszlo Hanyecz paid for 2 Pizza worth $25 with 10,000 BTC. This event marked the first solid valuation of Bitcoin, putting it at $0.0025 per coin.

July 2010

The price of Bitcoin jumped ten times in this month, surging from $0.008 to $0.08 a few days after Bitcoin Version 3 was released and made available on Slashdot.com. The launching of the Mt. Gox exchange that same month led to the Bitcoin value falling to $0.06 per coin.

February 2011

Despite the fact that Bitcoin started to gain recognition in 2010, it wasn’t able to attain the $1 level. That was achieved in early 2011 on the Mt. Gox exchange. This spike led to more interests in Bitcoin.

March 2011

Bitcoin couldn’t sustain that price though despite the launching of three new exchanges. The price of Bitcoin dropped from $1 to $0.72 within this month.

June 2011

If you are to mention one of the best and worst months in the history of Bitcoin, then this would be one of them. An article by Adrien Chen on Gawker led to more people realizing the value that Bitcoin holds. Mt. Gox recorded an increase in a number of traders as the price of Bitcoin reached over $31 this month.

Still, in this month, the Mt. Gox hack occurred. Hackers gained administrative access to the exchange platform and proceeded to deflate Bitcoin price to $0.01 per coin. Even though Mt. Gox was able to take back control and reverse all fraudulent transactions, the damage has been done on the Bitcoin price.

August 2012

After the Mt. Gox hack, the price of Bitcoin had been mostly stagnant around the $4 mark despite increased interest in the currency and other issues arising. It was in August 2012 that it was able to attain the $11 mark, thanks to the Ponzi scheme ran by Trendon T. Shavers. His promises of weekly 7% return to investors caught the attention of most people and the Bitcoin price spiked.

November 2012

In line with the original Bitcoin design, halving is done every four years, and the first halving occurred in November 2012. Prior to the halving, Bitcoin was trading around $12 per coin. Few days after that, it had surged higher to trade at $13.4 per BTC. After then, Bitcoin price went on to record massive success before the end of the year.

photo https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page

March 2013

By March 2013, Bitcoin has surged and was trading around the $47 mark. The Bitcoin version 0.8 caused a hardfork though it was brief. The problems encountered in the earlier version was corrected when version 0.8.1 was released, with the Bitcoin price subsequently rising to $68.98 days after that.

Still, in March, the Bitcoin price surged to $131 per coin due to some events surrounding the Cyprus Bail-in.

May 2013

The Bitcoin price which had dipped in April rose from $114 to $128 in May. This happened despite the Department of Homeland Security obtaining a warrant of seizure against Mt. Gox.

October 2013

The founder of dark web marketplace Dread Pirates Roberts was arrested in October 2013 by the FBI. The agency revealed that they seized 30,000 BTC of the Silk Road’s alleged Bitcoin holdings while an extra 144,000 BTC from the dark web marketplace’s private holdings were also seized three weeks later. The Bitcoin price in this month went up slightly though and traded around the $135 for the most part of the month.

November 2013

The Bitcoin price attained the $1,000 mark this month after the U.S Senate held a hearing on Bitcoin, with the hearing leading to some positive outcomes for Bitcoin.

December 2013

Bitcoin which had attained the $1200 mark in November plunged down to the $800 region after the Chinese government issued a ban on Financial Institutions, restricting them from using Bitcoin.

February 2014

The Bitcoin price plunged lower to the $600 region after major exchanges Mt. Gox, Bitstamp, and BTC-e all suffered DDoS attacks. In this same month, Mt. Gox closed down and stopped operations.

March 2014

IRS declaring Bitcoin to be a tax asset didn’t do the currency any good as it fell further and was trading around $453 per coin.

June 2014

Bitcoin was rising slowly after the negative news surrounding it and hit $628 after the U.S Marshals auctioned off 29,656 Seized Bitcoins.

December 2014

Bitcoin was trading around at $324 for most of December. The currency had been on a downward spiral for months despite positive news coming out from the crypto space such as the acceptance of Bitcoin by Microsoft, Braintree, and Dell.

January 2015

The bear market continued through January 2015, as the price of Bitcoin dropped below the $200 mark after Bitstamp hack. This event led to the loss of 18,866 Bitcoins. The market recovered shortly though to trade at $225 per coin after Coinbase launched in the U.S

June 2015

BitLicense was released by the state of New York, with Bitcoin price going up in value to trade at $232 that month.

September 2015

The declaration that Bitcoin is a commodity by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) didn’t alter the price of Bitcoin that much as it was trading at $238 at that time. A month later, Gemini exchange was launched, and the Bitcoin price surged higher to reach $268. Still, in October, the EU declared no VAT on Bitcoin trades, a decision that led to Bitcoin price reaching $318.

January 2016

Bitcoin which had been on the rise over the last few months was brought down a bit after Mike Hearn left Bitcoin. The price dropped from $431 to $397 within a few days. The Bitcoin Round Table Consensus that took place in April saw the Bitcoin price drop from $439 to $433.

April 2016

Gaming platform, Steem started accepting Bitcoin which led to the price to attain the $460 threshold. In May, Craig Wright claimed that he was the Bitcoin creator, a claim that was backed by Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen.

July 2016

The second halving of Bitcoin occurred this month, with the price going above the $600 mark. The next halving day is expected to occur in July 2020. The Bitfinex hack the following month dampened moods, and the BTC price fell to $591.

January 2017

For the first time in three years, the Bitcoin price was able to attain the $1,000 mark as it began to witness more media coverage.

April 2017

The Bitcoin price escalated past the $1,200 mark after Japan declared it as a legal tender.

August 2017

Bitcoin Cash was split from Bitcoin this month due to Segwit issue. At that point, Bitcoin was already trading above $3,000. The following month, China banned all ICO events in the country, at which point Bitcoin price dropped from $4,668 to $4223.

Still, in September, China decided to shut down all cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. Bitcoin was trading around $3,700 by then.

October 2017

Bitcoin attained the $5,000 mark for the first time. It grew past $7,000 after Bitcoin hardfork that led to the creation of Bitcoin Gold. CME launched its Bitcoin futures that same month.

November 2017

In November, Segwit2x was canceled. The Bitcoin price reached the $10,000 mark for the first time that month. November saw the currency increased by hundreds of percentages as it reached $17,000 after CBOE Bitcoin futures was launched.

December 2017

On December 18, 2017, Bitcoin hit its all-time high of $19,498 as it fell short of the $20,000 mark.  Find all information about the all-time high here https://www.abitgreedy.com/all-time-high-price/. However, that marked the beginning of another bear cycle as the Bitcoin price has been falling since then.

February 2018

Increased scrutiny from governments across the world has led to the Bitcoin price losing roughly 70% of its value. The ban on all cryptocurrency adverts by social media companies and other regulatory frameworks by governments across the world has affected the Bitcoin price so far this year, as it struggles to attain and sustain its price at the $9,000 beacon.

Conclusion

Since its invention, Bitcoin has had a very interesting price history. There have been several events that have helped shape the price of Bitcoin, but the year 2017 was the best for the currency since its inception a decade ago.

It would be very interesting to see the direction the Bitcoin price will take this year.

Author: Ronny Martelli

On the DISPATCH: Headlines  Local  Opinion

Subscribe to Weekly Newsletter

* indicates required
/ ( mm / dd ) [ALL INFO CONFIDENTIAL]

About the Author

- Outside contributors to the Dispatch are always welcome to offer their unique voices, contradictory opinions or presentation of information not included on the site.

Displaying 1 Comments
Have Your Say
  1. […] can’t tell the same about cryptocurrency. One day it blows up, making you a millionaire, the next day you lose the half of your illusionary wealth. Something […]

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these html tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

like_us_on_facebook

 

The Global Dispatch Facebook page- click here

Movie News Facebook page - click here

Television News Facebook page - click here

Weird News Facebook page - click here 

DISPATCH RADIO

dispatch_radio

THE BRANDON JONES SHOW

brandon_jones_show-logo

Archives