The story, year by year — boom, bust, and what got built
Click any event on the timeline to read what happened and why it mattered.
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A movement of cryptographers (the "cypherpunks") advocated for privacy and digital cash. Early attempts like DigiCash (eCash) and b-money explored digital money but failed to gain traction — usually due to centralization or reliance on a trusted party.
On Halloween 2008, an anonymous figure named Satoshi Nakamoto emailed a whitepaper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" to a cryptography mailing list. It proposed solving the double-spend problem without a trusted third party, using proof of work.
On January 3, 2009, Nakamoto mined Bitcoin’s first block (the "genesis block"), embedding the text "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks" — a timestamp and a pointed political statement.
On May 22, 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC — the first known real-world Bitcoin transaction. May 22 is now celebrated as "Bitcoin Pizza Day".
Japan-based Mt. Gox handled the majority of Bitcoin trading — until it filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after revealing the loss of roughly 850,000 BTC to theft. The event scarred the industry and fueled the "not your keys, not your coins" ethos.
Vitalik Buterin and others launched Ethereum, a blockchain with a general-purpose virtual machine that could run "smart contracts" — code that executes on the chain. This unlocked use cases far beyond simple payments.
A wave of "initial coin offerings" raised billions by selling new tokens, often with little more than a whitepaper. Bitcoin reached roughly $20,000 before crashing, and most ICO tokens went to zero. Regulators worldwide took notice.
Composable decentralized finance protocols (lending, AMMs like Uniswap) exploded in activity and TVL. "Yield farming" rewarded early users with tokens, kicking off a new boom in on-chain financial apps.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — unique on-chain assets representing art, collectibles, and more — surged in popularity. Bitcoin and Ethereum hit new all-time highs amid institutional interest and celebrity adoption.
The TerraUSD stablecoin collapsed, erasing tens of billions. Lenders Celsius and BlockFi failed. In November, giant exchange FTX collapsed after revelations of misused customer funds — a defining cautionary tale about centralization and risk.
Regulated stablecoins and clearer frameworks advanced. In 2024, US regulators approved spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, giving traditional investors exposure without self-custody — a major institutional milestone.
In April 2024, at block 840,000, Bitcoin completed its fourth halving — the block reward fell from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, tightening new supply just as the spot ETFs widened institutional access.
A January 2025 US executive order signaled a friendlier federal posture toward digital assets, and the GENIUS Act (signed July 18, 2025) became the first federal stablecoin law. Bitcoin set successive all-time highs in 2025, topping $120,000 for the first time.
Crypto spans payments, DeFi, NFTs, identity, and Layer 2 scaling. It remains volatile and risky, but the infrastructure is more robust than at any point in its short, eventful history.