INTRODUCTION

How many times has bitcoin been declared dead? At least（最少/短语强调后面数量的下

限） 463 times. And it’s never been（短语从未发生过） because of its monetary
system （货币体系）failing or its technical operation breaking down（崩溃）, but
because of its price crashing.

Some may argue that those two things — tech development and price actions
— are inherently connected, but that’s not the case.

Price swings in bitcoin are mainly driven by its own halving cycles as well as
macroeconomic events. Since it roared into life from humble beginnings,
bitcoin has had a turbulent history. Its infamous volatility has resulted in（造成
了/固定短语） multiple appreciations of 1,000% in value, only to later drop by as
much as （例如）80% or even 90% — such as in 2014.

Every single time（每一次）, though, it has bounced back, recovered its previous
highs and gone on（持续） to set new ones. This resilience has proven（） some
of （一些）the most seasoned（富有经验的） investors（投资者） wrong and won new
supporters along the way.（在这个过程）

In this article, we take you through bitcoin’s price history in detail（详细地）,

year after year（年复一年）, around the critical events that shaped（塑造） it as an
innovative monetary system.

PRICE HISTORY

(Figures vary somewhat

based on the data
%
source chosen,
Start High Low EOY Performa
especially in the first
nce
few years.)
Year

2010 $0.00 $0.40 $0.00 $0.30 9,900%

3

2011 $0.30 $32 $0.29 $4.70 1,467%

2012 $4.70 $16 $4 $13.3 183%

0
(Figures vary somewhat
based on the data
%
source chosen,
Start High Low EOY Performa
especially in the first
nce
few years.)
Year

2013 $13.3 $1,163 $13 $805 5,953%

0

2014 $805 $936 $310 $318 -61%

2015 $318 $465 $172 $434 36%

2016 $434 $981 $351 $966 123%

2017 $966 $19,89 $784 $14,2 1,375%

2 45

2018 $13,6 $18,34 $3,217 $3,80 -72%

57 3 9

2019 $3,84 $13,01 $3,401 $7,24 88%

4 7 0

2020 $7,20 $29,09 $3,850 $28,9 302%

0 6 51

2021 $28,9 $68,78 $29,79 $46,4 60%

51 9 6 30

2022 $46,3 $47,83 $18,49 $16,5 -64%

79 5 0 37

2023 $16,5 $44,68 $16,47 $42,5 157%

37 3 7 77

Bitcoin was created in 2008 to challenge the existing system of centralized,

credit-based money issued by bureaucrats and unstable banks. By trusting
code instead of human vulnerabilities, bitcoin offered a way out of that
debacle.

At first the new invention was nothing more than an experiment, but those
who read the white paper and were knowledgeable of cryptography, money
and finance, could already see it turning into something much bigger than a
simple cryptographic toy.

For the first year, bitcoin didn’t have a market price; it had no premine or any
rounds of investment from big venture capital firms. Something changed in
2010 when it started to be traded for goods and services which would set it on
the path toward today’s innovative and alternative currency system — a
journey from $0 in 2009 to $68,000 in only 13 years.

Next, we’ll explore how bitcoin grew from a tech plaything with lofty
ambitions to a bona fide monetary asset that’s continuing to deliver on its
promise.

JANUARY 2009-DECEMBER 2013

Bitcoin’s proof-of-concept was emphasized in the white paper published on

October 31, 2008, by Satoshi Nakamoto. All through 2009, anyone could join
the network by mining blocks of Bitcoin with their computers’ CPUs without
much effort. All things considered, the price was still $0.

2009: GENESIS

Price Range $0-$.0009

Satoshi mined the genesis block with the famous text note and headline from
the London Times, “Chancellor on Brink of Second Bailout for Banks” — a
clear reference to the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

The block reward was 50 bitcoin and people were mining thousands of bitcoin
every day. The New Liberty Standard Exchange recorded the first exchange of
bitcoin for dollars in late 2009, though people were mostly trading bitcoin
over the BitcoinTalk forum.

The European sovereign debt crisis began in November when Greece revealed
that its budget deficit was nearly double the prior estimates. While this event
was too early in Bitcoin’s history to affect the price in any meaningful way,
indebted sovereigns would continue to be a worry in the legacy monetary
system against which bitcoin compared itself.

On October 12th, 2009 a member of the BitcoinTalk forum traded 5050 BTC
for a sum of $5.02 via Paypal, which implies a price of $0.00099 per coin and
one of the lowest prices per BTC ever recorded. This transaction kicked off a
series of OTC purchases in the succeeding months.

2010: BITCOIN BEGINS TRADING

Price Range $.00099-$0.4

On the 20th of February, a person on reddit using the username theymos

claims to have sold 160 BTC for $.003, which would make it the lowest ever
price recorded.
On May 22, Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin which is held
as an iconic first exchange of bitcoin for a real-world product; Bitcoin Pizza
Day was born.

The first large-scale bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, made its appearance on July
18.

In August, the most significant vulnerability in the history of the Bitcoin

network was exploited when an attacker managed to spend billions of bitcoin
they did not own. The bug was spotted and fixed within hours, and miners had
to fork the network and release a new, updated Bitcoin protocol without the
malicious transaction included.

2011: DOLLAR PARITY

Price Range $0.4-$4.70

Bitcoin achieved a milestone in February when it reached parity with the U.S.
dollar for the first time. On April 26, 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto sent his final
email to fellow developers stating he had “moved on to other projects” — and
was never heard from again.

Bitcoin payment processor BitPay was founded in May to allow companies to

accept bitcoin as a form of payment. By June, the price of one bitcoin had
reached $30 but slowly dropped back to the $2-$4 range that it sustained for
the rest of the year.

Nonprofits like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and WikiLeaks began taking
bitcoin in donations, the latter turning to bitcoin after PayPal had frozen
WikiLeaks’ accounts in December 2010.

In June of 2011, Mt. Gox experienced its first hack in which hackers managed
to access the company auditors’ computer and change the price of bitcoin to
1 cent.

2012: EUROPEAN DEBT CRISIS

Price Range: $4-$13.50

The beginning of 2012 was still marked by the European sovereign debt crisis,
with some member states becoming highly dependent on the European
Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to service their debts.
Cyprus was particularly hard hit, with incremental demand for bitcoin coming
from the areas most affected by the Cypriot financial crisis.

Coinbase was founded in June 2012, offering a new way to buy and sell
cryptocurrencies.

On the 9th of August, a Mt. Gox glitch caused bitcoin to be priced at $1B a
piece on the exchange. 11 days later on the 20th of August, the price tumbled
50% from $15.28 to $7.60 as news of a dubious Bitcoin savings and trust fund
scheme offering a 7% weekly interest rate was closed. The operator of the
fund, Trendon Shavers would later be sentenced in the first Bitcoin securities-
fraud case.

Bitcoin spent the remainder of the year consolidating, and in November it

went through its first Halving. The price at the end of the year was $13.50.

2013: THE SILK ROAD SEIZURE

Price Range: $13-$755

Bitcoin experienced its first post-halving bull run. The year started with a price
of just above $13, rallying to $26 over the course of a month. The rally
continued in April and quickly rose to $268, before crashing 80% to $51 from
the 10th to the 13th of the same month.

In June Mt. Gox stopped processing US withdrawals and by July, the price had
retraced back to $68.50. It continued to trade at just above $100 when Silk
Road was seized by the FBI in October.

On the 12th of August, the German regulators officially declared Bitcoin a unit
of account.

By December, it had spiked to a new all-time high of $1,163, rising 840% in 8

weeks and then fell back to $687 only days later. In December, the People’s
Bank of China (PBOC) prohibited Chinese financial institutions from using
bitcoin, resulting in a drop to just above $700. It wouldn’t be the last time
China “banned” bitcoin.

JANUARY 2014-DECEMBER 2017

This period is identified by the advent of altcoins and the injection of big funds
into the cryptocurrency market, components of the ICO mania of 2017. Bitcoin
went from just over $800 in 2014 to trading at close to $20,000 in 2017.

With big money came greater attention from the media and financial
institutions, and governments started to observe Bitcoin and its phenomena
more closely — sometimes putting pressure on the market through strict
regulations, especially in China.

2014: MT. GOX IS HACKED

Price Range: $767-$321

Bitcoin’s infamous volatility was very high in 2014. The year started with a
price recovery to above $1,000, but by the end of February, it had already
retraced back to under $600 with a flash crash down to $111 (a 90% drop
from its $1,000 high!) due to troubles at Mt. Gox. — the hack involved user
funds of around 750,000 bitcoin. The exchange had to file for bankruptcy
following the episode.

The PBOC instructed domestic lenders to close the accounts of Chinese bitcoin
exchanges by April 15.

Bitcoin spent the turbulent rest of the year recovering and crashing shortly
thereafter and closed 2014 at just over $300.
In December, the first Bitcoin hard fork, Bitcoin XT, was released by Mike
Hearn, who aimed to increase maximum transactions per second from 7 to
24. Such an increase meant the block size had to be expanded from one
megabyte to eight megabytes.

2015: THE BEGINNING OF THE BLOCKSIZE WARS

Price Range: $314-$431

On January 4, Bitstamp suffered a serious security breach, losing

approximately 19,000 BTC, with a market value of about $5.1m at the time.

Bitcoin started the new year at $314 and kept on relatively quiet compared to
2014, with little volatility and more consolidation. Ethereum was launched on
July 30, and its platform triggered the creation of thousands of new
cryptocurrencies eager to compete with Bitcoin in the years to come.

On June 22, 2015, Gavin Andresen published BIP 101 which called for an
increase to the block size. The Blocksize Wars continued in August with Gavin
Andresen and Mike Hearn proposing to increase the block size limit to 20 MB.

In September, the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

defined bitcoin as a commodity. In contrast, the EU decided against imposing
value added tax (VAT) on crypto transactions in October. This effectively
defined bitcoin as a currency.

2016: PRICE RECOVERY

Price Range: $434-$966

The second Bitcoin Halving occurred on July 9, and throughout the year the
price of bitcoin was relatively stable, trading between $350 and $700 in the
summer months, only to hit $966 at the end of the year.

2016 was marked by the hack of the bitcoin exchange Bitfinex in August,
which resulted in nearly 120,000 BTC stolen from users.

2017: CRYPTO AND ICO MANIA

Price Range: $998-$14,245

Like 2013, the year that followed the first Bitcoin Halving, 2017 was also
historic for bitcoin. In the beginning of the year, the price hovered around
$1,000, broke $2,000 in mid-May and skyrocketed to $19,892 on December
15, recording a 20x rise in less than 12 months.

The chart above refers to bitcoin’s dominance in the cryptocurrency market.

With the creation of thousands of new cryptocurrencies, and the explosion of
the ICO mania, bitcoin’s dominance fell dramatically, as investor funds and
gambling money made their way from bitcoin into the altcoin markets.

The ICO mania signaled that venture capital firms had arrived and thousands
of crypto projects began to get funding, turning the crypto market into a
casino of sorts. Incidentally, the misinformation and FUD around Bitcoin
increased around this time.

On August 2, a major bitcoin exchange, Bitfinex, was hacked and nearly

120,000 BTC (around $60m at the time) was stolen by hackers. The bitcoin
price immediately tumbled 14% to $214 in a period of just 30 minutes, before
it rebounded upwards the very same day — a typical flash crash.

In August, a major upgrade — SegWit — was implemented on the Bitcoin

network, which brought some relief to Bitcoin’s scalability issue and enabled
the implementation of the Lightning Network.
After breaking $5,000 in the beginning of September, news that
China wanted to crack down on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies crashed the price
down to the $3,600 range. By October, the cryptocurrency had already
recovered to $5,000, and the following epic surge to $20,000 awaited.

Bitcoin futures contracts were first introduced in December, trading on the

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

2017 was the year everyone took notice of bitcoin, from institutional and
retail investors to governments and economists. They all started their own
battle to back or oppose Bitcoin.

JANUARY 2018-NOVEMBER 2021

After the previous era of failed ICOs, the altcoin market tried other ways to
raise capital, including STOs (“security token offering”) and IEOs (“initial
exchange offering”) — all with poor results. In the meantime, Bitcoin was
preparing for a series of technological advances that would benefit its
scalability and security, culminating in the Taproot implementation in
November 2021.

This was the Covid era, when the world and its economy shut down for nearly
two years, bringing dramatic consequences to financial markets and bitcoin.
Yet, this was also the era when bitcoin hit the current all-time high of over
$69,000 — against all odds.

2018: BEAR TERRITORY

Price Range: $14,093-$3,809

After the bullish action at the end of 2017, bitcoin spent 2018 in bear
territory, and by the end of the first quarter, its price had already retraced
almost 50% from January’s value.

In January, Chinese authorities ordered the closing of mining operations. The

notice called for an “orderly exit” without setting a deadline.

On the 18th of June, Facebook announce their cryptocurrency project, Libra.

The announcement prompted a swift reaction from government regulators
worldwide. The announcement didn’t impact the price of bitcoin too much.

For most of the year, bitcoin traded within the $6,000 and $8,000 range,
hitting a bottom of $3,250 in December and closing the year at just over
$3,700, down 73% from the beginning of the year.

2019: LEAVING THE BEAR BEHIND

Price Range: $3,692-$7,240

Bitcoin mainly moved sideways during 2019, with a significant spike in June
when positive news about institutional investors and wider adoption of
cryptocurrencies converged and triggered a positive move upwards.

Bakkt, the long awaited and much hyped futures contracts was released on
the 22nd of September.

For the rest of the year, bitcoin price hovered around the $7,000 mark, ending
2019 at just over $7,200.

2020: COVID SURGE

Price Range: $7,194-$28,841

2020 will be remembered as the year of Covid, which affected many aspects
of life, including financial markets and bitcoin. When the deadly flu was
declared a pandemic in March 2020, markets went into significant turmoil,
crashing to price levels that had not been seen since the 2008 economic
crisis.
Bitcoin crashed to a low of $4,000 on March 17, as the world witnessed the
events unfolding. In May, the third Halving in Bitcoin’s history occurred, and
the price slowly recovered, pushing up to over $10,000 again.

MicroStrategy was the first publicly traded company to start accumulating

bitcoin in its cash reserves. Micheal Saylor, who had once fiercely opposed
Bitcoin, admitted that he did not understand Bitcoin at the time and he had
now realized that bitcoin was the world’s only conceivable safe haven and
sound money. The company went on to purchase in excess of 130,000
BTC and is showing no signs of stopping.

From the end of August, the series of positive news around bitcoin adoption
started to push the price up, as well as the U.S. government’s attempts to
help the economy recover by more money printing — bringing the amount of
dollars in circulation from 15 to 19 trillion over just a few months. More money
printing led many to believe that their dollars were no longer a safe haven,
and they started looking at the sound money qualities that bitcoin could offer.

By the end of the year, bitcoin price was back to its previous ATH of $20,000
and surpassed it, closing on December 31 at over $29,000.

2021: FROM HOPE TO DESPAIR

Price Range: $29,022-$47,191

After an exciting end to 2020, bitcoin started 2021 with great optimism and
had a wild first quarter culminating with the first all-time high of the year in
mid-April, at $64,594. Such a bullish movement was likely triggered by claims
of continuous liquidity injection in the markets by the Federal Reserve,
coupled with news that Elon Musk, Tesla and other businesses had started
allocating bitcoin instead of USD in their treasuries. Tesla announced in
February that it had acquired $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin — 10% of its
treasury — for “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on
our cash.”

In May, a new China restriction hit Bitcoin, announcing that financial

institutions and payment platforms were prohibited from transacting in
cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, all the bitcoin mining plants had to close
down. Bitcoin crashed to $32,450 on May 23 and to a new low of $29,970 on
July 21. This China ban also had repercussions on the mining industry, with
the hash rate dropping significantly in the following months, as miners
relocated their ASICs primarily to Russia, Kazakhstan and North America.
In September, renewed optimism followed a series of events, including the
hash rate recovery, the news that El Salvador had made bitcoin legal tender
and the first futures-based Bitcoin ETF launching in October — which led to
the second all-time high for the year at $68,789, on November 10, 2021.

Bitcoin closed out the year by retreating 20% from that all-time high. This
decline in bitcoin’s price occurred in conjunction with broader market declines
that were triggered by concerns over a new COVID-19 virus variant.

Imminent interest rate hikes, soaring inflation and announcements that the
Fed would begin to reduce its bond purchases and slowly drain liquidity from
financial markets, were all signs that the world economy was going into
recession mode.

JANUARY 2022-PRESENT

2022: LIQUIDITY IS DRAINED AND INSOLVENCIES BEGIN

Price Range: $46,319-$16,537

The world’s economic and financial turmoil continued in 2022, made worse by
a new war on Europe’s doorstep, the removal of Russia from global payment
systems like Visa and SWIFT, rising interest rates (.75 basis points each month
— totaling 4.25% by year-end), Bank of England bailout, rising inflation, gas
and energy crisis and a general recession looming over most of the Western
world.

Stricter regulations on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies called for by governments

and regulators added extra FUD to the general mood, further distancing
investors from riskier assets.

By January, bitcoin had dropped to $35,000 over the surging threat of an

imminent Russia-Ukraine war, which promptly erupted at the end of February.
By March, bitcoin had recovered to $47,459, but the global geopolitical and
economic crisis caused a new and more durable crash down to the $20,000
range, a level that bitcoin kept for months as the economy tried to find relief.

Beginning in March, the Luna Foundation Guard bought bitcoin as a reserve

asset intended to support the Terra Network’s algorithmic stablecoin, UST, in
case of “volatile market conditions.” The company acquired 80,000 bitcoin in
the process, worth nearly $3 billion at the time.

On May 7, there were early signs of a capital flight from UST as $85 million
UST was swapped for $84.5 million USDC, causing UST to lose its peg to the
dollar in the process. By the 14th, the Luna Foundation Guard had sold all but
313 of their 80,000 bitcoin in an unsuccessful attempt to defend the
stablecoin peg. The bitcoin price was severely affected, dropping 44%
between May 6 and May 18.

The fall of Terra caused contagion in the market, leading to the collapse of
major CeFi firms Celsius, Voyager and hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
3AC was unable to meet obligations toward its partners and creditors, and the
default on its loans created a domino effect on all parties involved. FTX
rescued these companies in an apparent show of strength.

Tesla sold 75% of its bitcoin holdings in Q2 after the fall in value in previous
months.

Mining firm Core Scientific also began selling their bitcoin stack in June,
bringing the number of BTC held from 9,618 BTC in April to only 24 at the end
of the year. Core Scientific’s liquidity problems only emerged in October, and
the company raised the possibility of filing for bankruptcy, listing among the
reasons for its struggles the financial exposure to Celsius and its affiliates.
Another bitcoin miner, Argo Blockchain, also experienced financial troubles in
October, failing to raise $27 million from a strategic investor and its stock
losing over 41% of its value on Nasdaq.

In September, Ethereum differentiated itself further from Bitcoin by switching

to proof-of-stake.

At first, November provided respite for the bitcoin price — until Coindesk
published a revealing article on Almeda’s balance sheet and the collapse of
FTX began. A few days later, Binance’s Chengpeng Zhao (CZ) ignited an
exchange war by tweeting his intention to sell $2.1 billion USD equivalent in
cash (BUSD and FTT), which triggered a 27% crash over the course of the
following two days.

With rumors circulating wildly about Grayscale’s insolvency, Grayscale was

forced to release a statement on the 18th declaring that their coins were safe
with Coinbase. The markets remained on tenterhooks, and so on the 21st,
bitcoin reached a new low of $15,477 as rumors of Genesis insolvency
continued.

Bitcoin closed the year at $16,537, down 64% from 12 months earlier.

2023: PRICE RECOVERY

Price Range: $16,537 -

With the new year came some fresh optimism as investors began to believe
the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases would slow down. The
bitcoin price broke out on January 10, increasing 24% over the course of four
days.

On January 21, Casey Rodomor launched Ordinals, which enabled on-chain

Bitcoin native digital artifacts. The price increased 45% in January, closing out
the month at $23,150 and showing signs of a strong recovery from a difficult
bear market.

March: Financial Instability and Regulatory Proposals

The month began tumultuously with bitcoin’s price dropping over 5% from
$23,500 to $22,240 on March 3, following news of Silvergate Capital’s
potential insolvency. Silvergate, a crucial banking partner for many Bitcoin
businesses, faced about $8 billion in withdrawals after the collapse of major
crypto entities like FTX, prompting fears about the bank’s future. By March 8,
Silvergate announced its decision to unwind operations and liquidate,
confirming the market’s fears. (See Silvergate’s solvency issues and the
liquidation notice.)

On March 9, President Biden introduced a proposal to tax bitcoin miners by

30%, further agitating the market. The subsequent collapse of Silicon Valley
Bank on March 10 due to a massive bank run marked the second-largest bank
failure in U.S. history, intensifying the financial instability. This event led to
significant disruptions, notably affecting the USDC/USD peg, which dipped to
$0.87 largely because Circle’s undisclosed reserves were stuck in the now-
defunct bank.

The crisis continued with the New York State Department of Financial Services
closing Signature Bank on March 12, another blow to the financial sector’s
stability. Despite these banking collapses, bitcoin demonstrated remarkable
resilience; it rebounded past $24,000 on March 13, outperforming the S&P
500 as federal regulators reassured that customer funds at the affected banks
were safe.

Amid this financial turmoil, Balaji Srinivasan, a well-known figure in the tech
and crypto communities, made headlines with a bold prediction. He wagered
that bitcoin would reach $1 million per coin within 90 days. This bold claim
captured people’s attention, adding an additional layer of speculation to a
volatile market environment. Balaji later admitted this to be a cheap
marketing stunt to raise his profile and get himself featured on podcasts.
April to June: Banking Sector Repercussions and Regulatory Actions

April saw ongoing repercussions from March’s banking crises, culminating in

the Federal Reserve’s intervention to stabilize First Republic Bank with a $30
billion injection. However, by May 1, First Republic was taken over by the FDIC
and sold to JPMorgan Chase, marking another significant banking failure.

The regulatory environment for bitcoin became increasingly complex in June.

On June 5 and 6, the SEC took decisive action against Binance and Coinbase
for securities violations, heightening the regulatory scrutiny on bitcoin
exchanges. The same month saw allegations of market manipulation
against Binance, which reportedly engaged in practices to stabilize its native
token by manipulating bbitcoin prices.

Related: BTC was being sold off for USDT reserves and Travis Kling discussed
Binance’s antics.

August to December: ETF Developments and Market Recovery

The latter part of the year marked significant progress in bitcoin’s institutional
acceptance. On August 19, ProShares launched a Bitcoin futures ETF on the
NYSE, heralding a new phase of institutional participation. This was followed
by a significant legal victory for Grayscale, which won approval to convert its
Bitcoin Trust into a spot ETF, promising more direct market exposure for
investors.

From October 16 to October 23, the price of bitcoin briefly rallied 25% from
$27,000 to $35,000 for the first time since May 2022, bolstered by positive
sentiment about a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, which activated a short
squeeze. By the end of October, the bitcoin price had appreciated 110% since
the start of the year.

In September, the Financial Accounting Services Board (FASB) agreed to

adopt fair value accounting for digital assets, enhancing Bitcoin’s
attractiveness as an asset class for corporate balance sheets.

On November 21, Changpeng Zhao resigned as CEO of the world’s largest

cryptocurrency exchange Binance following his guilty plea to money
laundering violations to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Bullish momentum continued into December, catalyzed by significant

movements in the currency markets and growing optimism about regulatory
developments. Bitcoin’s price saw an impressive 18% increase from $37,800
to $44,500 as the USD experienced a sharp decline against the yen, after a
brief surge above the 150-per-dollar mark for the first time since October
2022. This rally was further fueled by the anticipation of approvals for US spot
ETFs, which investors hoped would bring even more stability and legitimacy to
bitcoin trading.

The year concluded on a high note as bitcoin’s price consistently held above
the $40,000 threshold, reflecting robust market confidence bolstered by these
ETF developments and the broader market’s acceptance of bitcoin. This
enduring rally not only highlighted bitcoin’s resilience in overcoming various
challenges throughout the year but also its increasingly entrenched role
within the global financial system.

2024: BITCOIN GAINS MOMENTUM

Bitcoin began the year trading at $43,906, with a market capitalization close
to $915 billion. The long-standing battle over the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs
reached a pivotal moment, as the SEC, compelled by judicial rulings to revisit
its previous denials, finally greenlit bitcoin for trading in an ETF format. This
landmark decision came after much anticipation and speculation within the
financial community. Consequently, on January 11, 2024, Bitcoin ETFs began
trading, following approval for 11 fund managers to list their funds. This
regulatory breakthrough propelled bitcoin’s price to nearly $49,000 in the
days leading up to the announcement. However, the price saw some
normalization in the weeks that followed, as the markets adjusted to this new
investment avenue.

The momentum continued into March, with Bitcoin breaking through the
$70,000 mark for the first time on March 11. This milestone set the stage for a
period of consolidation, where the price fluctuated within an 18% range,
maintaining levels between approximately $60,000 and $70,000, where it
stayed until May.

The third Bitcoin halving took place 69 minutes into April 20, 2024. This
coincided with the launch of the new Runes protocol by Casey Rodomar. This
halving reduced the block subsidy to 3.125 bitcoin, though the total block
reward reached 40.751 bitcoin due to a surge in transaction fees. (That
reward was secured by bitcoin miner ViaBTC).

By the start of May, the market had absorbed outflows from Grayscale
totaling 320,000 bitcoin. The 11 ETFs, led by Blackrock, purchased an
additional 214,000 bitcoin. The insatiable demand for bitcoin from traditional
finance companies highlights the beginning of renewed confidence in bitcoin
from institutions.

On April 29, Japanese financial authorities took decisive action in the foreign
exchange market to bolster the yen, which had weakened significantly
against the U.S. dollar, breaching the critical threshold of 152. The
intervention was swift and effective, resulting in the yen appreciating by
5.7%, settling at 154 to the dollar within minutes.

The following day, April 30, marked a notable advancement in Bitcoin

investment opportunities in Asia. Hong Kong approved its first bitcoin ETFs,
opening up new avenues for Chinese investors. Those holding Hong Kong
residence permits, as well as Chinese investors with registered businesses in
Hong Kong, were granted eligibility to purchase shares in these ETFs.

FAQS

How much was bitcoin when it first came out?

Bitcoin didn’t have a price when it was first introduced into the world. For
several years, there were no exchanges where users could trade it for fiat
money and it was only possible to accumulate bitcoin through mining — or
buying it peer-to-peer from someone who had mined it.

What is bitcoin’s highest-ever price?

Bitcoin’s highest-ever price is $68,789, reached on November 10, 2021. This

all-time high is highest price ever paid for Bitcoin so far, since it was launched
in 2009.

Is now a good time to buy bitcoin?

The best time to buy bitcoin depends on the investor’s situation; however,
when the price is low, it is cheaper to accumulate more. This article explores
bitcoin’s price patterns and the macro environment around it, which should
make it easier for investors to more conveniently identify when it’s the best
time to buy or sell bitcoin.

CONCLUSION

It should be clear by now that bitcoin is an asset like no other. Its ecosystem
tends to operate on four-year cycles, while its price may be defined by factors
relating to monetary policy, such as the implementation of quantitative easing
or quantitative tightening policies.

In just 14 years, bitcoin’s incredible growth has established it as a new asset

class everyone started to pay attention to.

Bitcoin Magazine provides a lot of help for those who’d like to do their
homework to better learn about bitcoin’s price movements and how to make
informed investment decisions.

Consider education as a tool to understand why Bitcoin has gone so far in just
over a decade, and you may be able to shift to a longer-term vision beyond its
day-to-day volatility.