Bitcoin Price History 2009 to 2022 – Forbes Advisor

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Bitcoin (BTC) is just a teenager, launched in 2009 by the enigmatic Satoshi Nakamoto.

Since then, Bitcoin has seen a meteoric rise, rising from fractions of a penny to an all-time high of nearly $69,000 in November 2021.

The big “B” was the best performing asset class in the decade before the record high. Bitcoin returned more than 230% over the 10-year period ending March 2021. For that reason alone, it is now firmly entrenched in the mainstream.

But Bitcoin’s price journey has been far from smooth. The original digital currency has experienced many violent drops and pumps. Let’s take a closer look at the ups and downs in Bitcoin’s price history.

What price did Bitcoin start at?

Bitcoin was originally worth almost nothing.

The transaction that first gave Bitcoin monetary value was in October 2009, when Finnish computer science student Martti Malmi, known online as Sirius, sold 5,050 coins for $5.02, giving each Bitcoin a value of $0.0009 each.

The exchange took place on PayPal. It may be hard to believe today, with so many crypto exchanges dedicated to buying and selling BTC today.

Bitcoin’s Early Years: 2009 to 2012

The growth in BTC adoption in the early years started slowly. If you look at Bitcoin’s price data on Google Finance, it only goes back to November 20, 2015.
The early years were characterized by very little infrastructure, with only a few hobbyists buying and selling BTC.

“There was no action to speak of and no news cycle,” says Alex Preda, professor of professions, markets and technology at King’s Business School in London. “Bitcoin was a fringe phenomenon confined to a subculture of software engineering and not a financial phenomenon.”

The first “real world” transaction took place in May 2010 on a Bitcoin forum.

Posting on the bitcointalk.org forum, Florida native Laszlo Hanyecz asked if someone would order him two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins.

After buying two pizzas from Papa John’s worth about $41, the price of each Bitcoin came to $0.0041. These pizzas are the most expensive ever ordered, worth nearly $200 million today, averaging about $12.4 million per slice.

Hanyecz did the impractical transaction for the sake of it, telling The Sun: “I wanted to do the pizza thing because, to me, it was free pizza. I mean, I coded this thing and mined Bitcoin and I felt like I won internet that day.”

Bitcoin wasn’t even worth a dollar until February 2011.

That’s when the fireworks started. By June 2011, the price of Bitcoin had shot up 30 times, reaching a value of $30. In a hint of what was to come, the rally didn’t last long and Bitcoin fell to $5.

Liquidity at the end of 2011 was low, and Bitcoin’s first competitor, Litecoin (LTC), appeared on the crypto scene in October 2011.

The introduction of LTC created some doubt among the community, with a 90% reduction test solution. Despite a slight decline, 2012 was uneventful, with BTC ending the year around $13.

Bitcoin attracts investors: 2013 to 2017

Bitcoin’s price trajectory began to change in 2013.

Exchanges, especially Mt. Gox, handled 70% of all Bitcoin transactions by the end of 2014 and began to bring more and more users. Crypto became more accessible as a result.

The price followed the increase in adoption. Opening 2013 at $13, BTC skyrocketed to break $1,000 by November 2013.

The success waned the following year after Tokyo-based Mt. Gox experienced a security breach with hackers stealing $60 million from its treasury. Mt. Gox closed due to insolvency which caused Bitcoin to fall to around $300 by the end of the year.

“The Mt. Gox case generally shattered investor confidence in BTC, and it affected crypto sentiment on a much broader scale,” said Alex Faliushin, CEO of crypto lending platform CoinLoan.io.

Between 2015 and 2016, Bitcoin trudged slowly, making the price action relatively muted. It ended 2016 at around $1,000.

The following year saw more investors flock to the asset as increasing media coverage began to draw in the average retail customer.

Price barriers were torn apart with ease. BTC broke through $1000 in early January 2017 and $2000 in May 2017. BTC then doubled to $4000 in August 2017.

Now Bitcoin finally started to win over the doubters. Futures contracts began trading on the CME and many in the market felt that Bitcoin was becoming a true financial asset class.

The “fear of missing out” took hold and more and more people flocked to buy this once-only asset. Bitcoin went up to $10,000 in November 2021 before almost doubling to nearly $19,000 the following month.

Little did investors know then, but it took almost three years to regain these price levels again.

Bitcoin Recovery: 2018 to 2021

The year 2018 did not slow Bitcoin’s downward trend. BTC’s price collapsed, ending the year below $4,000. Then the digital currency closed 2019 at around $7,000.

With two years of relative inactivity and a consistent downward trend, many wrote off Bitcoin as a fad, having failed to solidify its place in the mainstream market.

Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and stock markets fell sharply in mid-March 2020.

Bitcoin was not spared, losing 50% of its value in less than 48 hours to trade below $4,000. Some assumed that the Covid-inspired doll would be Bitcoin’s final nail in the coffin.

But those skeptics were very wrong. When the Federal Reserve responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by printing money for fiscal stimulus, asset prices across the board rose sharply.

Growth and technology stocks posted explosive gains, but Bitcoin got everyone talking. After halving to less than $4,000 in March, BTC reached $10,000 in May 2020.

But it made its real move in the last quarter of 2020. It smashed its all-time high by breaking $15,000 in November 2020, moving above $20,000 in December 2020, and ending the year at around $29,000 with a market cap of more than $539 billion.

As retail investors poured into the markets and the Federal Reserve continued to print money, assets continued to inflate. Bitcoin reached $40,000 a week into 2021, $50,000 in February 2021, and $60,000 in March 2021.

After a turbulent couple of weeks in May, it fell to less than $34,000 before rising to another all-time high near $69,000 in November 2021.

Crypto Winter: 2022

Since November 2021, Bitcoin has struggled with the rest of the market. The only narrative from the days of money printing was over, with economies hit by rampant inflation.

The Fed has been raising interest rates since early 2022, with assets at the far end of the risk spectrum being penalized the most.

Higher interest rates mean higher borrowing costs, less investment and a general reduction in the level of demand in the economy.

Bitcoin has been in free fall since early this year in the middle of the crypto winter.

The most damaging month this year was May, when the collapse of stablecoin TerraUSD triggered a round of contagion in cryptocurrency markets, dragging Bitcoin down from $39,000 in early May to $20,000 in mid-June, where it hovers today.

Investors are hoping this downturn is just the latest decline to precede a sharp rally, as history has repeatedly shown for Bitcoin.

Historically, October is known as a “green” month, with an average increase of 26%. If that’s the case, we could see prices head towards the $24,000 mark.

Frequently asked questions about bitcoin prices