From exchanging goods to trading in Bitcoins, humankind has found innovative alternatives. Read more to find out the bitcoin price history and its evolution in the cryptocurrency market.
Money has always been used as a medium of exchange to trade goods and services. The evolution of technology and the changing requirements of economies have resulted in the change in money and payments. From barter system to paper currency, we’ve now found our ‘future-currency’. Although cryptocurrencies are criticized by many, there are companies that are accepting Bitcoins.
As trading in cryptocurrency comes with low transaction fees and no intermediaries involved, businesses have started believing in this ‘future-currency’. We’re providing a detailed analysis of the most popular cryptocurrency – Bitcoin. The important things about Bitcoin that we’re going to discuss in this article are – Bitcoin price history, Bitcoin rate, who invented Bitcoin, and more.
What Is Bitcoin | Who Invented Bitcoin
In 2009, an unknown person or a group of people named Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin. (The identity of Bitcoin’s inventor is still a mystery). Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency which can be sent on the peer-to-peer network without involving any intermediaries.
Let’s take a brief look at the history of Bitcoin:
- In 2008, the domain bitcoin.org was registered. In the same year, Satoshi Nakamoto authored a white paper “Bitcoin : Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” and posted this paper’s link to a cryptography mailing list.
- In the same white paper, the word Bitcoin was defined as “A compound of the words bit and coin”.
- After the release of its implementation, Bitcoin began use in 2009. Now, it is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
- Cypherpunk Hal Finney was the receiver of the first Bitcoin transaction and received 10 bitcoins from Nakamoto.
Understanding Bitcoin: Key Points
- All the bitcoin transactions are recorded in bitcoin blockchain, a public distributed ledger.
- Like any other cryptocurrency, the value of Bitcoin is extremely volatile. You can see the ups and downs in the bitcoin value by analyzing the bitcoin price history in the next section of this article.
- BTC is the symbol used for bitcoin from early days and XBT is a new abbreviation for bitcoin.
- In September 2012, Bitcoin Foundation was started for the promotion of bitcoin.
- There’s a monetary policy set by Satoshi Nakamoto that the total number of bitcoins can never exceed 21 million.
- Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin use decentralized technology for their transactions. This is why there’s no involvement of central authority or central server/ledger.
- You can buy or sell or trade in bitcoins at any cryptocurrency exchange. There are multiple cryptocurrencies exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, Coinsmart, Changelly and more.
Bitcoin Price History Chart | Bitcoin Rate
After seeing the current price of bitcoin, one question that comes on everyone’s lips is, “How much was Bitcoin when it first came out?” There have been a lot of changes in the bitcoin price history. We’ve listed the major changes in the bitcoin price history chart given below.
| Year | Bitcoin Price History |
| 2009 | $0 |
| 2010 | $0.008 to $0.08 |
| 2011 | $0.30 to $5.27 |
| 2012 | $5.27 to $13.30 |
| 2013 | $13.30 to $770 |
| 2014 | $770 to $314 |
| 2015 | $314 to $434 |
| 2016 | $434 to $998 |
| 2017 | $998 |
| 1 January 2018 | $13,412.44 |
| 1 July 2018 | $6343 |
| 1 January 2019 | $3747 |
| 1 July 2020 | $9217.84 |
| 19 January 2021 | $37,299 |
| 8 February 2021 | $44,141 |
| 1 June 2021 | $37,284 |
As you’ve seen in this Bitcoin price history chart, there have been multiple changes in the bitcoin’s price.
Some people have referred to these changes as bubbles and bursts. There are several factors behind this ups and downs in the bitcoin price history including:
- In February 2018, China imposed a complete ban on trading in bitcoins and the bitcoin price fell from $9052 to $6914 in that year.
- Elon Musk’s tweet on 19 January 2021 caused bitcoin price to rise about $5000 in an hour.
- Tesla made an announcement of purchasing $1.5 billion in bitcoins and will start accepting bitcoins as payment for vehicles. This announcement was made on 8 February 2021 and the bitcoin price reached its all-time high of $44,141.
Legal Status of Bitcoin – Cryptocurrency
There are different rules and regulations for trading in bitcoins from country to country. We’ve listed the countries where the usage of bitcoins is absolute ban, implicit ban, and of tax regulations. Check the list given below to know the legal status of bitcoin in different countries.
| Absolute Ban | Implicit Ban | Tax Regulations |
| Egypt | China | Bulgaria |
| Bolivia | Oman | Austria |
| Pakistan | Qatar | Russia |
| Iraq | Kuwait | Finland |
| Morocco | Lithuania | United Kingdom |
| Algeria | Bangladesh | Sweden |
| Nepal | Bahrain | Poland |
| Vietnam | Dominican Republic | Argentina |
| UAE | Saudi Arabia | Israel |
| Taiwan | Norway | |
| Colombia | Iceland | |
| Spain | ||
| South Africa | ||
Bitcoin is criticized for several reasons such as – extreme volatility in Bitcoin price, fraud at cryptocurrency exchanges, influence of cryptocurrency miners, high energy consumption in Bitcoin mining, variable transaction costs and more. As Bitcoin offers lower transaction fees and no involvement of central authority, Bitcoin has now entered the mainstream. The Government has taken several approaches to regulate cryptocurrencies in different countries. Considering the fluctuations in the bitcoin price history, trading in bitcoins comes with its own set of risks.
Disclaimer – As we’ve already mentioned in the guide that the cryptocurrency market is highly volatile. What goes up can also come down. Trading in Bitcoin can convert your $100 to $100k or to $0, it means the market values are quite unpredictable. This is why it’s highly recommended to consult any professional/expert before you make any investment in cryptocurrency.
