This article contains information about history of Bitcoin cryptocurrency. What is Bitcoin? Whom was it created by? This article resumes the whole history of Bitcoin since 2008 to 2018.

1. Bitcoin history
Bitcoin is the first example of decentralized digital money established in 2008 by a
person or a group of people under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. This
account of bitcoin history resumes the first ten-years of the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin price since 2009 to 2018. The historical chart shows the changes of price of Bitcoin (BTC).
Pre-history of Bitcoin
Prior to the release of bitcoin there were a number of digital cash technologies
starting with the issuer based ecashprotocols of David Chaum and Stefan Brands.
Adam Back developed hashcash, a proof-of-work scheme for spam control. The
first proposals fordistributed digitalscarcitybased cryptocurrencies were WeiDai's
b-money and Nick Szabo's bit gold. Hal Finney developed reusable proof of work
(RPOW)using hashcash as its proof of work algorithm.
In the bit gold proposalwhich proposed a collectible market based mechanism for
inflation control, Nick Szabo also investigated some additional enabling aspects
including a Byzantine fault-tolerant asset registry to store and transfer the chained
proof-of-work solutions. The possibility that Satoshi Nakamoto was a computer
collective in the European financial sectorhas also beendiscussed.

2. Bitcoin history price chart since 2009 to 2018. On the price chart there is shown historical value of BTC
cryptocurrency, log graph of Bitcoin market capitalization and the most reasonable historical dates.
Bitcoin in 2008
On 18 August 2008,the domain name bitcoin.org was registered.
Later that year on October 31st, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto
titled Bitcoin:A Peer-to-PeerElectronic CashSystem was posted to acryptography
mailing list.
On the 9th of November, the Bitcoin project was registered at the open-source-
projects community resource,SourceForge.net.

3. Bitcoin in 2009
In January 2009, the bitcoin network came
into existence with the release of the first
open source bitcoin client and the issuance
of the first bitcoins, with Satoshi Nakamoto
mining the firstblockof bitcoins ever (known
as the genesis block), which had a reward
of 50 bitcoins.Embedded in the coinbase of
this block was the text:
The Times 03/Jan/2009Chancelloron brink
of second bailout for banks.
One of the first supporters, adopters,
contributor to bitcoin and receiverof the first
bitcoin transaction was programmer Hal
Finney. Finney downloaded the bitcoin
software the day it was released, and
received 10 bitcoins from Nakamoto in the
world's first bitcoin transaction. Other early
supporters were Wei Dai, creator of bitcoin
predecessor b-money, and Nick Szabo,
creator of bitcoin predecessor bit gold.
Before disappearing from any involvement
in bitcoin,Nakamoto in a sense handed over
the reins to developerGavin Andresen,who
then became the bitcoin lead developer at
the Bitcoin Foundation, the 'anarchic' bitcoin
community's closest thing to an official
public face.
How much was bitcoin worth in 2009? It is one of the most popular questions
about the history Bitcoin. The value of the first bitcoin transactions were negotiated
by individuals on the bitcoinforum with one notable transaction of 10,000 BTC used
to indirectly purchase two pizzas delivered byPapa John's. This was the only major
security flaw found and exploited in bitcoin's history.
 January 3rd The genesis block– the first block in the bitcoin blockchain –
appears. 50 BTC are generated at 18:15:05 (GMT).
 January 9th The first version, Bitcoin v0.1., is issued.
History of Bitcoin price in 2008, 2009, 2010

4.  January 12th First bitcoin transaction, (block #170). Sender is Satoshi
Nakamoto. Receiveris Hal Finney.
 October 5th The first Bitcoin course towards exchange dollar is published: 1
USD = 1,309.03 BTC.A public sale is launched on New Liberty Standard stock
exchange.
 October 9th The #bitcoin-de channel is registered on IRC.
 December 16th Bitcoinv0.2. appears.
Bitcoin in 2010
 February6th Bitcoin Market, the first officialcryptocurrency stock exchange, is
launched.
 May 22nd First online purchase using bitcoin. Laszlo Hanyecz (indireclty) buys
Papa John's pizza for 10,000 coins (25 USD – Bitcoin value was 0.0025 cents
for 1 coin).
 July 11th Bitcoinv0.3. is mentioned on news website Slashdot.org.The number
of bitcoin users increases significantly.
 July 12th Bitcoinexchange rate increases 10 times inten days, from 0.008 USD
per BTC to 0.08 USD per BTC.
 July 17th MtGox Cryptocurrency exchange is launched.
 August 15th A bug in bitcoin code results in a “dirty” transaction in block #
74638.Users easily find the mistake, correct the code and “clean” the block.
 September 14th User jgarzik offers userpuddingpop10,000 coins (600-650
USD) to open their common customer CUDA in Windows base. The first block
with assigned distribution, block # 79764,is mined.
 September 18th User puddingpop announces opening of the CUDA customer
on Windows base under the MITd license.
 September 29th User kermitfinds invasion in micro transaction, after version
v0.3.13 is launched.
 October 1st First public miner, OpenCL, is created.
 October 7th Bitcoin exchange rate begins to escalate, after several months
stuck at USD $0.06 per BTC.
 October 16th First Bitcoin deposit is registered: a deal between
users nanotube and Diabo-3,with user theymos as .
 October 17th #bitcoin-otc trade channel appears on IRC freenode.
 October 28th First short trade transaction: 100 coins between
users nanotube and kiba on #bitcoin-otc.
 November 6th Bitcoin share capital reaches 1 million USD. Its exchange rate
on MtGox reaches USD$0.50 perBTC.

5.  December 7th User doubleccreates a Bitcoin app for the Nokia N900.
User ribuck sends 0.42 BTC in the first ever P2P transaction with the help of
mobile device.
 December 9th First open call-agreement contract signed between
users nanotube and sgornick on #bitcoin-otc.
 December 16th First blockgenerated by mining pool under user sluch.
Bitcoin in 2011
Based on bitcoin's open
source code, other
cryptocurrencies started to
emerge.
The Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a non-profit
group, started accepting
bitcoins in January 2011,
then stopped accepting
them in June 2011, citing
concerns about a lack of
legal precedent about new
currency systems. The
EFF's decisionwas reversed
on 17 May 2013 when they
resumed accepting bitcoin.
 January 8th Pooled mining reaches a capacity of 10 Ghash per second.
 January 27th Biggestmonetarytransaction in bitcoin history from 3 accounts in
Zimbabwe on #bitcoin-otc. The currency value was 4 BTC to 100 trillion
Zimbabwe dollars.
 January 28th Block #105000 is generated – at that point, 5.24 million bitcoins
had been issued,25% of the total 21 million.
 February 9th Bitcoin reaches parity with the US dollar (the exchange rate was
one BTC to the USD).
 February 10th After bitcoin is mentioned on Slashdot and Hacker News,
Bitcoin.org struggles with surge of new users, many coming from Twitter.
 February 14th An Austrian user puts an old Porsche on sale on a bitcoin
exchange for 3000 BTC.
 March 1st User MagicalTuxbuys the exchange Mtgox.com from founder Jed
McCaleb.
Bitcoin history – transactions in 2011, 2012, 2013

6.  March 6th Sudden change in the Bitcoin network: connection speed spikes to
900 Ghash per second and decreases to 500 Ghash per second within a short
period of time. There are rumors that it was caused by a supercomputer or
network bot, dubbed the “mysterious miner”, connecting to the network.
 March 18th low Bitcoin rate comparing to dollar achieved 70 cent per 1 USD.
Before it there has been a current increase of the rate (it is possible that it has
been made artificially), then there has beena current decrease.
 March22ndWeUseCoins published the video What Is Bitcoin? and it goes viral
with over 8 million views.
 March27th First stock to exchange BTC for GBP opens.
 March31st First stock to exchange BTC for BRL opens.
 April 5th BitMarket.eu, first stock to exchange BTC for PLN, opens
 April 12th Fisrt Bitcoin option agreement is signed, on #bitcoin-otc.
 April 16th TIME magazine publishes an article about crypto currency.
 April 23rd BTC/USD rate reaches and surpasses the USD/EUR price and the
USD/GBP rate on MtGox stockexchange. The general capitalization of bitcoins
is 10 million USD.
 April 27th VirWoX opens first exchange from BTC/SLL.
 June Wikileaks and other organizations began to acceptbitcoins for donations.
 June 2nd USD to BTC rate is 10 USD to the coin. For 6 days, the Bitcoin value
is fixed at 31.91 USD on MtGox.
 June 12th BTC to USD rate decrease to 10 USD.
 June 13th The first theft occurs in the history of bitcoin. User allinvain reports
25 thousand coins (375 thousand USD).
 June 19th MtGox's database suffers a security breach. The names, password
hashes and emails of 60 thousands users are stolen. An unknown hacker
accessesa MtGox administration account, and sends hundreds of thousands of
fake bitcoins, decreasing the value of the crypto currency from 17.5 USD per 1
coin to 1 cent per coin. Sales are resumed a week later. On the same day,
thousands of coins are stolenfrom MyBitcoin accounts.Itwas one of the biggest
bitcoin crashes (hacks) in the history.
 July 22nd BitCoins Mobile, the first mobile app for iPad, is launched.
 August 20th First Bitcoin conference at the World Expo exhibition in New York
City.
 August 23rd First decentralized P2Poolmines its first block.
 September Vitalik Buterin co-founded BitcoinMagazine.
 November 25th First crypto currency conference in Europe, takes place in
Prague (Czechia).

7.  December 12th The biggest amount of fees paid for a block up to date: 171
BTC for block# 157235.
 December 23rd Douglas Feigelson of BitBills filed a patent application for
"Creating And Using Digital Currency" with the United States Patent and
Trademark Office, an action which was contested based on prior art in June
2013.
Bitcoin in 2012
In January 2012,bitcoinwas featured as the main subjectwithin a fictionalized trial
on the CBS legal drama The Good Wife in the third-season episode "Bitcoin for
Dummies". The host of CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer, played himself in a
courtroom scene where he testifies that he doesn'tconsiderbitcoina true currency,
saying "There's no central bank to regulate it; it's digital and functions completely
peer to peer".
 March1st About 50000 BTC are stolen after a security upgrade in Linode;it is
the biggestbitcoin theft ever.
 June 3rd The biggestblockin the chain, # 181919 is created.It includes 1,322
transactions.
 September 15th-16th Bitcoinconference in London.
 September 27th Bitcoin Foundation organization was launched to "accelerate
the global growth of bitcoin through standardization, protection, and promotion
of the opensource protocol".The founders were Gavin Andresen,Jon Matonis,
Patrick Murck, Charlie Shrem, and PeterVessenes.
 October BitPay reported having over 1,000 merchants accepting bitcoin under
its payment processing service.
 November WordPresshad started accepting bitcoins.
 November 28th Block # 210,000 becomes the first block to yield a 25 BTC
reward (all previous existing blockrewards had been 50 BTC).
 December 6th The France-based exchange Bitcoin-Central becomes the first
exchange to operate within the framework of European regulations.
Bitcoin in 2013
 January 22nd BitPaysurpasses 10,000transactions
 FebruaryThe bitcoin-based payment processor Coinbase reported selling US
$1 million worth of bitcoins in a single month at over $22 perbitcoin.The Internet

8. Archive announced that it was ready to accept donations as bitcoins and that it
intends to give employees the option to receive portions of their salaries in
bitcoin currency.
 February19th The 8th version of Bitcoin Client appears.
 February28th Bitcoinexchange rate surpasses 31.91 USD for the first time for
the last 601 days.
 MarchIn March the bitcoin transaction log called the blockchaintemporarily
split into two independent chains with differing rules on how transactions were
accepted. For six hours two bitcoin networks operated at the same time, each
with its own version of the transaction history. The core developers called for a
temporary halt to transactions, sparking a sharp sell-off.The Mt. Gox exchange
briefly halted bitcoin deposits and the exchange rate briefly dipped by 23% to
$37 as the event occurred in the US, the Financial Crimes EnforcementNetwork
(FinCEN) established regulatory guidelines for"decentralized virtual currencies"
such as bitcoin, classifying American "bitcoin miners" who sell their generated
bitcoins as Money Service Businesses (or MSBs), that may be subject to
registration and other legal obligations. resulting in the bitcoin exchange rate
dropping from $266 to $76 before returning to $160 within six hours. Bitcoin
gained greater recognition when services such as OkCupid and Foodlerbegan
accepting it for payment.
 March28th Bitcoin capitalization surpasses 1 billion USD.
 April 1st Exchange rate of Bitcoin reaches 100 USD to 1 BTC.
 May WebMoney announces creation of a new type of cash-box intended for
operations with bitcoins.
 May 15th the US authorities seized accounts associated with Mt. Gox after
discovering that it had not registered as a money transmitter with FinCEN in the
US.
 May 17th It was reported that BitInstant processedapproximately30 percentof
the money going into and out of bitcoin, and in April alone facilitated 30,000
transactions.
 June 23rd It was reported that the US Drug Enforcement Administration listed
11.02 bitcoins as aseized assetina United States Departmentof Justice seizure
notice pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 881. It is the first time a government agency has
claimed to have seized bitcoin.
 July A historical project began in Kenya linking bitcoin with M-Pesa, a popular
mobile payments system, in an experiment designed to spur innovative
payments in Africa. During the same month the Foreign Exchange
Administration and Policy Department in Thailand stated that bitcoin lacks any
legal framework and would therefore be illegal, which effectivelybanned trading

9. on bitcoin exchanges in the country. According to Vitalik Buterin, a writer for
Bitcoin Magazine, "bitcoin's fate in Thailand may give the electronic currency
more credibility in some circles", but he was concerned it didn't bode well for
bitcoin in China.
 August6th FederalJudge Amos Mazzant of the EasternDistrict of Texas of the
Fifth Circuit ruled that bitcoins are "a currency or a form of money" (specifically
securities as defined by Federal Securities Laws), and as such were subject to
the court's jurisdiction, and Germany's Finance Ministry subsumed bitcoins
under the term "unit of account" – a financial instrument – though notas e-money
or a functional currency, a classification nonetheless having legal and tax
implications.
 October the FBI seized roughly 26,000 BTC from website Silk Road during the
arrest of alleged owner Ross William Ulbricht.
 October 29th Robocoin and Bitcoiniacs launched the world's first Bitcoin ATM
in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, allowing clients to sell or purchase
bitcoin currency at a downtown coffee shop. Chinese internet giant Baidu had
allowed clients of website security services to pay with bitcoins.
 November The first time in the history, Bitcoin costs over 1000 USD after BTC
is supported by American game creator Zynga.
 November The University of Nicosia announced that it would be accepting
bitcoin as payment for tuition fees, with the university's chief financial officer
calling it the "gold of tomorrow". During the November 2013, the China-based
bitcoin exchange BTC China overtook the Japan-based Mt. Gox and the
Europe-based Bitstamp to become the largestbitcointrading exchange by trade
volume.
 December Overstock.com announced plans to acceptBitcoinin the second half
of 2014.
 December 5th the People's Bank of China prohibited Chinese financial
institutions from using bitcoins. After the announcement, the Bitcoin value
dropped, and Baidu no longer accepted bitcoins for certain services. Buying
real-world goods withany virtual currencyhas beenillegalin China since at least
2009.
 December 9th 100 USD are stolen from bitcoin wallets.
 December China banned the use of cryptocurrency in the country. One of the
largest exchanges in the world BTC China was closed. Behind China, Norway
did not recognize bitcoins.

10. Bitcoin in 2014
A documentary film, The Rise
and Rise of Bitcoin, was
released in 2014, featuring
interviews with bitcoin users,
such as a computer
programmer and a drug
dealer.
History of Bitcoin capitalization in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
 Elliptic Vault, the first bitcoin safe storage, opens in London. Bitcoin begins to
ousteuro in Ireland.More companies agree to acceptbitcoinapaymentforservices.
Zynga announced it was testing bitcoin for purchasing in-game assets in seven of
its games. That same month, The D Las Vegas Casino Hotel and Golden Gate
Hotel & Casino properties in downtown Las Vegas announced they would also
begin accepting bitcoin, according to an article by USA Today. The article also
stated the currency would be accepted in five locations, including the front desk
and certain restaurants. The network rate exceeded 10 petahash/sec. TigerDirect
and Overstock.com started accepting bitcoin.
 January 24th BTC China renews sales.
 January 28th Vice-president of the Bitcoin Foundation arrested under money
laundering charges. As a result of the ensuing panic, bitcoin exchange rate
decreasedby 40 USD.
 FebruaryOne of the largest bitcoin exchanges,Mt.Gox, suspendedwithdrawals
citing technical issues. By the end of the month, Mt. Gox had filed for bankruptcy
protection in Japan amid reports that 744,000 bitcoins had been stolen. Months
before the filing, the popularity of Mt. Gox had waned as users experienced
difficulties withdrawing funds.
 February1st AmericannewspaperThe Chicago Sun-Times accepts paymentin
bitcoin for subscriptions.
 February10th-12th Problemswith transactions in several big stock exchanges.
Bitcoin price decreasedto USD $600 (a historical 30% decrease).
 June The network exceeded 100 petahash/sec.

11.  June 18th Tt was announced that bitcoin payment service provider BitPay
would become the new sponsor of St.Petersburg Bowl under a two-year deal,
renamed the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl. Bitcoin was to be accepted for ticket
and concession sales at the game as part of the sponsorship, and the
sponsorship itself was also paid for using bitcoin.
 July Newegg and Dell started accepting bitcoin.
 September TeraExchange, LLC, received approval from the U.S. Commodity
Futures Trading Commission"CFTC" to begin listing an over-the-counter swap
productbased onthe price of a bitcoin. The CFTC swap productapproval marks
the first time a U.S. regulatory agency approved a bitcoin financial product.
 November5th Buttercoin, a US venture-backed bitcoin exchange, is launched.
 December Microsoftbegan to acceptbitcoin to buy Xbox games and Windows
software.
In 2014, several lighthearted songs celebrating bitcoin such as the Ode to
Satoshi have been released.
Bitcoin in 2015
 January Coinbase raised 75 million USD as part of a Series C funding round,
smashing the previous record for a bitcoin company. Less than one year after
the collapse of Mt.Gox, United Kingdom-based exchange Bitstamp announced
that their exchange would be taken offline while they investigate a hack which
resulted in about 19,000 bitcoins (equivalentto roughly US $5 million at that time)
being stolen from their hot wallet. The exchange remained offline for several
days amid speculation that customers had lost their funds. Bitstamp resumed
trading on 9 January after increasing securitymeasures and assuring customers
that their account balances would not be impacted.
 FebruaryBitcoinprice reached $262.
 MarchBitcoin startup 21 Inc. announced it had raised 116 million USD in
venture funding, the largest amount for any digital currency-related companies.
 May Ulbricht was found guilty on 7 charges of money laundering, computer
hacking, and drug conspiracy in February because of his role as an operator in
the silk road market.
 June new York state Department of financial services SuperintendentBenjamin
Lowkey released a set of individual rules designed to regulate the Bitcoin
and digital currency business that serve customers located in new York state.
These rules are the first ever aimed at digital currency enterprises.

12.  July Former Federal agents Carl Force IV (DEA) and Shaun Bridges (Secret
Service) pleaded guilty to stealing bitcoins during their active investigation into
the Silk Road market.
 August It was estimated that 160,000 merchants accept bitcoin payments.
Barclays announced that they would become the first UK high street bank to
start accepting bitcoin, with a plan to facilitate users to make charitable
donations using the cryptocurrency outside their systems. They partnered in
April 2016 with mobile payment startup Circle Internet Financial.
 September The commodity futures trading Commission (CFTC) announced
that it has filed and set payments forthe bitcoin exchange to facilitate trading of
options contracts on its platform.
 October, the possibility of adding a symbol for bitcoin in Unicode is presented
in the Unicode Consortium. Also at this time Cameron and Tyler
Winklevoss released theirown American bitcoin,called "Twins".Afterthe launch,
the exchange was licensed to operate in 26 States and was able to "serve both
individual and institutional clients" due to its corporate structure,LLTC.The twins
were also able to offer FDIC insurance on customer deposits through a
partnership with a Bank in New York. The European court of justice ruled that
the exchange of Bitcoin and" virtual currencies " does not apply to value added
tax (VAT) in the European Union.
 November Historical date for Bitcoin – The Unicode Committee adopted
the bitcoin currency symbol (in uppercase B with two vertical bars passing
through it but only visible from above and below) to be in a future version of the
Unicode standard. The glyph will be assigned the «U + 20BF BITCOIN SIGN»
slot and will eventually be
displayed in standard
system fonts.
 December Security
researcher and writer,
Gvern Branwen, published
an article in WIRED
magazine claiming that an
Australian man named Dr.
Craig S. Wright was either
Satoshi Nakamoto or a
"brilliant hoaxer." Gvern
brought a few deleted messages in the blog of Wright, leaked emails and
transcripts, which seemed to imply that Wright is the creator of Bitcoin. In one
missed decryption, Wright himself States,"I did my best to try to hide the fact

13. that I've been working with bitcoin since 2009." In another document it is told
that Wright had access to Vidoescomtrust 1.1 million bitcoins.
Bitcoin in 2016
 January Network speed exceeds1 exahash/sec.
 February Influential members of the bitcoin community met in Hong Kong to
discuss a development plan and schedule for bitcoin scaling. The closed-door
meeting included more than 30 people, service providers and bitcoin Core
developers and was intended to address issues related to the block size
discussion.
 March The Cabinet of Japan acknowledges virtual currencies like Bitcoin as
payment means on an equal basis with real money. The largest South African
online cryptocurrency market, Bidorbuy, opens.
 April The Steam service starts accepting bitcoin as payment for video games
and other online media.
 May Wright publicly announced that he was Satoshi Nakamoto through a blog
post.
 July Researchers published a paper showing that by November 2013 bitcoin
commerce was no longer driven by "sin" activities but instead by legitimate
enterprises.Uber switched to bitcoin in Argentina after the governmentblocked
credit card companies from dealing with Uber.
 August Hackers attack Bitfinex, a large exchange, taking almost 120 000
bitcoins (about $60 million USD).
 September The number of bitcoin ATMs had doubled over the last 18 months
and reached 771 ATMs worldwide.
 November The Swiss railway operator SBB (CFF) upgraded all their automated
ticket machines so that bitcoin could be bought from them using the scanner on
the ticket machine to scan the bitcoin address on a phone app.
The history and future of Bitcoin generates more academic interest year after year;
the number of Google Scholar articles published mentioning bitcoin grew from 83
in 2009, to 424 in 2012, and to 3580 in 2016. Also, the academic Ledger Journal
published its first issue. It is edited by Peter Rizun.
Bitcoin in 2017
Through out the time, the number of businesses accepting bitcoin continues to
increase. In January 2017, NHK reported the number of online stores accepting
bitcoin in Japan had increased 4.6 times over the past year. BitPay CEO Stephen
Pair declared the company's transaction rate grew 3× from January 2016 to

14. February 2017, and explained usage of bitcoin is growing in B2B supply chain
payments.
Since the start of history, by 2017 Bitcoin gains more legitimacy among lawmakers
and legacy financial companies.Forexample,Japan passed alaw to acceptbitcoin
as a legal payment method, and Russia has announced that it will legalize the use
of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. And Norway’s largest online bank,
Skandiabanken, integrates bitcoin accounts.
Exchange trading volumes continue to increase. For the 6-month period ending
March 2017, Mexican exchange Bitso saw trading volume increase 1500%.
Between January and May 2017 Poloniexsaw an increase of more than 600%
active traders online and regularly processed 640% more transactions.
 January. After the rally for most of the second half of 2016, bitcoin broke the
$ 1,000 mark for the first time in 3 years. Media coverage leads to an influx of
new users who will allegedly raise the price even higher.
 March Number of GitHub projects related with bitcoin exceeds 10,000.
 April Japan recognizes bitcoin as a legal method of payment. The country's
legislature passed a law, after months of debate, that led bitcoin exchanges to
comply with anti-money laundering rules/information about your client, and
classified bitcoinas a kind of prepaid payment instrument.
 June The Bitcoin symbol was encoded in Unicode version 10.0 at position
U+20BF (₿) in the Currency Symbols block.
 June 12th Bitcoin exchange rate exceeds USD$3000to the BTC.
 August 1st Bitcoin split into two derivative digital currencies, the classic bitcoin
(BTC) and the Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The split has been called the Bitcoin Cash
hard fork.
 September1st Bitcoin exchange rate exceeds USD$5000.
 OctoberChina forbids cryptocurrenciesand ICOs.
 November29th In 2017 Bitcoin price exceeds USD 10,000.
 December Cboe Global Markets begins offering bitcoin futures, allowing
investors to speculate about bitcoin prices.
 December 6th The software marketplace Steam announced that it would no
longer accept bitcoin as payment for its products, citing slow transactions
speedsand price volatility.
 December11th Futures on the world's most popular cryptocurrency rose by 26
percent from the opening price at their debut session on the CBOE Global
Markets Inc., triggering two temporarytrading stops aimed atcalming the market.
 December18th. Bitcoin reaches a record high, but does not reach $ 20,000.

15.  December 28th The
price of bitcoins fell after
South Korea announced
additional measures to
regulate bitcoin trading,
including the potential
closure of exchanges,
among the volatile
movements in the
world's third largest
cryptocurrency market.
What is interesting, the
Bitcoin price was less than
$3000 at the beginning of
2017, later it cost about
5000 of dollars, by the end of the year the Bitcoin worth USD 10000.
Bitcoin in 2018
2018 has been a rough year for Bitcoin and it's users, especially people who held
on assuming the price would keep ascending.Many sold the cryptocurrency while
they could, and the price has been steadily dropping all year. As of this writing,
Bitcoin's price was at $3,732.04.
 January 2nd Peter Thiel Foundation bought millions of dollars in bitcoin, the
Wall Street Journal reports citing sources familiar with the situation. The paper
says these stocks are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It is unclear whether
the Founders sold any of their stocks, the report said.
 January 8th Coinmarketcap removed prices from South Korean exchanges
from its cryptocurrency settlements without warning, which led to a sharp drop
in all prices. In addition, the financial authorities of Korea on January 8 began
an investigation of services related to cryptocurrencies provided bylocal banks.
 January 13th Out of a total of 21 million people, on January 13, 2018, 16 800
000 BTC were produced,and only 20% remained for production.
 January 22nd, South Korea brought in a regulation that requires all the bitcoin
traders to reveal their identity, thus putting a ban on anonymous trading of
bitcoins.
 January 24th,the online payment firm Stripe announced that it would phase out
its support for bitcoin payments by late April 2018, citing declining demand,
rising fees and longer transaction times as the reasons.

16.  January 30th Facebookbanned people from fully advertising bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies.
 February 5th, Bitcoin's price dropped 50 percent in 16 days, falling below
$7,000.
 March7th The U.S. securities and exchange Commissionconfirmedthat many
online trading platforms for digital assets should be registered with the Agency
as exchanges.Statement the SEC has heightened concerns about the fact that
the regulation tightening might restrict trade.
 March 14th Google announced that it prohibits online advertising promoting
cryptocurrency
 March26th Twitterannounced that it would ban advertising forcryptocurrencies,
after overclocking Google and Facebook, which aims to protect investors from
fraud.
 April 13th one of India's largest cryptocurrencytrading platforms lostabout 438
bitcoins worth about 190 million rupees ($3 million), presumably due to an
employee.
 May 2nd one of the largestinvestment banks announced that Goldmanis going
to start using its own moneyto trade with customers onvarious contracts related
to the price of Bitcoin.
 May 24th The justice Departmentopened acriminal case about whether traders
manipulate the price of bitcoins and other digital currencies. The investigation
focuses on illegal activities that can affect prices such as spoofing or flooding
the market with fake orders to trick other traders into buying or selling.
 June 10th South Korean exchanger Coinrail loses more than $ 40 million in
tokens after hacking.
 October 31st $6,300,on the 10 year anniversary of Bitcoin, price holds steady
above $6,000 during a period of historically low volatility.
 November 14th,Falling below$6000.
 November 24th,Falling below$4,000 (source Cointelegraph.com)
Bitcoin in 2019
 From the beginningof the year, the capitalization of the digital money market
increased by 32% - in 2019 it amounts to $ 165 billion.
 In December2018,Bitcoinset an annual minimum of $ 3,242.
 At the end of February 2019, a positive dynamic of Bitcoin growth was
observed.

17.  In March, it became known that the Iranian government, which banned
cryptocurrencies on the territory of its state, is now ready to accept them and
even promote them.
 At the beginning ofApril 2019, the rate of Bitcoin soared by 15%, testing the
mark of 5 thousand dollars. Experts explain this anomaly by the return of major
players to the market. The growth of Bitcoin on April 2, 2019 occurred in the
Asian session, and an unknown buyer purchased 20 thousand bitcoins, which
amounts to $ 94 million.
Bitcoin price history 2009 to 2019
Among the factors which may have contributed to this rise were the European
sovereign-debt crisis—particularly the 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis—
statements by FinCEN improving the currency's legal standing and rising media
and Internet interest.
Since 2009 and until 2013,almost all market with bitcoins were in US Dollars ($).
As the market valuation of the total stockof bitcoins approachedUS $1 billion,some
commentators called bitcoin prices a bubble. In early April 2013, the price per
bitcoin dropped from $266 to around $50 and then rose to around $100.Over two
weeks starting late June 2013 the price dropped steadily to $70. The price began
to recover, peaking once again on 1 October at $140. On 2 October, The Silk
Road was seized by the FBI.This Ross Ulbricht caused a flash crash to $110.The
price quickly rebounded,returning to $200 several weeks later. The latest run went
from $200 on 3 Novemberto $900 on 18 November. Bitcoin passed US $1,000 on
28 November2013 at Mt.Gox.
Prices fell to around $400 in April 2014, before rallying in the middle of the year.
They then declined to not much more than $200 in early 2015.
Bitcoin price chartsince 2009 to 2017 and 2018
Bitcoin value history (comparison to US $)
Date
USD : 1
BTC
Notes
Jan 2009 –
Mar 2010
basically
none
No exchanges or market, users were mainly
cryptography fans who were sending bitcoins for
hobby purposes representing low or no value. In
March 2010, user "SmokeTooMuch" auctioned
10,000 BTC for $50 (cumulatively), but no buyer was
found.

18. Bitcoin value history (comparison to US $)
Date
USD : 1
BTC
Notes
May 2010
less than
$0.01
On 22 May 2010,Laszlo Hanyecz made the first real-
world transaction by buying two pizzas in
Jacksonville, Florida for 10,000 BTC.
Mar 2010 $0.003
On 17 Mar 2010,the now-defunct BitcoinMarket.com
exchange is the first one that starts operating.
July 2010 $0.08
In five days, the price grew 1000%,rising from $0.008
to $0.08 for 1 bitcoin.
Feb 2011 –
April 2011
$1.00 Bitcoin takes parity with US dollar.
8 July 2011 $31.00 top of first "bubble",followed by the first price drop
Dec 2011 $2.00 minimum after few months
Dec 2012 $13.00 slowly rising for a year
11 April 2013 $266
top of a price rally, during which the value was
growing by 5-10% daily.
May 2013 $130 basically stable, again slowly rising.
June 2013 $100
in June slowly dropping to $70, but rising in July to
$110
Nov 2013
$350 —
$1,242
from October $150–$200 in November, rising to
$1,242 on 29 November 2013.
Dec 2013
$600 —
$1,000
Price crashed to $600,rebounded to $1,000,crashed
again to the $500 range. Stabilized to the ~ $650–
$800 range.
Jan 2014
$750 —
$1,000
Price spiked to $1000 briefly, then settled in the
$800–$900 range for the rest of the month.
Feb 2014
$550 —
$750
Price fell following the shutdown of Mt. Gox before
recovering to the $600–$700 range.
Mar 2014
$450 —
$700
Price continued to fall due to a false report regarding
bitcoin ban in China and uncertainty over whether the

19. Bitcoin value history (comparison to US $)
Date
USD : 1
BTC
Notes
Chinese government would seek to prohibit banks
from working with digital currency exchanges.
Apr 2014
$340 —
$530
The lowest price since the 2012–2013 Cypriot
financial crisis had been reached at 3:25 AM on 11
April
May 2014
$440 —
$630
The downtrend first slow down and then reverse,
increasing over 30% in the last days of May.
Mar 2015
$200 —
$300
Price fell through to early 2015.
Early Nov
2015
$395 —
$504
Large spike in value from 225–250 at the start of
Octoberto the 2015 record high of $504.
May–June
2016
$450 —
$750
Large spike in value starting from $450 and reaching
a maximum of $750.
July–
September
2016
$600 —
$630
Price stabilized in the low $600 range.
October–
November
2016
$600 —
$780
As the Chinese Renminbi depreciated againstthe US
Dollar, bitcoin rose to the upper $700s.
January 2017
$800 —
$1,150
5-12 January
2017
$750 —
$920
Price fell 30% in a week, reaching a multi-month low
of $750.
2-3 March
2017
$1,290+
Price broke above the November2013 highof $1,242
and then traded above $1,290.
April 2017
$1,210 —
$1,250
May 2017 $2,000
Price reached a new high, reaching US $1,402.03 on
1 May 2017, and over US $1,800 on 11 May 2017.

20. Bitcoin value history (comparison to US $)
Date
USD : 1
BTC
Notes
On 20 May 2017,the price of one bitcoin passed US
$2,000 forthe first time.
May–June
2017
$2,000 —
$3,200+
Price reached an all-time high of $3,000 on 12 June
and is oscilating around $2,500 since then. As of 6
August 2017,the price is $3,270.
August 2017 $4,400
On 5 August 2017, the price of one BTC passed US
$3,000 forthe first time. On 12 August2017,the price
of one BTC passed US $4,000 for the first time. Two
days later, the price of one BTC passed US $4,400
for the first time.
September
2017
$5,000
On 1 September 2017, bitcoin broke US $5,000 for
the first time, topping out at US $5,013.91.
12
September
2017
$2,900
Price dipped harshly from China's bitcoin ICO and
exchange crackdown (those following improper
practices)
13 October
2017
$5,600
Price shot back up as the world moves on past the
incident following China's crackdown
21 October
2017
$6,180
Price hit another all time high as the impending forks
draw closer
6 November
2017
$7,300
12 November
2017
$5,519-
6,295
Related to surge of price of Bitcoin Cash, topping at
US $2477.65/BCH or approx 2.2-2.5x of value of
Bitcoin Cash to one Bitcoin. The developments
knocks out Ethereum as second most popular
cryptocurrency into third over the total market cap of
said cryptocurrency as per USD value at least
temporary before Ethereum steals the spot back at
second place.Closed just shy of USD$6000/BTC

21. Bitcoin value history (comparison to US $)
Date
USD : 1
BTC
Notes
17-20
November
2017
$7,600-
8,100
Briefly topped at USD $8004.59/BTC at 01:14:11
UTC before retreating from highs. At 05:35 UTC on
20 November 2017 it stood at USD $7,988.23/BTC
according to CoinDesk. This surge in Bitcoin may be
related to developments in the 2017 Zimbabwean
coup d'état. The market reaction in one
Bitcoin exchange is alarming as 1 BTC topped nearly
US $13,500, just shy of 2 times the value of the
International market.
25 November
2017
$9,000 Bitcoin surpasses the $9,000 mark for the first time.
28 November
2017
$10,000 Bitcoin surpasses $10,000forthe first time.
29 November
2017
$11,000 Bitcoin surpasses $11,000forthe first time.
5 December
2017
$12,000 Bitcoin surpasses $12,000forthe first time.
6 December
2017
$13,000 Bitcoin surpasses $13,000forthe first time.
7 December
2017
$17,000 Bitcoin surpasses $17,000forthe first time @ 23:03.
8 December
2017
$18,000 Bitcoin surpasses $18,000forthe first time @ 00:28.
8 December
2017
$14,277
Bitcoin price historically dropped to ~ $14,000, but
later that day it reaches $16,250
15 December
2017
$17,900 Bitcoin price reached $17,900
22 December
2017
$13,800
Bitcoin price loses one third of its value in 24 hours,
dropping below $14,000.

22. Bitcoin value history (comparison to US $)
Date
USD : 1
BTC
Notes
5 February
2018
$6,200
Bitcoin's price drops 50 percent in 16 days, falling
below $7,000.
31 October
2018
$6,300
On the 10 year anniversary of Bitcoin, price holds
steady above $6,000 during a period of historically
low volatility.
14 November
2018
$5,590 Falling below $6000
24 November
2018
$3,778 Falling below $4,000 (source:cointelegraph.com)
29 November
2018
$4,333
The Bitcoin price reached $4,300
(source: https://coin360.io/)
4 January
2019
$3,820
Since the beginning of 2019,Bitcoinhas continued to
fall.
7 February
2019
$3,399 The lowest cost indicator for the first quarter of 2019.
24 February
2019
$4,199 Bitcoin starts to grow
4 April 2019 $5,256 Sudden jump in the course
Regulatory issues
On 18 March 2013, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (or FinCEN), a
bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury, issued a report regarding
centralized and decentralized "virtual currencies" and their legal status within
"money services business" (MSB) and Bank Secrecy Act regulations. Since
FinCEN issued this guidance, dozens of virtual currency exchangers and
administrators have registered with FinCEN, and FinCENis receiving an increasing
number of suspicious activity reports (SARs) from these entities.
Additionally, FinCEN claimed regulation over American entities that manage
bitcoins in a payment processorsetting or as an exchanger: "In addition, a person
is an exchanger and a money transmitter if the personaccepts suchde-centralized
convertible virtual currency from one person and transmits it to another person as

23. part of the acceptance and transfer of currency, funds, or other value that
substitutes for currency."
In summary, FinCEN's decisionwould require bitcoinexchanges where bitcoins are
traded for traditional currencies to disclose large transactions and suspicious
activity, comply with money laundering regulations, and collect information about
their customers as traditional financial institutions are required to do.
Patrick Murck of the Bitcoin Foundation criticized FinCEN's report as an
"overreach" and claimed that FinCEN "cannot rely on this guidance in any
enforcementaction".
Jennifer Shasky Calvery, the director of FinCEN said, "Virtual currencies are
subjectto the same rules as other currencies.Basic money-services business rules
apply here."
In 2013, the U.S. Treasury extended its anti-money laundering regulations to
processors ofbitcointransactions.
In June 2013,Bitcoin Foundation board memberJon Matonis wrote in Forbes that
he received a warning letter from the California Department of Financial Institutions
accusing the foundationof unlicensed moneytransmission.Matonis denied that the
foundation is engaged in money transmission and said he viewed the case as "an
opportunity to educate state regulators."
In late July 2013,the industry group Committee forthe Establishmentof the Digital
AssetTransferAuthority beganto form to set bestpractices and standards, to work
with regulators and policymakers to adapt existing currency requirements to digital
currency technology and business models and develop risk management
standards.
In 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed an administrative
action against Erik T. Voorhees, for violating Securities Act Section 5 for publicly
offering unregistered interests in two bitcoin websites in exchange for bitcoins.
Theftand exchange shutdowns
Bitcoins can be stored in a bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet. Historical theft of bitcoin
has been documented on numerous occasions. At other times, bitcoin exchanges
have shut down, taking their clients' bitcoins with them. A Wired study published
April 2013 showed that 45 percent of bitcoin exchanges end up closing.
On 19 June 2011, a security breach of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange caused the
nominal price of a bitcointo fraudulently drop to one cent on the Mt. Gox exchange,
after a hacker used credentials from a Mt. Gox auditor's compromised computer
illegally to transfer a large number of bitcoins to himself. They used the
exchange's software to sell them all nominally, creating a massive "ask" order at
any price. Within minutes, the price reverted to its correct user-traded value.
Accounts with the equivalent of more than US $8,750,000 were affected.

24. In August 2011, MyBitcoin, a now defunct bitcoin transaction processor, declared
that it was hacked, which caused it to be shut down, paying 49% on customer
deposits,leaving more than 78,000 bitcoins (equivalent to roughly US $800,000 at
that time) unaccounted for.
In early August 2012, a lawsuit was filed in San Francisco court against
Bitcoinica — a bitcoin trading venue — claiming about US$ 460,000 from the
company. Bitcoinica was hacked twice in 2012, which led to allegations that the
venue neglected the safety of customers' money and cheated them out of
withdrawal requests.
In late August 2012, an operation titled Bitcoin Savings and Trust was shut down
by the owner, leaving around US$5.6 million in bitcoin-based debts; this led to
allegations that the operation was a Ponzi scheme. In September 2012, the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission had reportedly started an investigation on
the case.
In September 2012, Bitfloor, a bitcoin exchange, also reported being hacked, with
24,000 bitcoins (worth about US$250,000) stolen. As a result, Bitfloor suspended
operations. The same month, Bitfloor resumed operations;its foundersaid that he
reported the theft to FBI, and that he plans to repay the victims, though the time
frame for repayment is unclear.
On 3 April 2013,Instawallet, a web-based wallet provider, was hacked, resulting in
the theft of over 35,000 bitcoins which were valued at US$129.90perbitcoin at the
time, or nearly $4.6 million in total. As a result, Instawallet suspendedoperations.
In October2013,Inputs.io,an Australian-based bitcoin wallet provider was hacked
with a loss of 4100 bitcoins,worth over A$1 million at time of theft. The service was
run by the operatorTradeFortress.Coinchat,the associated bitcoinchat room,has
been taken over by a new admin.
On 26 October2013,a Hong-Kong based bitcointrading platform owned by Global
Bond Limited (GBL) vanished with 30 million yuan (US $5 million) from 500
investors.
Mt. Gox, the Japan-based exchange that in 2013 handled 70% of all worldwide
bitcointraffic,declared bankruptcyin February 2014,with bitcoins worth about $390
million missing,forunclear reasons.The CEO was eventually arrested and charged
with embezzlement.
On 3 March 2014, Flexcoin announced it was closing its doors because of a hack
attack that took place the day before. In a statement that now occupies their
homepage,they announced on 3 March 2014 that "As Flexcoin does not have the
resources,assets,orotherwise to come backfrom this loss the hack,we are closing
our doors immediately." Users can no longer log into the site.
Chinese cryptocurrencyexchange Bter lost $2.1 million in BTC in February 2015.

25. The Slovenian exchange Bitstamp lost bitcoin worth $5.1 million to a hack in
January 2015.
The US-based exchange Cryptsy declared bankruptcy in January 2016,ostensibly
because of a 2014 hacking incident; the court-appointed receiverlater alleged that
Cryptsy's CEO had stolen $3.3 million.
In May 2016,Gatecoinclosed temporarily aftera breach had caused a loss of about
$2 million in cryptocurrency. It subsequently relaunched its exchange in August
2016 and is slowly reimbursing its customers.
In August 2016,hackers stole some $72 million in customerbitcoinfrom the Hong-
Kong-based exchange Bitfinex.
In December 2017, hackers stole 4,700 Bitcoins from Nicehash a platform that
allowed users to sell hashing power. The value of the stolen bitcoins totaled about
$80M. It is one of the biggesthacks in the history of Bitcoin.
Lost Bitcoins
At the «Building on Bitcoin» conference, former BitGo lead developer Jameson
Lopp revealed that about 4 million bitcoins were lost forever,and another 2 million
were stolen.
Thus, as of July 2018, a total of 6 million BTC remain unavailable. And if we
considerthat it is impossibleto carry out a hard fork to restore them, then 28.5% of
the fixed issue of bitcoins (21 million) is lost completely.The loss of almost 30% of
the total will ultimately significantly increase the value of the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin taxation and regulationhistory
In 2012, the Cryptocurrency Legal Advocacy Group (CLAG) stressed the
importance for taxpayers to determine whether taxes are due on a bitcoin-related
transaction based on whether one has experienced a "realization event": when a
taxpayer has provided a service in exchange for bitcoins, a realization event has
probably occurred and any gain or loss would likely be calculated using fair market
values for the service provided."
In August 2013, the German Finance Ministry characterized bitcoin as a unit of
account.
On 5 December 2013, the People's Bank of China announced in a press release
regarding bitcoin regulation that whilst individuals in China are permitted to freely
trade and exchange bitcoins as a commodity, it is prohibited for Chinese financial
banks to operate using bitcoins or for bitcoins to be used as legal tender currency,
and that entities dealing with bitcoins must track and report suspicious activity to
prevent money laundering. Historically, the bitcoin value dropped on various
exchanges between 11 and 20 percent following the regulation announcement,
before rebounding upward again.

26. See Also on BitcoinWiki
 Ethereum
 Mining
 Coin burn
 Sharding
 Cold storage
 FAQ