14 CANDLES ON THE BITCOIN CAKE

On its fourteenth birthday celebration, Bitcoin, the $322 billion market cap mammoth gives miners and investors hope despite holding fort at one quarter it’s price as compared to its record high of $69,000 in November 2021. They say Bitcoin doesn’t see more than a two year low in a row.

Satoshi Nakamoto ushered in decentralization and blockchain technology by creating Bitcoin in January 2009, and today on 3rd January was when the genesis block was mined.

Here’s a brief year-on-year history of the giant.

2009: The Transaction that brought us Bitcoin

January 12, 2009, software engineer Hal Finney received the world’s first bitcoin mining reward (10 BTC). He got the tokens from ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ and from that point forward it has been broadly guessed that it was Satoshi who made the Bitcoin blockchain network since he distributed Bitcoin’s whitepaper back in 2008.

BITCOIN is gaining momentum as an institutional investment instrument as well, as compared to retail investments.

2010: Pizza in exchange for Bitcoin?

After a year, Bitcoin was still just considered meat for PC nerds and engineers. It was assigned some value when a developer paid 10,000 BTC for two Papa John’s Pizzas; a mistake he probably regrets. 10,000 BTC would be roughly worth $1.6 billion today.

2011: The $1 Mark

On February 9, 2011, Bitcoin’s cost came to $1, as per data. Today the trading volumes of Bitcoin are far higher than what they were then, with a market cap of $322 billion at the time of writing this article.

2012: No more soda from Vending Machines. It’s raining Bitcoin.

Only about a decade ago the world saw a Bitcoin vending machine — thanks to the brains of a student in Germany. Digital money was just picking up and this was a positive thrust in its adoption. Bitcoin was no longer considered just a computer technology. With adoption, both volume and cost of BTC grew to 20,000 and $9 respectively.

2013: Market Cap Touched $1 Billion

2013 was exciting given the high market volatility and a 11 million BTC supply. The year was unpredictable where October 2013 pegged the price at $196, which grew 10x to $1,153 by year-end.

2014: Wed-lock with the help of Bitcoin?

On August 5, 2014, a Florida-based couple had a Bitcoin blockchain-based wedding. They utilized 0.1 BTC to organize their service at Disneyland. On December 11, 2014, the world’s biggest PC manufacturer, Microsoft partnered with BitPay making Bitcoin a form of payment.

2015: Biggies announce their plans for Bitcoin

This was the year when the huge capability of blockchain innovation and Bitcoin was researched by large companies and universities. NASDAQ introduced a blockchain exploration plan, and MIT’s Media Lab launched a digital currency initiative.

2016: The Advantage Year

The Yen was falling and China saw the highest trading of Bitcoin. A 121% jump was recorded in its price from $433 to $959 in December 2016.

2017: EY eyes BTC

The Big 4 accounting firm Ernst & Young began accepting bitcoin from January 2017. In March, the industry saw the then ATH of $20,000 for Bitcoin.

2018: The Oracle of Omaha speaks

One of the most successful investors of all time, Warren Buffett, also known as the Oracle of Omaha, said on CNBC that that he did not have any short or long position in Bitcoins since he did not yet understand the underlying technology. The year saw a lot of investors funds wiped away and it was a challenging year for the industry. Analysts pegged it at doom.

2019: BTC Intraday High at 40%

Not every year is the same in the world of Bitcoin — and 2019 was a sign. Chinese President Xi Jinping announced plans to blockchain innovation for future financial which seemingly led to this intraday increase.

2020: Dark Thursday for BTC

Amid scurry over the Covid-19 lockdowns, March 12, 2020, saw a massive crash of over 50% to a new low of $4,000. Stop-losses were hit due to the sudden price drop, and funds were wiped out. This event was known as Black Thursday as it also impacted other DeFi projects.

2021: A Bitcoin Year

An ATH spectacle. A record $68,789.63 was hit by Bitcoin on November 10. Digital currencies overall made a ton of buzz. Tesla lead Elon Musk tweeted that anybody could purchase a Tesla vehicle utilizing Bitcoin. Costs kept afloat until he announced the opposite in May causing prices to crash over 50%.

On June 9, 2021, El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender. Bitcoin got its update, known as Taproot, in November 2021 helping more with its transactions.

2022: Free-fall

Not so positively, in a span of 8 months from it’s 2021 ATH, Bitcoin dropped more than 70% and stayed low all through the year. The Luna Crash (FTX) sent ripples through the industry with Bitcoin falling below US$16,000 for the first time since November 2020.

As for the outlook for 2023, CBDCs, Regulation, Difficulty and Institutional acceptance of Bitcoin will pave the way for an uptrend. It will be a great year to load up on sats. Remember earlier the belief was low that Bitcoin will bounce back, but now we know it is here to stay.