The history of cryptocurrency

Forty years of digital money, from a cryptographer's 1983 paper to stablecoin laws, with every date checked.

This page tells the story in order. For Bitcoin's price year by year, see the Bitcoin price history; for the people, see who created Bitcoin and who created Ethereum.

Before Bitcoin: the search for digital cash

The core problem was always the same. Digital information can be copied, so electronic money needs some way to stop people spending the same unit twice. For twenty-five years, every answer relied on a trusted company, and every such company either failed or shut down.

1. 1983David Chaum's blind signatures

   The cryptographer David Chaum publishes "Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payments" (presented at the Crypto '82 conference). It shows how a bank could sign digital coins without seeing which coin it signed, so spending could be private.

2. 1989DigiCash is founded

   Chaum starts DigiCash in Amsterdam to sell his ecash. In the mid-1990s a few banks, including the Mark Twain Bank in St. Louis, trial it. Too few merchants and banks sign up, and DigiCash files for bankruptcy in 1998. Ecash proves private digital money is technically possible, but it still depends on a central issuer.

3. 1996"How to Make a Mint"

   Three researchers at the US National Security Agency (Laurie Law, Susan Sabett and Jerry Solinas) write "How to Make a Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash," a detailed survey of how electronic cash schemes could work and the policy questions they raise. It is published in 1997.

4. 1997Hashcash

   Adam Back proposes Hashcash, which makes a computer do a small amount of work to send each email, to deter spam. This "proof of work" idea later becomes the heart of Bitcoin mining, and Bitcoin's white paper cites it.

5. 1998b-money and bit gold

   Wei Dai publishes b-money, a proposal for money created by solving computational puzzles and recorded by a group of participants rather than a bank. Around the same time Nick Szabo designs bit gold, chaining proof-of-work puzzles so each solution builds on the last, described publicly on his blog in 2005. Neither is built, but both are clear ancestors of Bitcoin; b-money is cited in the white paper.

6. August 2004Hal Finney's RPOW

   Hal Finney releases reusable proofs of work (RPOW), letting a proof-of-work token be exchanged for a new one through a server whose code anyone could check. It still relies on a central server, but it's a working system. Finney will receive the first bitcoin transaction five years later.

2008–2013: Bitcoin arrives

1. October 31, 2008The Bitcoin white paper

   Satoshi Nakamoto posts "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" to a cryptography mailing list. Its key step: combine proof of work with a public chain of timestamped blocks, so the honest history is simply the one with the most work behind it. No trusted party is needed. The financial crisis is in full swing.

2. January 3, 2009The genesis block

   The first Bitcoin block is mined. Its data includes a headline from that day's Times of London: "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." Its 50-bitcoin reward can never be spent.

3. January 12, 2009The first transaction

   Nakamoto sends 10 bitcoins to Hal Finney in block 170.

4. May 22, 2010Bitcoin Pizza Day

   Laszlo Hanyecz pays 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, the first well-known purchase of goods with bitcoin. See Bitcoin Pizza Day.

5. July 2010Mt. Gox opens

   A Tokyo-based site becomes a bitcoin exchange and soon handles most of the world's trading.

6. December 2010Nakamoto fades out

   Satoshi's last public forum posts. By spring 2011 Satoshi has stopped corresponding entirely.

7. February 2011Silk Road and the first altcoins

   The Silk Road darknet market opens, using bitcoin for payments. In October 2011 Litecoin launches, one of the first coins copied from Bitcoin's code. See Litecoin.

8. 2013Regulators notice

   In March 2013 the US Treasury's FinCEN issues guidance that crypto exchangers are money transmitters. In October the FBI shuts Silk Road. Bitcoin passes $1,000 for the first time in late November.

2014–2019: crashes, smart contracts and token sales

1. February 2014Mt. Gox collapses

   Mt. Gox halts withdrawals and files for bankruptcy, saying about 850,000 bitcoins are missing (about 200,000 are later found). Creditors begin receiving repayments only in 2024. It's the first big lesson in why holding coins on an exchange carries risk. See custodial vs. non-custodial wallets.

2. July 30, 2015Ethereum launches

   Ethereum, proposed by Vitalik Buterin and funded by a 2014 token sale, goes live with programmable smart contracts. See what is Ethereum.

3. June 2016The DAO hack

   An investment fund run by smart contracts, The DAO, is drained of about a third of its ether through a bug. Ethereum reverses the theft with a hard fork in July; those who reject the fork continue the old chain as Ethereum Classic.

4. 2017The ICO boom

   Thousands of projects raise money by selling new tokens directly to the public. On July 25, 2017 the SEC's "DAO Report" warns that such tokens can be securities; China bans ICOs in September. Bitcoin Cash splits from Bitcoin in August. In December, bitcoin futures launch on Cboe and CME and bitcoin peaks near $20,000. See what was an ICO.

5. 2018The crypto winter

   Prices collapse: bitcoin falls about 73% over the year and most ICO tokens lose nearly everything.

6. June 2019Facebook's Libra

   Facebook announces a global stablecoin, Libra. Pushback from governments is fierce, and the project is abandoned in 2022, but it puts stablecoins on every regulator's agenda.

2020–2021: DeFi, NFTs and the peak

1. 2020Companies and DeFi

   Public companies start buying bitcoin for their balance sheets. "DeFi summer" brings a wave of lending and trading apps built on Ethereum, and PayPal lets US customers buy crypto from October. See what is DeFi.

2. 2021NFTs and mainstream listings

   NFTs boom, highlighted by a digital artwork selling at Christie's for $69 million in March. Coinbase lists on the Nasdaq in April. See what is an NFT.

3. September 2021El Salvador and China

   On September 7, El Salvador makes bitcoin legal tender. On September 24, China declares all crypto trading services illegal and orders mining shut down. See El Salvador and China.

4. November 2021The peak

   Bitcoin reaches about $69,000, and the total value of all cryptocurrencies approaches $3 trillion.

2022–2023: the collapses

1. May 2022TerraUSD and Luna

   The algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD loses its dollar peg and, with its sister token Luna, collapses within days, erasing about $40 billion. Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon is later sentenced in the US to 15 years in prison (December 2025). See stablecoins.

2. June–July 2022Lenders fail

   The crypto lender Celsius freezes withdrawals on June 12 and files for bankruptcy on July 13. The hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and the broker Voyager also fail.

3. September 15, 2022The Merge

   Ethereum switches from proof of work to proof of stake, cutting its energy use by an estimated 99.95%. See crypto's environmental impact.

4. November 11, 2022FTX goes bankrupt

   FTX, then one of the largest exchanges, files for bankruptcy after it emerges that customer money was used by its sister trading firm. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried is convicted of fraud in November 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in March 2024.

5. November 2023Binance settles

   Binance and its founder plead guilty to US anti-money-laundering and sanctions violations, with the company agreeing to pay about $4.3 billion.

2024–2026: ETFs, laws and a new US approach

1. January 10–11, 2024Spot bitcoin ETFs

   The SEC approves the first US spot bitcoin ETFs, which begin trading the next day. Spot ether ETFs follow on July 23, 2024. See Bitcoin ETFs explained.

2. April 20, 2024Fourth halving

   Bitcoin's block reward falls to 3.125 BTC. See the Bitcoin halving.

3. December 2024$100,000

   Bitcoin passes $100,000 for the first time on December 5.

4. January 2025US policy turns

   The SEC forms a Crypto Task Force (January 21) and over the following months drops most of its lawsuits against crypto firms. A January 23 executive order bars federal agencies from creating a CBDC. See US crypto regulation.

5. February 21, 2025The Bybit hack

   Hackers the FBI links to North Korea steal about $1.5 billion in crypto from the Bybit exchange, the largest theft on record. See crypto crime.

6. March 6, 2025A US bitcoin reserve

   An executive order creates a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve from bitcoin the government already holds through forfeitures.

7. July 18, 2025The GENIUS Act

   The first US federal stablecoin law is signed. It takes effect on January 18, 2027.

8. October 2025A record, then a crash

   Bitcoin sets a record of about $126,000 on October 6. On October 10, the largest wave of forced liquidations in crypto history follows a sharp drop.

9. March 202620 million bitcoins

   The 20 millionth bitcoin is mined; fewer than a million remain to be issued, over more than a century.

10. 2026Laws around the world

    The EU's MiCA transition ends on July 1, Japan passes a law moving crypto under its securities rules on July 15, and the UK opens applications for its new crypto regime on September 30. In the US, the CLARITY Act, a broader market-structure bill, fails a Senate procedural vote 49–50 on September 15, and the first final GENIUS Act rule is issued on October 21. See regulation by country.

What the history teaches

• The technology and the companies are different things. Bitcoin's network has kept running through every crash. Most large losses came from exchanges and lenders that failed: Mt. Gox, Celsius, FTX.
• Booms end. Every peak (2013, 2017, 2021, 2025) was followed by a fall of more than half for bitcoin and much more for smaller coins.
• "Stable" isn't guaranteed. TerraUSD showed that a stablecoin is only as good as what backs it.
• Regulation follows failures. Most of today's rules respond to a specific disaster, from Mt. Gox (Japan's exchange licensing) to FTX (custody rules worldwide).

None of this predicts what happens next. See is crypto dead? for how often it has been written off.

Frequently asked questions

Where to next

Sources

1. Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payments (David Chaum, Advances in Cryptology: Proceedings of Crypto 82)
2. How to Make a Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash (Law, Sabett and Solinas, NSA, 1996)
3. b-money (Wei Dai, 1998)
4. Bit gold (Nick Szabo, Unenumerated, 2005)
5. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (Satoshi Nakamoto, 2008)
6. The history of Ethereum (ethereum.org)
7. Samuel Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years (US Attorney's Office, SDNY, March 2024)
8. Statement on the approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products (SEC, January 10, 2024)
9. Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years (The Block, December 2025)
10. GENIUS Act, S.1582 (Congress.gov)

Written for beginners and checked against the sources listed. Last reviewed November 4, 2026. This page is educational and is not financial, tax or legal advice. How we write and check pages.