Bitcoin Timeline

The major events from the pre-history of digital cash to the present, at a glance. Each entry links to the article that covers it in depth.

Built exclusively from fact-checked statements in this library (last updated 2026-08-15).

1983

  • David Chaum proposed blind-signature digital cash. More →

1989

  • Chaum founded DigiCash and launched the eCash system. More →

1992

  • The cypherpunk mailing list was founded. More →

1997

  • Adam Back devised Hashcash, a precursor to proof-of-work. More →

1998

  • Wei Dai's b-money and Nick Szabo's Bit Gold were proposed. More →

2008

  • Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper. More →

2009

  • The genesis block (block 0) was mined. More →
  • Bitcoin software v0.1 was released on SourceForge. More →
  • The first bitcoin transaction went from Satoshi to Hal Finney. More →

2010

  • 10,000 BTC bought two pizzas — now Bitcoin Pizza Day. More →
  • The Mt.Gox exchange opened. More →
  • A value-overflow bug minted 184.4 billion phantom BTC. More →

2011

  • The dark-web marketplace Silk Road launched. More →
  • Bitcoin reached $1 per coin for the first time. More →

2012

  • First halving: block reward cut from 50 to 25 BTC. More →

2013

  • A BerkeleyDB/LevelDB mismatch briefly split the chain. More →
  • The FBI shut down Silk Road and arrested its operator. More →
  • Bitcoin surpassed $1,000 for the first time. More →

2014

  • Mt.Gox collapsed, losing roughly 850,000 BTC. More →

2016

  • The DAO hack split Ethereum into two chains. More →
  • Second halving: reward cut from 25 to 12.5 BTC. More →

2017

  • SegWit activated; Bitcoin Cash forked the same day. More →
  • Bitcoin hit an all-time high near $20,000. More →

2018

  • CVE-2018-17144, a double-spend flaw, was disclosed. More →
  • Bitcoin SV forked away from Bitcoin Cash. More →

2020

  • Third halving: reward cut from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC. More →

2021

  • El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender. More →
  • Taproot activated, introducing Schnorr signatures. More →
  • Bitcoin hit an all-time high near $69,000. More →

2022

  • FTX collapsed, losing roughly $8B in customer funds. More →

2023

  • Grayscale won its SEC lawsuit, opening the path to ETF approval. More →

2024

  • The SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs at once. More →
  • Fourth halving: reward cut from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC. More →
  • Mt.Gox creditor repayments began. More →

2025

  • El Salvador repealed Bitcoin's legal-tender status. More →
  • The US established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. More →
  • The GENIUS Act was signed, advancing stablecoin regulation. More →
  • BTC hit an all-time high of $126,198. More →

2026

  • Circulating BTC supply passed the 20-million-coin mark. More →
  • The BIP 110 soft-fork attempt stalled from low miner support. More →
← All topics