Louise Ivan
October 31, 2008
Bitcoin white paper circulated
Satoshi Nakamoto described peer-to-peer electronic cash based on proof of work and a shared transaction history.
January 3, 2009
Genesis block mined
Bitcoin's first block, height 0, started the chain.
January 12, 2009
First recorded person-to-person Bitcoin transfer
A transaction in block 170 sent 10 BTC to Hal Finney, generally attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto.
October 5, 2009
Bitcoin gets an early dollar quote
New Liberty Standard publishes an electricity-cost-based quote. It is an early reference point, not a liquid market price.
May 22, 2010
Someone buys dinner with bitcoin
Laszlo Hanyecz confirms exchanging 10,000 BTC for two pizzas. An early practical use becomes a lasting symbol.
August 15, 2010
Value overflow incident and emergency fix
An integer overflow allowed an invalid transaction to create an enormous output value; the network adopted a corrected chain after a software fix.
April 1, 2012
Pay-to-script-hash rules take effect
P2SH made complex spending conditions easier to receive through a short address-like hash.
November 28, 2012
New bitcoin issuance halves
At block 210,000, the subsidy falls from 50 to 25 BTC per block. This reduces new issuance; it does not halve the existing supply.
March 25, 2013
Block height committed in coinbase
BIP34 completed its transition away from version 1 blocks, requiring new blocks to identify their height in the coinbase transaction.
February 28, 2014
A major exchange collapses
Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy protection. The collapse exposes the risks of entrusting bitcoin to an exchange.
July 5, 2016
Relative time locks activate
The CSV bundle enabled spending conditions based on how long an output had existed, useful for payment channels.
July 9, 2016
The second supply reduction
Block 420,000 reduces the subsidy from 25 to 12.5 BTC per block.
August 1, 2017
Bitcoin Cash splits from Bitcoin
The chains diverged after shared block 478,558; Bitcoin Cash's first separate block was 478,559.
August 24, 2017
SegWit activates
Segregated Witness changed transaction data accounting and addressed transaction malleability, supporting greater capacity and payment-channel development.
December 18, 2017
Bitcoin enters a major futures market
CME launches cash-settled Bitcoin futures, adding a regulated way to trade and hedge exposure.
March 15, 2018
Lightning mainnet beta released
Lightning Labs announced lnd 0.4-beta, an early mainnet implementation of payment channels for faster off-chain payments.
May 11, 2020
New issuance falls again
Block 630,000 reduces the subsidy from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC per block.
August 11, 2020
A public company buys bitcoin for its treasury
MicroStrategy announces the purchase of 21,454 BTC for $250 million including fees and expenses.
September 7, 2021
A country adopts Bitcoin as legal tender
El Salvador's Bitcoin Law takes effect. This is a policy milestone, not proof that everyday adoption became widespread.
November 14, 2021
Taproot activates
The Taproot soft fork introduced Schnorr signatures and more flexible ways to reveal complex spending conditions.
November 11, 2022
FTX fails during the bear market
FTX and affiliated companies enter Chapter 11. A centralized business fails while Bitcoin's network continues operating.
January 20, 2023
Ordinals inscriptions launch on mainnet
Casey Rodarmor releases ord 0.4.0, opening Bitcoin mainnet to inscriptions of digital artifacts.
January 10, 2024
U.S. spot Bitcoin funds are approved
The SEC approves listing and trading of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded product shares, widening brokerage access to price exposure.
January 11, 2024
Spot Bitcoin funds begin trading
The new U.S. spot Bitcoin funds begin trading through conventional brokerage markets.
April 20, 2024
The fourth halving
At block 840,000, the subsidy falls from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC. Spot funds are already trading, and Bitcoin has already exceeded its prior intraday record.
April 20, 2024
Runes launches at the fourth halving
The ord project's fungible-token protocol began at block 840,000, coinciding with Bitcoin's fourth subsidy halving.
December 5, 2024
Bitcoin trades above $100,000
Bitcoin crosses six figures intraday for the first time. A round-number milestone, not a protocol change.
March 6, 2025
The U.S. orders a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
An executive order establishes a reserve framework using eligible forfeited government BTC and calls for budget-neutral acquisition strategies.
October 6, 2025
The highest quoted price so far
CoinMarketCap reports an intraday all-time high of $126,198.07; CoinGecko reports about $126,080. These differ from daily closing prices.
April 19, 2026
Bitcoin Core 31.0 ships cluster mempool
Core 31.0 changed how its mempool groups and evaluates related unconfirmed transactions for relay, replacement, and block templates.
October 21, 2026
Still evolving, still volatile
The latest observation in this research snapshot is $84,176.08, below the October 2025 record daily close.