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17 years ago, on January 3, 2009, the first block of transactions on the Bitcoin network, called the Genesis Block, was mined. It was created on a small server in Helsinki, and the reward for mining it was 50 bitcoins.
The Genesis Block contained a headline from an article in The Times newspaper: "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." The article described the British government's preparation for a second round of bailouts for banks affected by the 2008 global financial crisis.
It is assumed that the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, made a reference to the 2008 global financial crisis, implying that Bitcoin was created as an alternative to the traditional financial system.
Despite the launch of the Bitcoin network in early January, the first transaction of the main cryptocurrency took place more than a week after the creation of the first block—on January 12, 2009, in block 170, 10 BTC were sent from Satoshi Nakamoto to developer Hal Finney.
Bitcoin's Growth Waves
At that time, Bitcoin had no value, and the first known commercial transaction only occurred in October 2009 at a price of 5050 BTC for $5.02 (or $0.001 per bitcoin)—the transaction was conducted through the NewLibertyStandard platform, and payment was made via PayPal.
At the current BTC price of about $89k, these coins would be worth nearly $450 million—an increase of approximately 450 billion times. It took about two years for 1 BTC to reach a price of $1—on February 9, 2011, the quotes first equaled the dollar in value.
On April 16 of the same year, a major publication wrote about the new asset for the first time—Time magazine published an article about Bitcoin when the total market capitalization of the currency reached $10 million. In April 2013, the price of Bitcoin first exceeded $100 per coin, with its total market capitalization being only about $1 billion. And by the end of 2013, the quotes first exceeded $1,000, after which they sharply fell to $100.
At that time, Bitcoin was traded on only a few exchanges, and buying BTC for large investors was an extremely problematic task. As recalled Dan Morehead, founder of the first Bitcoin fund Pantera Capital, the daily purchase limit for Bitcoin on Coinbase in 2013 was only $50.
Morehead also noted that in those years, investing in Bitcoin was not common. Especially after the 87% crash in early December 2013. And attracting investors to invest in Bitcoin was accompanied by significant difficulties.
It took about four years to reach the next round mark of $10,000—it was reached in November 2017 during the ICO boom (an analog of IPO) and retail activity in the market. The peak of this growth cycle was at $17.2k, after which the quotes fell to $3k.
Bitcoin exchanged the $50k level in early 2021 during the first wave of institutional investor activity, with a peak price of $69k in that growth cycle. After which followed a fall due to a series of crises: the collapse of the Terra (LUNA) crypto project and the bankruptcy of the FTX crypto exchange, as well as the tightening of the monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve, led to a 67% decline.
It took a few more years to break the $100k barrier—it was reached in late December 2024 amid general excitement after Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election and demand for cryptocurrencies from US exchange-traded funds.
The historical price peak occurred in October 2025 at $126.2k per bitcoin. The current price is around $89k, and the asset's market capitalization is $1.77 trillion. The price has fallen by about 30% from the peak.
In 2026, Bitcoin is one of the most popular assets in the world, seriously considered by financial organizations and even states: from El Salvador and Bhutan to the USA, where a state reserve of Bitcoin has been formed.
The largest banks and management companies around the world have begun or plan to offer institutional-level services based on Bitcoin—among them are JPMorgan bank, the largest management companies BlackRock, Vanguard, and many others.
Russia is no exception. Sberbank has already conducted its first deal to lend to a company against the collateral of cryptocurrency. And the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, noted the mining of the first cryptocurrency as an additional factor that could contribute to strengthening the ruble.
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