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The complete Bitcoin timeline
Every milestone that shaped Bitcoin, in order: from the whitepaper in 2008 to today. 75 events across technology, markets, regulation, adoption and security, each with a source. Filter by theme, or read it straight through as the story of how a nine-page paper became a trillion-dollar network.
Bitcoin.org domain registered
The domain name bitcoin.org was registered, more than two months before the whitepaper appeared and roughly five months before the network launched.
sourceBitcoin whitepaper published
The pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto posted 'Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' to a cryptography mailing list, describing a decentralized digital currency secured by proof-of-work.
sourceGenesis block mined
Satoshi Nakamoto mined block 0, launching the Bitcoin network and embedding the headline 'Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks' in the coinbase.
sourceBitcoin v0.1 software released
The first open-source Bitcoin client was released on SourceForge, allowing anyone to run a node and mine blocks.
sourceFirst Bitcoin transaction to Hal Finney
Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 BTC to developer Hal Finney in the first peer-to-peer Bitcoin transaction between two people.
sourceFirst Bitcoin exchange rate published
New Liberty Standard set Bitcoin's first USD exchange rate at 1,309.03 BTC per dollar, calculated from the electricity cost of mining.
sourceBitcoin Pizza Day
Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, the first documented purchase of a physical good with Bitcoin and now an annual community celebration.
sourceMt. Gox launches as a Bitcoin exchange
Jed McCaleb relaunched the mtgox.com domain as a Bitcoin exchange; it would grow to handle the majority of global Bitcoin trades before its 2014 collapse.
sourceValue overflow incident
An integer-overflow bug was exploited to create over 184 billion BTC in a single transaction; developers patched the flaw and forked the chain within hours to erase it.
sourceSilk Road darknet market launches
Ross Ulbricht launched the Silk Road online black market, which used Bitcoin for anonymous transactions and drove much of Bitcoin's early real-world demand.
sourceBitcoin reaches dollar parity
Bitcoin's price reached parity with the US dollar (1 BTC = $1) for the first time.
sourceSatoshi Nakamoto steps away
Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator sent a final known message to developers, handed stewardship to Gavin Andresen, and disappeared; Satoshi's identity remains unknown.
sourceWikiLeaks begins accepting Bitcoin
After being cut off by major payment processors, WikiLeaks started accepting Bitcoin donations, an early demonstration of censorship-resistant payments.
sourceFirst major Mt. Gox breach
A security breach at Mt. Gox briefly crashed the quoted price toward zero, an early warning about the fragility of centralized exchanges.
sourceCoinbase founded
Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam founded Coinbase through Y Combinator; it launched bitcoin buying and selling that October and became a leading US exchange.
sourceBitcoin Foundation established
The Bitcoin Foundation was formed to help fund protocol development and promote Bitcoin's adoption.
sourceFirst Bitcoin halving
At block 210,000 the block reward dropped from 50 BTC to 25 BTC, the first of Bitcoin's scheduled reductions in new supply.
sourceFirst major bubble and crash
Spurred partly by the Cyprus banking crisis, Bitcoin surged above $260 before crashing more than 70% within days.
sourceSilk Road seized and Ross Ulbricht arrested
The FBI arrested Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and shut down the darknet marketplace, seizing tens of thousands of bitcoins.
sourceWorld's first Bitcoin ATM
A Robocoin machine opened in a Vancouver coffee shop, the first Bitcoin ATM, letting customers exchange cash for bitcoin.
sourceBitcoin tops $1,000 for the first time
Amid surging Chinese demand, Bitcoin broke $1,000 and peaked near $1,242 in late November 2013.
sourceChina bars banks from Bitcoin
The People's Bank of China prohibited financial institutions from handling Bitcoin, triggering a sharp price decline.
sourceOverstock becomes first major retailer to accept Bitcoin
Overstock.com began accepting Bitcoin via Coinbase, becoming the first major online retailer to do so.
sourceMt. Gox collapses
Mt. Gox, then handling most Bitcoin trades, halted withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy after losing roughly 850,000 BTC to theft.
sourceNewsweek names Dorian Nakamoto
A Newsweek cover story claimed Dorian Nakamoto was Bitcoin's creator; he denied it, and the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains unknown.
sourceMicrosoft accepts Bitcoin
Microsoft began accepting Bitcoin for digital purchases on Windows and Xbox platforms, an early endorsement by a major technology company.
sourceNew York BitLicense takes effect
New York's Department of Financial Services enacted the BitLicense, one of the first comprehensive US regulatory regimes for cryptocurrency businesses.
sourceCFTC classifies Bitcoin as a commodity
In the Coinflip order, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission formally declared Bitcoin and other virtual currencies to be commodities under the Commodity Exchange Act.
sourceBitfinex hack
Hackers stole roughly 120,000 BTC from the Bitfinex exchange, one of the largest crypto thefts of the era.
sourceSEC rejects the first Bitcoin ETF
The SEC rejected the Winklevoss brothers' proposed spot Bitcoin ETF, citing largely unregulated underlying markets, the first of many such denials.
sourceBitcoin Cash hard fork
A long-running dispute over how to scale Bitcoin led to a hard fork that created Bitcoin Cash (BCH) with larger blocks, splitting from the main chain.
sourceSegWit activates
Segregated Witness (BIP141) activated at block 481,824, fixing transaction malleability and enabling second-layer protocols such as the Lightning Network.
sourceChina bans ICOs and exchanges
Chinese authorities banned initial coin offerings and ordered domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to shut down.
sourceCboe launches Bitcoin futures
Cboe listed the first US-regulated Bitcoin futures contract, giving traditional traders exposure to Bitcoin's price a week before CME.
sourceBitcoin nears $20,000
Bitcoin peaked at about $19,783, capping a roughly 20x run during 2017 before a long bear market began.
sourceCME launches Bitcoin futures
CME Group launched its cash-settled Bitcoin futures based on a reference rate, further institutionalizing Bitcoin derivatives.
sourceLightning Network goes live on mainnet
Lightning Labs released the first Lightning Network mainnet implementation, enabling fast, low-cost off-chain Bitcoin payments.
sourceBitcoin Cash hash war creates Bitcoin SV
A contentious split within Bitcoin Cash produced Bitcoin SV, with rival factions spending heavily on hash power in a public 'hash war'.
sourceBear market bottoms near $3,200
After falling more than 80% from its 2017 peak, Bitcoin bottomed around $3,200 in December 2018, closing its worst year on record.
sourceFacebook unveils Libra
Facebook announced the Libra stablecoin project, drawing intense global regulatory scrutiny of crypto and accelerating central-bank digital currency efforts.
sourceBakkt launches physically-settled futures
ICE's Bakkt launched the first physically-delivered, regulated Bitcoin futures, building institutional-grade custody and settlement infrastructure.
sourceBlack Thursday COVID crash
As COVID-19 panic hit global markets, Bitcoin lost roughly half its value in a single day, falling near $4,000.
sourceMicroStrategy adopts a Bitcoin treasury
MicroStrategy bought 21,454 BTC for $250 million, pioneering the corporate Bitcoin treasury strategy later copied by many firms.
sourcePayPal enables crypto
PayPal announced that US users could buy, hold and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, a major mainstream on-ramp that lifted the price above $13,000.
sourceBitcoin breaks $20,000
Bitcoin surpassed its 2017 record, closing above $20,000 for the first time amid a wave of institutional interest.
sourceTesla buys $1.5 billion in Bitcoin
Tesla disclosed a $1.5 billion Bitcoin purchase and briefly began accepting it for car payments, driving the price toward $44,000 and fueling corporate adoption.
sourceCoinbase IPO and ~$64,800 record
Coinbase went public on Nasdaq the same day Bitcoin hit a then-record of about $64,800, marking the top of the first 2021 rally.
sourceTesla reversal and China mining crackdown
Tesla suspended Bitcoin payments citing energy use, and China moved to ban Bitcoin mining, together driving a sharp mid-2021 sell-off and a miner exodus from China.
sourceEl Salvador passes the Bitcoin Law
El Salvador's Legislative Assembly voted to make Bitcoin legal tender, the first country in the world to do so.
sourceBitcoin becomes legal tender in El Salvador
El Salvador's Bitcoin Law took effect, making it the first nation where Bitcoin was legal tender alongside the US dollar, backed by the state-run Chivo wallet.
sourceChina declares all crypto transactions illegal
The People's Bank of China and nine other agencies declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal, completing China's multi-year crackdown.
sourceFirst US Bitcoin ETF (futures-based)
ProShares launched BITO, the first US Bitcoin-linked ETF, tracking futures; it drew over $1 billion in assets within days.
sourceBitcoin all-time high near $69,000
Bitcoin reached a record of $68,789, the peak of the 2021 bull market.
sourceTaproot activates
The Taproot soft fork activated at block 709,632, introducing Schnorr signatures for greater efficiency, privacy and smart-contract flexibility.
sourceTerra/LUNA collapse
The algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD lost its dollar peg and the linked LUNA token collapsed, erasing about $45 billion and triggering contagion across crypto.
sourceFTX collapses
The FTX exchange filed for bankruptcy after an ~$8 billion shortfall was exposed, sending Bitcoin to multi-year lows and badly damaging industry trust.
sourceBitcoin bottoms near $15,500
In the wake of the FTX collapse, Bitcoin fell to about $15,500, its lowest level in two years and the bottom of the 2022 bear market.
sourceOrdinals bring inscriptions to Bitcoin
Casey Rodarmor released the Ordinals protocol, enabling NFT-like inscriptions on individual satoshis and sparking a wave of on-chain activity and higher fees.
sourceBanking crisis fuels a Bitcoin rally
After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other lenders, Bitcoin rallied from around $20,000 toward $28,000 as a safe-haven narrative took hold.
sourceBlackRock files for a spot Bitcoin ETF
The world's largest asset manager filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF with Coinbase as custodian, reigniting expectations that a US spot product would finally be approved.
sourceGrayscale wins its ETF case against the SEC
A federal appeals court ruled the SEC had wrongly denied Grayscale's bid to convert GBTC into a spot Bitcoin ETF, a decision that helped clear the path to approval.
sourceSEC approves spot Bitcoin ETFs
The SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs from issuers including BlackRock, Fidelity and Grayscale; they began trading the next day with record volumes.
sourceNew all-time high before the halving
Fueled by heavy spot-ETF inflows, Bitcoin set a record around $73,738, the first time it topped a prior cycle high before a halving.
sourceFourth halving and Runes launch
At block 840,000 the reward dropped from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC; the simultaneous launch of the Runes token protocol congested the network and sent fees to record highs.
sourceTrump wins on a pro-crypto platform
Donald Trump won the US presidency after embracing crypto, and Bitcoin surged to successive records in the weeks that followed.
sourceBitcoin crosses $100,000
Bitcoin surpassed $100,000 for the first time amid post-election optimism and strong spot-ETF demand.
sourceEl Salvador ends Bitcoin's legal-tender status
To secure a $1.4 billion IMF loan, El Salvador amended its Bitcoin Law, ending mandatory merchant acceptance and Bitcoin's status as legal tender while keeping voluntary use.
sourceUS Strategic Bitcoin Reserve created
President Trump signed an executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, to hold bitcoin seized in federal cases as a long-term reserve asset, plus a broader digital-asset stockpile.
sourceBitcoin tops $111,000
Bitcoin set a fresh record above $111,000, extending its post-election run amid strong institutional inflows and a friendlier US regulatory climate.
sourceGENIUS Act signed into law
President Trump signed the GENIUS Act, the first US federal law regulating payment stablecoins, requiring full reserve backing and regular disclosures.
sourceBitcoin all-time high near $126,000
Bitcoin peaked around $126,000, the top of the 2024-2025 bull cycle, before a sharp reversal days later.
sourceLargest crypto liquidation in history
President Trump's threat of 100% tariffs on China triggered a record ~$19 billion crypto liquidation in 24 hours, briefly crashing Bitcoin from about $122,000 toward $105,000.
sourceBitcoin enters a deep bear market
Bitcoin fell roughly 50% from its 2025 record to a 21-month low near $58,000, pressured by a hawkish Federal Reserve outlook, new US tariffs, and heavy deleveraging.
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Bitcoin: The Complete Guide. “The Complete Bitcoin Timeline.” Accessed 17 Jul 2026. https://bitcoincompleteguide.com/bitcoin-timeline/
Sources & method
Each event links to a source, favouring primary and authoritative references (protocol releases, regulatory filings, exchange and company announcements) with reputable press and well-established encyclopedic entries for early history. Dates are given to the precision that is reliably documented. Where an event unfolded over time, the date marks the moment it became public or took effect.
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