A Compendium of Cryptocurrency Important Milestones
From a mysterious whitepaper to the trading floors of Wall Street, this is the definitive story of crypto's chaotic and revolutionary journey.
2000s - 2010: The First Decade
Being the splendid epitome of innovation, cryptocurrencies have become the fastest-growing and the best-performing asset class of the decade. Let’s look back at the history of the booming crypto market and take a moment to appreciate how far we’ve come.
The 2000s: The Inception of Bitcoin
Even though some may think that the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto laid the groundwork for the development of crypto, he was indeed inspired by the concept of public key cryptography, first introduced to the public by two Stanford scholars in 1976, and electronic money, which was first explored by the American cryptographer David Chaum in the 1980s. The 1990s saw several attempts at building an anonymous, competent digital cash system; all of them have undoubtedly helped shape the future of cryptocurrencies.
However, prior to Bitcoin, there was another disruptor of the global financial system: the so-called “dot-com bubble”. The Internet we’re now so familiar with was once a life-changing innovation that, when piled up with excessive speculation in the housing market in the U.S. and other financial instabilities across the world, had triggered the Great Financial Crisis in 2008. Bitcoin came into existence the same year, trying to untangle the problem while pursuing freedom in any way imaginable.
2008 - 2009: Bitcoin Network
Nakamoto purchased the domain Bitcoin.org and published the Bitcoin whitepaper there in 2008. This paper describes the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus application for the Bitcoin Network, a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system” with a limited supply (21 million) of its tokens. The genesis block was mined in 2009, releasing 50 Bitcoin into circulation. A message encrypted in the genesis block referred to the 2008 financial crisis and how governments rescued banks. Nakamoto was also the first to conduct a Bitcoin transaction on the 12th of January, 2009.
Bitcoin white paper. Source: bitcoin.org
One thing that stood in the way of Bitcoin enthusiasts this year was Bitcoin mining difficulty, which materialised into the amount of computer power and energy consumed. Bitcoin mining requires specialised hardware machines with exceptionally strong GPUs; it is this inherent characteristic of PoW that keeps the network secure and fair, but also makes Bitcoin the object of environmental criticism.
2010: Bitcoin Pizza Day
One key event for Bitcoin - and maybe for the whole crypto market as well - occurred on May 22, 2010, when a guy in Florida paid 10,000 BTC for his two Papa John’s pizzas. That was the first Bitcoin commercial transaction, despite the fact that the first two exchanges, BitcoinMarket.com and Mt.Gox, were established, allowing for the first Bitcoin public trade at US$0.03/BTC earlier this year.
Mysteriously, Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared around December 2010. Throughout the years, several have claimed to be Nakamoto, but his or their true identity has never been revealed.
2011-2014: The First of Everything Else
You might very well think of this period as the crypto space’s stepping stone, where new concepts were developed and refined gradually.
2011: The First Altcoins
As Bitcoin started to capture public attention, others created their own tokens as the alternative of Bitcoin - now generally known as “altcoins”. Two first altcoins officially acknowledged were Namecoin (NMC) by Vincent Durham and Litecoin (LTC) by Charlie Lee, both forked from the Bitcoin source code and still active today. Litecoin is currently the 25th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.
The oldest crypto wallets are software wallets named BitPay and Electrum. As of today, Electrum remains Bitcoin-only, whereas BitPay has expanded their services over the years to support other cryptocurrencies.
2011 also marked a new milestone in Bitcoin price growth as it reached parity with the US-Dollar (USD), Euro (EUR) and the British Pound Sterling (GBP), one after the other. That might be the reason behind WikiLeaks’ decision to accept donations in Bitcoin.
2012: BTC First Halving
In addition to Bitcoin’s finite supply, the design of Bitcoin consolidates the theory of scarcity with one pre-programmed feature: Bitcoin Halving, which is set to take place roughly every four years.
The block emission was reduced from 50 BTC per block to 25 BTC per block, contributing to the 100x increase in BTC price from US$12 in November, 2012 to US$1,217 one year later. Bitcoin slowly gained traction, leading to the establishment of the Bitcoin Foundation. A record of 1,000 merchants began to accept BTC payment via BitPay.
Coinbase had successfully raised US$600,000 for formation. Founded by Mihai Alisie and Vitalik Buterin, Bitcoin Magazine published its first issue in the same year.
Regarding sovereign adoption, Estonia was the first economy to use blockchain technology for their digital IDs project.
2013: The First ICO
2013 was a remarkable year where Bitcoin surpassed the US$1,000 mark and Reddit accepted BTC for gold membership. Darknet market Silk Road experienced a shut-down with 26,000 BTC confiscated by the FBI. In October, the first Bitcoin ATMs were installed in Vancouver, Canada, converting Bitcoin into cash and vice-versa.
Most significant was the new type of crowdfunding known as Initial Coin Offering (ICO), prompted by the successful fundraising of Mastercoin (OMNI). The project received 4,740 (around US$500,000) Bitcoin, mostly from members of the bitcointalk.org forum, to develop their platform. Little did Mastercoin’s founders know that their idea had set the trend for multiple blockchain projects in the following years, and to some extent - paved the way for the emergence of Ethereum two years later.
2014: The First NFT and Stablecoins
The start of 2014 was quite gloomy as Mt.Gox, the original Bitcoin exchange that covered 70% of the world's transactions, was hacked and filed for bankruptcy. 850,000 Bitcoin (US$460 million at the time) stayed unaccounted due to this event, bringing the needed awakening for unwary crypto adopters. That caused a 50% drop in Bitcoin price; people started to shift their focus to other blockchain applications: NFT, stablecoin, privacy coin and hardware wallet:
● January 2014: DASH (originally XCoin), the first privacy coin, i.e. a coin designed to obscure the transaction flow, was created as a fork of Bitcoin;
● May 2014: “Quantum”, the first NFT ever, was minted by the digital artist Kevin McCoy on the Namecoin blockchain;
● July 2014: bitUSD, a token issued on the BitShares blockchain, defines the term stablecoin by pegging its value to the market value of local currencies such as the US-Dollar. Another invention announced the same month was the first hardware wallet for crypto by Trezor, with Ledger quickly following the path. Ethereum concluded the month with 31,591 Bitcoin raised after 42 days;
● September 2014: NuBits was the second stablecoin to be created. This month also saw the first over-the-counter (OTC) Bitcoin swap approved by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC);
● November 2014: Tether came up with the first 100% real-asset backed stablecoin, USDT. Undeterred by the market confusion, many listed companies still announced the new Bitcoin payment option, including Stripe, Paypal, Dell, Microsoft, etc.
2015-2018: The Rise of Cryptocurrencies
Numerous teams bootstrapped the development of their cryptocurrency projects through ICOs, aiming to become the successor of Ethereum.
2015: The Origin of Ethereum
Ethereum’s first mainnet - Frontier - went live in 2015. That is approximately two years after Vitalik Buterin and his team proposed their whitepaper. Subsequently, they put forward the proposal for the ERC-20 token standard, which is absolutely critical for the birth of smart contracts and more diverse blockchain applications. Ethereum’s price swayed under US$1, but investors all agreed on the limitless potential of the project.
Source: Coin Gabbar on X
This was in general a positive year for cryptocurrencies since Coinbase became the first regulated crypto exchange in the U.S. and another U.S.-based exchange, Gemini, was launched. Bitcoin was featured on The Economist’s cover, referred to as “The Trust Machine”, and continued to be Stripe’s main focus as the payment startup started the BTC payment integration for merchants.
Source: Economist
Furthermore, financial institutions’ interest in blockchain technology grew substantially: J.P.Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America made a pact to create the blockchain framework across the banking industry, while NASDAQ conducted the first blockchain trial.
2016: The DAO Hack
Homestead went live as Ethereum’s second mainnet. A new form of trustless organisation was established on the Ethereum blockchain thanks to the invention of smart contracts. The project name, Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (The DAO), is now used to describe all community-led entities built on blockchain. The hype surrounding this revolutionary project lies in its unique design of equal authority distribution and the fact that it was the first high-profile project on the Ethereum network, having raised US$150 million in Ethereum at the time. However, before it truly took off, a hacker managed to exploit vulnerabilities in its code, stealing 3.6 million ETH from The DAO’s fund.
The Ethereum community as a whole took a big hit because 14% of the circulating Ethereum was stored in The DAO’s smart contracts when the attack occurred. Several questions concerning the security and even the viability of the one-year-old network arose, urging miners, exchanges and node operators to implement the Ethereum hard fork at block 192,000.
Bitcoin underwent the Second Halving, which reduced the amount of BTC produced per block from 25 to 12.5. It was not the sole reason behind Bitcoin’s record-breaking price in 2017, but definitely was one major driver. Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, launched the BTC Price Index - signalling intensified institutional awareness and presence in the market.
2017: The Year of ICOs
Many would call 2017 the highlight in the history of cryptocurrencies. A total of 435 ICOs had taken place, raising a whopping US$5.6 billion. The most famous ICO was Filecoin, which was also the first to be SEC-compliant with the legally binding SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens). Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao in mid-2017 and received US$15 million in an ICO the same year, but China went against the current with its ICO ban in September.
DeFi sector (Decentralised Finance) started to emerge with the launch of the main crypto-collateralised stablecoin DAI. The total value locked (TVL) of DeFi hit US$1 million for the first time. The first NFT Game - CryptoKitties - went viral, pushing Ethereum’s transaction capacity to its limit.
Meanwhile, Japan officially recognised Bitcoin as a currency in 2017, providing the most progressive regulatory climate for the market. The first bank to sell Bitcoin directly to its customers is the Switzerland-based private bank Falcon. CME and CBOE (Chicago Board Options Exchange) announced their Bitcoin Futures, meaning big players in the traditional capital markets had joined the game.
2018: The First Bitcoin’s All-Time High
A few days into the new year, Bitcoin price set its new all-time high at US$19,700. Other cryptocurrencies greatly benefited from this achievement. The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies broke the record at US$820 billion, with VCs’ investments in the market hitting US$1 billion. Bitget was founded in 2018, preparing for the employment of social trading in crypto.
Fidelity launched its crypto institutional platform, and the Swiss authorities added BTC to their tax payment options. Other regulatory bodies started to support the use of blockchain: the European Union committed US$300 million for blockchain project development and the South Korean government US$9 million.
2019 - Present: Becoming an Integral Part of the Global Economy
Countless criticisms later, the crypto market has proven it's here to stay. Finally recognized as a new asset class worldwide, cryptocurrencies are becoming integral to the global financial system. Obviously, much more work remains to be done, but the whole journey has been impactful and completely astounding!
2019: Scalin’ Time!
This is the year when the number of all Bitcoin transactions amounted to 400 million, and the number of daily Ethereum transactions exceeded 1 million. Facebook, one of the world’s largest companies in valuation, introduced their digital currency plan, whilst the giant J.P.Morgan launched the first bank-backed token in the U.S., JPM Coin.
One disturbing theme of the year was security. Seven crypto exchanges were hacked, including Binance and BitHumb. The value of compromised funds added up to nearly US$160 million, amplifying the trust issues raised by OneCoin’s ponzi scheme.
Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt platform debuts physically-settled Bitcoin futures on September 23, offering institutions a new way to trade BTC. Initial uptake was slow, but it laid groundwork for regulated crypto derivatives. Also related to the theme of regulation is China’s endorsement for blockchain development and the digital yuan, even when crypto trading remained banned.
2020: DeFi Summer and Black Thursday
Compound's yield farming kickstarted a DeFi boom in mid-2020, with protocols like Yearn, Uniswap, and SushiSwap driving Total Value Locked from under $1B to over $10B by year-end. High yields and new governance tokens spurred a frenzy, albeit with smart contract risks. The Ethereum Beacon Chain (Phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0 a.k.a. Ethereum PoS) launched on December 1, introducing proof-of-stake to Ethereum. Over 524,000 ETH were staked to activate the upgrade, beginning Ethereum's multi-year transition from PoW, slightly later than early projections.
Meanwhile, the Black Thursday crash in March 2020 underscored crypto's resilience. Amid COVID-19 panic, Bitcoin plunged by 50% on March 12, with ETH similarly crashing and liquidating billions in positions. This extreme volatility (dubbed Black Thursday) shocked markets but was followed by a swift recovery that never looked back to the $5,330 level. Institutions began flocking to Bitcoin for the "digital gold" narrative, with MicroStrategy becoming the first corporation to hold a BTC treasury of 21,454 BTC at that time.
2021: The NFT Mania
In February 2021, Tesla followed suit by disclosing a $1.5 billion Bitcoin purchase and announcing plans to accept BTC payments, validating crypto as a corporate treasury asset. Then, Coinbase (COIN) went public via direct listing on NASDAQ at an $86 billion valuation as the first major crypto exchange to have an IPO. These were definitely the main drivers behind Bitcoin's new ATH at $64,863 in April.
The main theme of the year was NFTs, with an NFT artwork by digital artist Beeple selling for $69.3 million at Christie's. This marked the beginning of NFTs' explosion into the mainstream, alongside big names like CryptoPunks and Bored Apes. On a side note, the world saw the biggest bet of all time as El Salvador passed a law to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender—the first Bitcoin adoption at the nation-state level ever.
Bored Ape Yacht Club historical best sales on OpenSea. Source: OpenSea
In November 2021, Bitcoin peaked once more at $68,790 and Ethereum at $4,892. Both contributed to the new ATH of the total crypto market cap, which surpassed the $3T mark for the first time in history and marked the peak of the 2020-21 bull cycle.
2022: THE Crypto Crash
In March 2022, a group of hackers named Lazarus Group exploited the Ronin Network (Axie Infinity's sidechain) and stole approximately $625 million in ETH/USDC. This theft—one of the largest in crypto history—rattled the GameFi sector and prompted deeper scrutiny of bridge security.
Then in May, Terra (LUNA) collapsed from a $16 billion market cap as its algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD depegged and crashed into cents, wiping out the LUNA (now LUNC) token's value. This collapse vaporized approximately $40-50 billion in market value and triggered a broader crypto credit crisis.
Both events shook CeFi to its core, causing sector contagion in June, July, and August 2022. Major crypto lenders and funds filed for bankruptcy, from Celsius and Three Arrows Capital to Voyager.
Taking the biggest hit was FTX. The exchange's collapse was triggered by a liquidity crisis after reports revealed its close ties to Alameda Research, which had been seriously affected by the bloodbath in H1 2022. When customers rushed to withdraw funds, FTX couldn't cover demands because it had secretly lent billions in user deposits to Alameda for speculative bets. The exchange quickly collapsed, leading to bankruptcy, regulatory scrutiny, and the arrest of CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for fraud.
Amid this turmoil, many overlooked that the Ethereum Merge took place, where the chain finally switched to Proof-of-Stake consensus. Ethereum's energy usage was reduced by 99.9% consequently, and Ethereum's roadmap then turned to scaling.
Ethereum consensus has changed into PoS since 2022. Source: Ethereum Energy Consumption
2023: More Regulatory Clarity
March 2023 brought banking turmoil and a depeg: Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank (crypto-friendly U.S. banks) collapsed amid wider bank failures. Circle's USDC stablecoin briefly depegged to $0.88 when $3.3B of its reserves were stuck in Silicon Valley Bank, though it recovered after U.S. regulators backstopped SVB.
The EU Parliament approved MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation) on April 20, establishing a landmark regulatory framework across EU states. MiCA set licensing, reserve, and disclosure standards—the first such comprehensive regime globally. Its stablecoin rules took effect in June 2024, with wider provisions following in December 2024.
In the U.S., it was all about legal disputes. The SEC charged Binance (June 5) and Coinbase (June 6) with operating unregistered exchanges and offering unregistered securities, but suffered defeats against Grayscale and Ripple. On August 29, the D.C. Circuit Court vacated the SEC's rejection of Grayscale's spot Bitcoin ETF application, calling the denial "arbitrary and capricious." This legal victory raised confidence that a U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF would finally be approved—a dramatic reversal after years of SEC refusals. Indeed, the ruling set the stage for imminent approvals in 2024. One month earlier, a federal judge ruled that XRP sales on public exchanges were not securities, which was a partial win for Ripple.
2024: Spot Bitcoin ETFs on Wall Street + Bitcoin Halving = $100K
In a landmark shift, the SEC on January 10 approved the listing of 13 spot Bitcoin ETFs (after a court loss and years of industry lobbying). Firms like BlackRock and Fidelity launched ETFs, finally giving U.S. investors direct Bitcoin funds right in the first few days of the year. In the first few days of H2, the first U.S. spot Ether ETFs made their debut quite unexpectedly, signaling a more muted investor reception than Bitcoin.
While March 2024 was Ethereum's show time with its Dencun upgrade to reduce L2 fees, all eyes were on April with the 4th Bitcoin halving at block #840,000. Bitcoin's block reward fell from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, again showcasing Bitcoin's programmed scarcity.
The EU's MiCA regulation kicked in for stablecoin issuers on June 30, 2024, with full scope for exchanges and other crypto services by January 2025. By the end of 2024, MiCA's regulations became fully applicable across the EU, covering all crypto asset service providers. Industry observers noted increased compliance costs but also greater institutional confidence in EU markets.
In November 2024, Trump won the U.S. Election and brought the promise of "making crypto great again" to the White House, giving crypto early adopters high hopes for the industry's price growth. Bitcoin reached its 6-figure ATH for the first time in December.
2025 (Through August): BTC $124K
Facing tepid uptake of its PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin, PayPal announced a 3.7% yield incentive for holders in April 2025, when PYUSD's circulation was about $868 million. Then, in the wake of U.S. elections and agency changes, the SEC not only withdrew its lawsuits against major exchanges Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken, but also its appeal against Ripple. This reversal suggested a more industry-friendly approach, validating speculation that a political shift could soften crypto regulation.
In July, the U.S. Congress passed the GENIUS Act, the first U.S. federal framework for payment of stablecoins. Major banks and large retailers/tech firms signaled plans to issue or partner on USD stablecoins. Around the same time, Bitcoin suddenly hit $123,092 on July 14, before reaching a new all-time high of $124,000 on August 14.
Bitcoin has flipped Alphabet (Google) to be the 5th largest asset by market cap (as of August 14, 2025). Source: Companies Market Cap
Conclusion
From Bitcoin's humble beginnings during the 2008 financial crisis to reaching $124,496 in 2025, the cryptocurrency ecosystem has evolved from an experimental digital currency into a legitimate asset class that commands respect from institutions, governments, and retail investors alike. The journey has been marked by spectacular highs and devastating crashes, regulatory uncertainty and landmark approvals, as well as technological breakthroughs and security failures.
What stands out most remarkably is crypto's resilience. Each crisis, from Mt. Gox to FTX, initially appeared to threaten the entire ecosystem, yet the market consistently emerged stronger and more mature. The infrastructure has become more robust, prompting clearer regulations, both of which have encouraged broader institutional participation. Bitcoin ETFs on Wall Street, El Salvador's legal tender adoption, and comprehensive regulatory frameworks like MiCA demonstrate that cryptocurrencies have transcended their early reputation as speculative instruments for tech enthusiasts.
Looking ahead, the foundation has been laid for even greater integration into the global financial system. With major corporations holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets, traditional banks offering crypto services, and governments developing digital currencies, the question is no longer whether cryptocurrencies will survive, but how they will continue to reshape finance, technology, and society in the decades to come. The first decade was about proving viability; the next will be about defining the future of money itself.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are for informational purposes only. This article does not constitute an endorsement of any of the products and services discussed or investment, financial, or trading advice. Qualified professionals should be consulted prior to making financial decisions.
