Bitcoin’s prices have been on a roller coaster since it first debuted in January 2009, but the long-term trajectory is, as they say, higher than “up and right.” Bitcoin was taken to the age of cryptocurrency, but it took a long time for the public to sit and realize.
Still, within a decade, cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, have become one of the most exciting trading opportunities in a long time. Bitcoin trading has produced billionaires, but given the sustained rise since its debut, many traders will do well for a ride or just hadling, as many long-term bullish owners do.
Despite the long-term rise, Bitcoin is plagued by a period of sharp decline. The latest is November 2021-2022, with Bitcoin prices much lower due to rising interest rates and prospects for lower liquidity in financial markets.
Bitcoin was unlocked months after the global financial crisis wiped out the economy. It was created by a mysterious individual or group known as Nakamoto at, and early supporters promoted the promise of currency to transfer monetary policy from the hands of governments and central banks to an autonomously managed system.
Bitcoin is famous for up to 21 million coins that can be created. In the face of this fixed supply, ever-growing demand can send a surge in cryptocurrency. Given these dynamics, speculators are running into the space to take advantage of the expected price hike.
Bitcoin prices are famous for their emotions. When the market moves into the “greedy” phase, Bitcoin rejects the promise of utopians and the risk of assets that speculators do not generate cash flow. During the “fear” stage, Bitcoin prices seem to find traction.
However, of all of this speculation, it is important to remember that Bitcoin is difficult to use for everyday purchases. Large companies that introduced payment methods with Bitcoin have quietly returned these initiatives. Now, the market has rewritten the story from Bitcoin as a medium of exchange. However, Gold has a thousand years of history as a valuable store compared to more than a dozen bitcoin.
If you are considering holding Bitcoin or other digital assets in your portfolio, it may be helpful to meet with your financial advisor to see how cryptocurrency fits into your overall financial plan.
Here are how Bitcoin prices have risen and fall over time, and some of the trends that drive them:
January 2009 – July 2013: Bitcoin is created and attracts engineers
The New Liberty Standard Exchange recorded its first exchange of Bitcoin in dollars in late 2009. Bitcointalk Forum users traded 5,050 Bitcoin on PayPal for $5.02, with the initial price at $0.00099 for bargains per Bitcoin. In other words, the price was about a tenth of a penny.
Bitcoin was officially launched on January 3, 2009, but by mid-2010 it’s difficult to find a standard pricing. That’s because there were no exchanges just like there are today. However, the data became available in July 2010 and continues to this day.
The most expensive pizza ever bought in 2010. One Bitcoin owner provided 10,000 Bitcoin for two pizzas. This lives on in Bitcoin lore. It is believed that this is the first time that anyone has used cryptocurrency to buy something in the real world.
According to historical data from Investing.com, Bitcoin prices never exceeded $0.40 per Bitcoin in 2010, but they reached that level in early 2011. Then it went over $1 in February. Just a few months later, in May, it temporarily exceeded $8.
By June 2011, Bitcoin had reached nearly $30. And it was the top of the year. Bitcoin ended at $4.70 after reducing the remainder of 2011 to $2. It may seem like the Bitcoin epidemic has ended after this bubble burst and over 90% fell from an all-time high.
In 2012, Bitcoin consolidated most of the year and slowly grew stronger throughout the year. In November 2012, Bitcoin experienced its first “half.” This is a change in the miner’s reward structure, which receives half of Bitcoin in the mining block of the blockchain. When 2012 ended, Bitcoin ended at $13.50 from its high of that year.
The integration set up Bitcoin in 2013 when it began attracting more notifications outside the niche audience of technicians and enthusiasts. The world’s first Bitcoin ATM was set up in Vancouver, allowing buyers to change their crypto fiat money. By the end of January, Bitcoin had already risen to over $20. As interest spreads, momentum built from it.
By early March, Bitcoin had already doubled again, rising to over $40. A few weeks later it went over $50 and a few days later it went over $60. The next day I climbed to $70. By the start of April 2013, Bitcoin had given $100 in a breathtaking way. Eight days later, it surged to $230!
From there, the bottom fell, and it took a week for Bitcoin to go back to $68. But then, a week later, it doubled again and swapped the $150 North. After strong trading measures in April and May, Bitcoin calmed down June and July. Certainly, this was the peak of insanity over Bitcoin volatility.
August 2013 – December 2017: Bitcoin enters popular consciousness
After several months of consolidation earlier this year, Bitcoin reached new heights in November 2013. The price was $213, and Bitcoin doubled after just 12 days. By the end of the month, it almost tripled from there, tripling to over $1,200. It then ended with the actual downdraft of $805, but up from just $541 a few weeks ago. At the end of the year, the People’s Bank of China banned financial institutions from using Bitcoin.
In 2014, Bitcoin retained the volatility of the signature. After hitting $1,000 in early January, Bitcoin bottomed out on February 21st at $111.60. This is approaching 90%. Behind the turbulence was the problem with Gox Mt. Gox, one of the earliest crypto exchanges. The exchange halted its withdrawal and then filed for bankruptcy after losing 744,400 bitcoins of its users’ funds.
Then, just five days later, Bitcoin recorded a price of $593.10. Bitcoin gradually reduced the rest of the year and closed 2014 at around $318.
2015 started with a decline in Bitcoin, but most of the year was a rare slow uptrend for Bitcoin, ending at $430. In November, the official Bitcoin B symbol was adopted.
The first half of 2016 continued to do the same, with relatively reduced volatility and price consolidation. However, by the end of May the price had been picked up, and by mid-June, Bitcoin had reached $700. But it didn’t last long, and Bitcoin was back at $600 until November 2016. It came back over $700 and was immediately $800 and $900. At the end of the year, Bitcoin flirted for $1,000. This is the level at the beginning of 2017, when it comes to national consciousness, which is the year of Bitcoin’s divergence.
2017 started slowly enough, with Bitcoin swinging between $1,000 and $1,200. However, by late April, digital currencies were clearly moving high. By the end of May, Bitcoin was seen at $2,300, but by mid-July, travel was high, but below $2,000. The decline did not continue. By mid-August, Bitcoin had powered at $4,000 and was much higher since. Retail traders suddenly recognized cryptocurrencies, increasing the bulk and prices.
In September, Bitcoin merged around $4,000, then moved decisively by $5,000 and in mid-October $6,000. The $7,000 price was breached on November 2nd, and Bitcoin has since blended in for the rest of the year. A few weeks later, Bitcoin had risen to $8,000 and then over $10,000, surged after 13,000 days, winning $16,000 and exceeding $19,000 by mid-December.
In December, Bitcoin futures began trading in the Chicago Board Options Exchange, helping to promote further interest in cryptocurrencies and the dollar.
It was a dangerously fast rise for independent Bitcoin. As the news spread, more people rushed to buy and sent prices higher than ever. However, Bitcoin finished its 2017 breakthrough year at $13,850.
January 2018 – December 2020: Bitcoin recovers and surges even higher
After a huge blend of 2017, Bitcoin spent most of 2018 downtrends, falling year-round, following a short surge throughout the year. By the end of the first quarter, Bitcoin had fallen almost 50% from where it began the year. Before closing 2018 at $3,709, it bouncing off most of the year between $6,000 and $8,000. This is a 73% decrease per year.
2019 started the same way as Bitcoin was looking for directions. They tried to beat $4,000 in the first few months, but they eventually rose to $5,000 since their hit in April. May came, Bitcoin reached $6,000, $7,000 and then $8,000, and settled in early June. That month, Bitcoin quickly surged to $13,000 before it returned.
By September, Bitcoin had returned steadily below $10,000, but continued searching for directions, fell to the end of the year, and ended in just under $7,200 in 2019.
However, as the calendar changed to 2020, Bitcoin was picked up and rose above $10,000 over the next six weeks. Bitcoin shook, falling to $8,000 amid the stock market recession during the first Covid-19 pandemic wave. It then fell more than 39% during the drawdown, from $7,935 to $4,826 per day on March 12, 2020, down from $4,826.
By early April, it had surpassed $7,000 and then over $8,000, and began pushing $10,000 in May. After a few months of daw, it finally rose to over $11,000 in July and over $12,000 in August. Financial markets have become more liquid due to the Federal Reserve and the outlook for the Covid vaccine, and have settled for the coming months until October, when again pushed $13,000 in November 2020 and finally pushed it to nearly $20,000.
Bitcoin raced high in December 2020, closing the year at $28,949.
January 2021 – December 2023: Bitcoin is under pressure
After what could only be described as a thrilling end to Bitcoin for 2020, digital currency began in 2021. Cryptocurrency climbed, climbed to start the year, peaking at over $64,000 in mid-April, following a strong first quarter. The seemingly endless liquidity promise from the Federal Reserve has given both crypto and stock markets a free optimism.
After this auspicious start to this year, it seemed there was only one place to go: Down. In May, China warned that cryptocurrency buyers would put pressure on the industry, and Bitcoin prices began to fall. The country has also announced that financial institutions and payment platforms are banning transactions in cryptocurrency.
The news helped to throw Bitcoin into the tail spin and quickly lost over 50% of its value within a few months.
Then in September, China announced that all cryptocurrency trading is illegal and that even foreign websites offering such services to Chinese traders are banned. The market shrugged off the news, and by October the currency exceeded $60,000, a new all-time high of $68,789 on November 10, 2021.
In late 2021, the Federal Reserve announced that it would slowly emit liquidity from financial markets and begin to look ahead to its bond purchases. The central bank wanted to curb prices rising as the inflation roars at high decades. Financial rates began to rise over the decade as investors began pricing with the prospect of raising interest rates in the near future.
The low liquidity in the market casts risky assets such as Loop’s high-growth stocks, followed by cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin from early November.
That mal lazy continued into 2022, when a central bank aimed at increasing inflation and raising fees to stop it, pushing investors out of dangerous assets. Bitcoin has marked the $40,000 mark for around 40,000 for months, but it started sinking as the Fed began to actively raise interest rates in March. In mid-2022, Bitcoin established a new trading range of around $20,000, but sank to under $16,000 as a high-profile explosion, such as the trust of FTX Hurt Traders.
Prices rose in 2023, rising more than 50% by mid-June amid a wider rally of tech stocks. Bitcoin was traded for around $26,000 in mid-June 2023 despite a crackdown by the Securities and Exchange Commission on the crypto industry. It bouncing off, but by late September it was still close to $27,000.
Bitcoin began to rise again as interest rates appeared to peak in October 2023. It’s now over $42,000 to close the year amid rumours that the SEC will ultimately allow the creation of a Bitcoin ETF.
January 2024 – April 2025: Bitcoin ETFS debut, Trump re-elected
After months of speculation, the SEC officially allowed Bitcoin to trade in ETFs, allowing 11 fund managers to list the funds. The Bitcoin ETF then began trading on January 11, 2024. Bitcoin peaked at around $49,000 in the days leading up to its announcement, but it cooled somewhat over the next few weeks.
Money was poured into the newly created Bitcoin ETF in 2024, pushing Bitcoin prices to a new all-time high of over $73,000 in March. During the summer months, Bitcoin Retreat prices were seen, trading mainly in the $60,000 range, down below the $55,000 in September.
Bitcoin prices surged to new highs in December, surpassing $100,000 for the first time amid market enthusiasm after the election victory of former crypto-friendly President Donald Trump. In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order focusing on digital assets that established a working group that was indicted for proposing regulations on the crypto industry.
Traders were disappointed that there was no specific plan for how the US would buy crypto for the fund, so Bitcoin declined after the establishment of a strategic Bitcoin Reserve. By May, however, cryptocurrency had set a new all-time high, surged, albeit briefly, above $111,000 before retreating.
Bitcoin returns every year
| year | return |
|---|---|
| 2009 | n/a |
| 2010 | 30,203%* |
| 2011 | 1,467% |
| 2012 | 187% |
| 2013 | 5,870% |
| 2014 | -61% |
| 2015 | 35% |
| 2016 | 124% |
| 2017 | 1,338% |
| 2018 | -73% |
| 2019 | 94% |
| 2020 | 302% |
| 2021 | 60% |
| 2022 | -64% |
| 2023 | 156% |
| 2024 | 121% |
| 2025 (YTD) | 15% |
|
*Based on 2009 prices for New Liberty Standard Exchange Source: Calculations based on data from Investing.com |
|
– Bank Rate Brian Baker, CFAcontributed to the update of this article.
Editorial Disclaimer: All investors are advised to conduct their own independent research into investment strategies before making an investment decision. Furthermore, investors recommend that past investment products performance is not a guarantee of future price increases.