Bitcoin has been around for a lot of years, coming to fruition shortly after the market crash that happened back in 2008. But even though it was an asset at that time, it wasn’t really a popular choice. People didn’t understand it, and there simply wasn’t much movement on it.
Interestingly enough, the first change in the history of Bitcoin pricing happened in 2010, and it was only a few cents at that time. You could buy Bitcoin for less than $.10. When you think about where this cryptocurrency, and others like it, are on the market now, this likely comes as a shock to you.
Once the movement started happening, Bitcoin still stayed flush for several more years before it suddenly turned a major corner.
As of now the price of Bitcoin stands at $69,970.86 (March 30th 2024).
Check out this Bitcoin price history, starting back in 2009, and going through 2024.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which means that it is a digital currency. There are no paper bills or ledgers of any kind, it is 100% digital and tracked only in the virtual world. And yet it costs real dollars, euros, pounds, and other forms of currency to purchase it.
It is an investment instrument, much like stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, and other assets. The only difference is that Bitcoin is spendable in some scenarios. It was ultimately designed to be a form of payment that isn’t controlled by a single bank or entity.
It’s really a bit of a mystery, which is perhaps why it took so many years to capture any real movement in the market.
We have seen Bitcoin go from $0 to $.09 to more than $16,000 as it is today on the market. This price increase has largely been driven by the growth in investor interest and activity, but it’s certainly intriguing to see such an astronomical difference. Let’s take a look at the process.
Also Read: How to Invest in Mutual Funds
Bitcoin Price History 2009-2015
From what we can tell, Bitcoin was first introduced to the market in 2009. At that time, it was $0. In 2009, there were some minor movements, but nothing that really took it above $0. It wasn’t until over a year later in 2010 when the price finally moved for the first time, and that is when it hit $.09.
There still wasn’t a whole lot of interest. Most of the movement and interest were by risk takers, or people that discovered something new and interesting. If you find an investor that has been in since the beginning, they found quite the winning piece (based on current prices).
Bitcoin stayed under $1 until 2011. It hit $1 in April and then skyrocketed up to $29.60 by June of the same year. That’s nearly a 3000% increase and it happened in a very short timeframe.
But the cryptocurrency didn’t stay at the high there. By November, it dropped back down to just $2.00. In 2012, they did see some increases and rises, but it wasn’t impressive after the prior year. Bitcoin went to $4.85 and then peaked out at $13.50 that year.
And then in 2013, they saw massive movement yet again. At the beginning of the year, Bitcoin hovered right around that $13 mark. But by April, it had reached $230. That high only held for a short time, plummeting back to $68 in July.
Bitcoin continued to see these massive increases and decreases for the course of several years following.
It became quite the roller coaster ride. In 2013, Bitcoin hit $1,237, but within three days of that reach, it was cut nearly in half to $687. There was a major slump in 2014, and 2015 didn’t prove to be any more impressive, with numbers around $300 most of the year.
Bitcoin Price History 2016-2020
In 2016, anyone watching Bitcoin was on the fence. By this time, people were intrigued, and several other forms of cryptocurrency had begun to present themselves. Bitcoin was by far the most expensive cryptocurrency, and also the most volatile. People started dabbling in a variety of crypto, which created the need for crypto wallets to manage all of your holdings.
In 2016, the price of Bitcoin once again neared $1,000, finishing out at right around $900. The prices hung out close to this number for a while, but took a jump in 2017 and finally broke the $2,000 mark in May of that year.
And here is where the shocking jumps happened. If you were shocked by the previous jumps, they were nothing compared to what happened by the end of 2017. Bitcoin rose massively, on levels really never experienced before. By the middle of December, Bitcoin was over $19,0000, hitting $19,345.49 December 15, 2017. Suddenly, Bitcoin took the world by storm.
People were taking notice, and not just your average Joe, either. Economists, scientists, and government entities were watching. This is really when alternative cryptocurrencies exploded, and it was meant to give Bitcoin some competition.
The glory of those prices near $20,000 didn’t last for Bitcoin. In 2018, the prices were still high, but had fallen to only about $10,000. The fall continued into 2019, hitting close to $6,500 as a low that December.
Interestingly enough, when the Covid-19 pandemic threw the world into chaos, it actually benefitted Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrency as well. At the beginning of 2020, the price was $6,965.72, but by the end of the year, it had reached $29,000. Yet again, the Bitcoin market took the world by storm.
Bitcoin Price History 2021-2022
As we moved into 2021, we continued to see major spikes in the market. It was like there was no ceiling for this crazy crypto, and that year it hit almost $70,000. It capped out at $68,789 in November of 2021, which remains the all-time high that Bitcoin has reached to date.
In 2021, movement happened quickly, and $40,000 prices were reached the first week of January. But that wasn’t the end of the story. This is the same timeframe that Coinbase went public, and far more interest continued to push prices upward.
At this point, even institutions were interested in Bitcoin.
In April of 2021, prices hit $63,550. This was thought to be the peak of the year, as then prices started to decrease quickly. They dropped nearly 50% by July, hitting down to $29,796 as the low for the year. And then movement started up again and they rose to over $50,000 in September. Interestingly enough, it took a major hit within about two weeks losing almost $10,000.
Of course, as we already mentioned, the story wasn’t over yet. In November, they hit that all-time high of $68,789, and the year ended lower at only about $46,164.
Once again, the world started turning into chaos with inflation, product shortages, new Omicron variants, and other things affecting economic status. These factors led to a large amount of fluctuation as we headed into 2022.
Bitcoin started out strong in the year, but prices started to drop, and continued to drop steadily through the year. At the halfway point in July, prices were down to $28,300, which was the lowest price Bitcoin had seen for quite some time now.
And if you look at the December prices of Bitcoin in 2022, you see that the downward trend continued. While Bitcoin continues to see heady fluctuations, there hasn’t been movement like the last few years, and the prices are still “low” based on those peaks.
However, if you consider where the prices came from since 2009 and 2010, the prices are certainly not low. On December 2nd, 2022, Bitcoin closed out the day at $17,088.66. That number may be only 1/3 of the prior year’s closing price but it’s still thousands above 10 years ago at that time.
What Causes the Price Changes of Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is an investment in the market, much like stocks and other assets. While it may react differently, and be strategized in a whole different capacity, it works much the same as these others.
The prices of Bitcoin are largely driven by supply and demand. As interest and curiosity rose, the prices also skyrocketed. But here’s the thing that really triggers the prices of Bitcoin. It was created with a cap of only 21 million Bitcoins ever created. And according to sources, this number will never change.
So as people were interested and purchasing, Bitcoin started running out in terms of availability for purchase. This is ultimately what drives the prices. When the limits are close, the prices move higher because the demand is higher.
When more Bitcoin is available in the market, prices reduce because supply is higher.
Even with Bitcoin mining at a steady pace, the supply and demand factor will primarily always control the prices that we see in the market.
And that being said, supply and demand can be affected by new technology, such as crypto wallets and exchange platforms. Things like the ability to pay for stuff with Bitcoin also play a role.
And finally, the price is also driven by competition. Perhaps some of the reasons for the steady decline in prices is not just the supply available, but also the competition in the market. People turn their interest elsewhere with new and exciting cryptocurrency opportunities. In some cases, it’s just because another form of crypto is more affordable than Bitcoin.
Final Thoughts
Bitcoin has proven to be fairly volatile in the market since the time that it started steadily moving. There have been some incredible highs, as well as some disappointing lows. If you consider the difference in the opening prices of $.09 in 2009 and the $16,000-$17,000 prices in December of 2022, the change is massive.
Investing in Bitcoin isn’t for everyone, but the Bitcoin price history is certainly a unique one.
