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Bitcoin's history.

On 31 October 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto emailed a nine-page paper to a cryptography mailing list. Everything that followed is here, from two pizzas bought for 10,000 BTC to the halving due in 2028, each with its source and, where it happened on-chain, its block.

Price in US dollars from mempool.space, weekly from July 2010, on a log scale so each step up is ten times the one below. Each event sits on the line at the price of its day. Dates after 30 Oct 2026 are estimates from recent block times.

2008 to 2012

Miners earned 50 BTC a block until block 210,000, on 28 November 2012.

  1. 18 Aug 2008

    bitcoin.org is registered

    The domain bitcoin.org was registered, about ten weeks before the Bitcoin whitepaper was announced.

    Milestones · 13:19 UTCSourceBitcoin.org, About bitcoin.org

  2. 20 Aug 2008

    Satoshi emails Adam Back

    Satoshi Nakamoto emailed Adam Back, the author of the hashcash paper, to check how he was citing it, and shared a draft of the whitepaper, which he said "finds a new use for hash-based proof-of-work as a way to make e-cash work". Back replied the next day, pointing him to Wei Dai's b-money proposal. The emails became public in 2024, in the UK High Court case that found Craig Wright is not Satoshi.

    MilestonesSourceCOPA v Wright [2024] EWHC 1198 (Ch), paras 23.2 and 661–665 (the emails of 20 and 21 August 2008)

  3. 22 Aug 2008

    Satoshi emails Wei Dai

    After Adam Back pointed him to it, Satoshi Nakamoto emailed Wei Dai about Dai's b-money proposal. His paper, Satoshi wrote, "expands on your ideas into a complete working system", and he asked when b-money was published so he could cite it; the Bitcoin whitepaper lists it as its first reference. The draft he linked was then titled "Electronic Cash Without a Trusted Third Party".

    MilestonesSourceGwern Branwen, the emails between Wei Dai and Satoshi Nakamoto (Satoshi's first sent Friday, August 22, 2008; first quoted by The Sunday Times in March 2014)

  4. 31 Oct 2008

    The Bitcoin whitepaper

    Satoshi Nakamoto announced the paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" on the Cryptography Mailing List, describing electronic cash that works without a bank or other trusted third party.

    Milestones · 18:10 UTCSourceSatoshi Nakamoto Institute, "Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper" email (dated 31 Oct 2008, 18:10:00 UTC)What happened

  5. 3 Jan 2009

    The genesis block

    The first block of the Bitcoin blockchain, block 0, was created. Its only transaction contains the text "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks".

    Milestones · 18:15 UTCSee block 0See the paymentSourcemempool.space, block 0 (timestamp 1231006505)What happened

  6. 8 Jan 2009

    Bitcoin v0.1 is released

    Satoshi Nakamoto announced the first release of the Bitcoin software, a Windows-only program with open-source C++ code, on the Cryptography Mailing List.

    Milestones · 19:27 UTCSourceCryptography Mailing List archive, "Bitcoin v0.1 released" (Thu Jan 8 14:27:40 EST 2009)

  7. 11 Jan 2009

    Hal Finney tweets "Running bitcoin"

    Cryptographer Hal Finney posted "Running bitcoin" on Twitter, two days after block 1, the first block after the genesis block, was mined.

    Milestones · 03:33 UTCSourceTwitter's oEmbed data for the tweet (dated January 11, 2009)

  8. 12 Jan 2009

    The first bitcoin transaction

    Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 bitcoin to Hal Finney in block 170, the first transaction that moved coins from one person to another.

    Milestones · 03:30 UTCSee block 170See the paymentSourceHal Finney, "Bitcoin and me", bitcointalk, 19 March 2013 (archived copy)

  9. 11 Feb 2009

    Satoshi introduces Bitcoin on the P2P Foundation forum

    Satoshi Nakamoto posted "Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency" on the P2P Foundation's forum, describing "a new open source P2P e-cash system" with "no central server or trusted parties". He argued that ordinary money depends on trusting central banks not to debase it and banks to hold it safely.

    MilestonesSourceSatoshi Nakamoto Institute, "Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency" (11 Feb 2009, given as 22:27:00 UTC)

  10. 5 Oct 2009

    The first bitcoin exchange rate

    NewLibertyStandard published an exchange rate of $1.00 = 1,309.03 BTC, the first known price for bitcoin, which valued one bitcoin at well under a tenth of a cent.

    MilestonesSourceNewLibertyStandard, "2009 Exchange Rate" (archived 28 April 2010)

  11. 22 Nov 2009

    The Bitcoin forum opens

    Satoshi Nakamoto opened a new Bitcoin forum and posted its welcome message. The forum continues today as bitcointalk.org.

    Milestones · 18:04 UTCSourceSatoshi Nakamoto Institute, "Welcome to the new Bitcoin forum!" (22 Nov 2009, 18:04:28 UTC)

  12. 22 May 2010

    Bitcoin Pizza Day

    Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, one of the first known purchases made with bitcoin.

    Milestones · 18:16 UTCSee block 57,043See the paymentSourceLaszlo Hanyecz, "Pizza for bitcoins?", bitcointalk (archived copy)What happened

  13. 11 Jun 2010

    The Bitcoin Faucet opens

    Gavin Andresen opened the Bitcoin Faucet, a website that gave five bitcoins to each visitor so newcomers could try Bitcoin. By his own count it gave away more than 10,000 bitcoins before closing in 2012.

    MilestonesSourceGavin Andresen, "Get 5 free bitcoins from freebitcoins.appspot.com" (Bitcointalk, 11 Jun 2010)

  14. 20 Jul 2010

    Satoshi calls Bitcoin an implementation of b-money and bit gold

    In a forum thread about a move to delete Wikipedia's article on Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto wrote that "Bitcoin is an implementation of Wei Dai's b-money proposal", posted to the Cypherpunks mailing list in 1998, "and Nick Szabo's Bitgold proposal".

    Milestones · 18:38 UTCSourceSatoshi Nakamoto Institute, "Re: They want to delete the Wikipedia article" (20 Jul 2010, 18:38:28 UTC)

  15. 1 Nov 2010

    The orange Bitcoin logo is posted

    A forum user called bitboy posted a white, tilted version of Satoshi Nakamoto's "B" symbol on an orange circle and put it in the public domain. It became the logo most people now know Bitcoin by.

    Milestones · 03:40 UTCSourcebitboy, "More Bitcoin logos, buttons, and also some other graphics", bitcointalk (1 Nov 2010, 03:40:01; Wayback Machine copy)

  16. 4 Dec 2010

    Chris Double's mining pool finds a block

    Block 95,420 was found by a mining pool that Chris Double ran with server software by a Bitcoin forum user called puddinpop, and its 50-bitcoin reward was split among 23 addresses in the block itself. Double's page calls it "the first public bitcoin mining pool". He shut it down on 17 December, after so many miners had left that another block would take too long.

    Milestones · 05:04 UTCSee block 95,420SourceChris Double, Bitcoin Pooled Mining (lists blocks 95,420 and 97,017 and the shutdown on 17 Dec 2010)

  17. 5 Dec 2010

    Satoshi asks WikiLeaks not to use Bitcoin

    Satoshi Nakamoto wrote on the Bitcoin forum, "I make this appeal to WikiLeaks not to try to use Bitcoin," warning that the attention could destroy the young project. Six days later he wrote that "WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us."

    Milestones · 09:08 UTCSourceSatoshi Nakamoto Institute, "Re: Wikileaks contact info?" (5 Dec 2010, 09:08:08 UTC)

  18. 12 Dec 2010

    Satoshi's last forum post

    Satoshi Nakamoto posted for the last time on the Bitcoin forum, announcing version 0.3.19 with new limits against denial-of-service attacks (attempts to overload nodes).

    Milestones · 18:22 UTCSourceSatoshi Nakamoto Institute, "Added some DoS limits, removed safe mode (0.3.19)" (12 Dec 2010, 18:22:33 UTC)

  19. 16 Dec 2010

    Slush's mining pool finds its first block

    Marek Palatinus, known as slush, opened his mining pool to everyone just after midnight, and it found its first block, 97,834, that morning. The pool collected each block's reward in its own wallet and paid its miners from there. First called Bitcoin.cz Mining Pool, it is now Braiins Pool.

    Milestones · 07:16 UTCSee block 97,834Sourceslush, "Re: Cooperative mining", Bitcoin Forum (16 Dec 2010, 00:02:15; Wayback Machine copy)

  20. 19 Dec 2010

    Gavin Andresen takes over running Bitcoin

    "With Satoshi's blessing", Gavin Andresen began managing the Bitcoin project, with changes proposed as pull requests on GitHub and discussed before they were added.

    MilestonesSourceGavin Andresen, "Development process straw-man" (Bitcointalk, 19 Dec 2010)

  21. 23 Apr 2011

    Satoshi writes "I've moved on to other things"

    In an email to developer Mike Hearn, Satoshi Nakamoto wrote "I've moved on to other things. It's in good hands with Gavin and everyone." It is one of the last messages known to have come from Bitcoin's creator.

    MilestonesSourceMike Hearn's published emails with Satoshi Nakamoto, thread 5 (Sat, Apr 23, 2011)

  22. 14 Jun 2011

    WikiLeaks starts accepting bitcoin

    WikiLeaks announced that it would take donations in bitcoin, after Visa, Mastercard and Bank of America had cut off donations to it and PayPal had frozen its funds. The first payments to its published address were confirmed in block 130,863 later that day.

    MilestonesSourceForbes (Andy Greenberg), WikiLeaks Asks For Anonymous Bitcoin Donations (14 Jun 2011; Wayback Machine copy)

  23. 27 Sept 2012

    The Bitcoin Foundation launches

    Gavin Andresen announced the Bitcoin Foundation, a non-profit "modeled on the Linux Foundation" that went on to pay some of Bitcoin's core developers.

    MilestonesSourceGavin Andresen, "[ANN] Bitcoin Foundation" (Bitcointalk, 27 Sep 2012)

2012 to 2016

Miners earned 25 BTC a block until block 420,000, on 9 July 2016.

  1. 22 Aug 2013

    Gregory Maxwell describes CoinJoin

    Gregory Maxwell described CoinJoin on the Bitcoin forum: a way for several people to combine their payments into one transaction, so that an outsider cannot tell which of them owns which output. He wrote that it "involves no changes to the Bitcoin protocol".

    Milestones · 02:32 UTCSourcegmaxwell, "CoinJoin: Bitcoin privacy for the real world", Bitcoin Forum (22 Aug 2013, 02:32:31; Wayback Machine copy)

  2. 29 Oct 2013

    The first bitcoin ATM opens

    A bitcoin ATM made by Robocoin went live in a Waves Coffee House in downtown Vancouver, Canada. CBC News reported it as a world first: after scanning the customer's palm, it swapped Canadian dollars for bitcoin and back.

    Milestones · 16:00 UTCSourceCBC News, World's first bitcoin ATM opens in Vancouver, 29 Oct 2013What happened

  3. 18 Dec 2013

    The "HODL" post

    A bitcointalk user called GameKyuubi posted "I AM HODLING" during a sharp price fall, misspelling "holding". "HODL" became slang for keeping bitcoin rather than selling it.

    Milestones · 10:03 UTCSourceGameKyuubi, "I AM HODLING", bitcointalk (archived copy)

  4. 7 Apr 2014

    Mara van der Laan takes over Bitcoin Core

    Gavin Andresen announced that Mara van der Laan, who had first joined Bitcoin by rebuilding its user interface, would take over from him as "Bitcoin Core Maintainer" so that he could focus on the protocol. Andresen had yet to meet his successor in person.

    MilestonesSourceGavin Andresen, "Bitcoin Core Maintainer: Wladimir van der Laan", Bitcoin Foundation (7 Apr 2014; Wayback Machine copy)

  5. 29 Jul 2014

    The Trezor hardware wallet launches

    The Trezor Model One was launched: a small, single-purpose computer for keeping a wallet's private keys in isolation. Trezor calls it the first hardware wallet. Marek Palatinus (slush) and Pavol Rusnák (stick) began it as a hobby project.

    MilestonesSourceTrezor, A decade of pioneering: 10 years since Trezor's first hardware wallet revolution (29 Jul 2024)

  6. 28 Aug 2014

    Hal Finney dies

    Hal Finney, the cryptographer who received the first bitcoin transaction from Satoshi Nakamoto, died aged 58, five years after he was diagnosed with ALS (motor neurone disease). As he had arranged, his body was cryopreserved by the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona.

    MilestonesSourceAlcor Life Extension Foundation, Case Summary: Hal Finney (A-1436), now hosted at cryonicsarchive.org

  7. 22 Oct 2014

    The sidechains paper

    Adam Back, Gregory Maxwell, Pieter Wuille, Luke Dashjr and five other developers published "Enabling Blockchain Innovations with Pegged Sidechains". It proposed moving bitcoin onto separate blockchains with new features and back again, with any fault in a sidechain confined to that sidechain.

    MilestonesSourceAdam Back and others, "Enabling Blockchain Innovations with Pegged Sidechains" (dated 2014-10-22)

  8. 14 Jan 2016

    The Lightning Network paper

    Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja's paper "The Bitcoin Lightning Network: Scalable Off-Chain Instant Payments" proposed a network of payment channels, which let two people pay each other many times while settling on the blockchain only occasionally.

    MilestonesSourceThe Lightning Network paper, draft version 0.5.9.2, dated January 14, 2016

2016 to 2020

Miners earned 12.5 BTC a block until block 630,000, on 11 May 2020.

  1. 15 Mar 2018

    Lightning comes to Bitcoin's main network

    Elizabeth Stark's company Lightning Labs released lnd 0.4-beta, the first version of its Lightning Network software enabled to run on Bitcoin's main network with real money.

    Milestones · 14:59 UTCSourceGitHub, lnd 0.4-beta release notes (published 2018-03-15T14:59:39Z)

  2. 27 Sept 2018

    Blockstream's Liquid sidechain launches

    Liquid, a sidechain run by Blockstream so that exchanges and other businesses can move bitcoin between each other quickly and confidentially, produced its first block, with 23 companies as members. Blockstream called it the first production Bitcoin sidechain.

    Milestones · 01:29 UTCSourceBlockstream, The Liquid Network is now live ("first block generated on September 27, 2018 at 1:29 UTC")

2020 to 2024

Miners earned 6.25 BTC a block until block 840,000, on 20 April 2024.

  1. 21 Oct 2020

    PayPal opens bitcoin buying to US customers

    PayPal said its US customers could buy, hold and sell bitcoin and three other cryptocurrencies (Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin) in their PayPal accounts, with access rolling out over the following weeks. The service ran through Paxos Trust Company, a regulated crypto firm.

    MilestonesSourcePayPal newsroom, PayPal Launches New Service Enabling Users to Buy, Hold and Sell Cryptocurrency, 21 Oct 2020

  2. 20 Jan 2023

    Ordinal inscriptions go live

    Casey Rodarmor released ord 0.4.0 and announced that inscriptions, a way to attach data such as images to individual satoshis, were live on Bitcoin's main network.

    MilestonesSourceGitHub, ord 0.4.0 release (published 2023-01-20T18:45:16Z)

  3. 18 Oct 2023

    Taproot Assets goes live on Bitcoin

    Lightning Labs released an early version of Taproot Assets for Bitcoin's main network: a protocol for issuing other assets on the bitcoin blockchain, such as stablecoins, tokens meant to keep a steady value, usually one US dollar. It worked on-chain only, "with Lightning support coming soon".

    MilestonesSourceLightning Labs, Taproot Assets on Mainnet: A New Era for Bitcoin and Beyond (18 Oct 2023)

2024 to now

Miners earn 3.125 BTC a block until block 1,050,000, expected around June 2028.

  1. 20 Apr 2024

    Runes tokens launch at the halving

    Runes, Casey Rodarmor's system for creating and trading tokens on Bitcoin, went live at block 840,000, the fourth halving block. The rush to create the first tokens pushed the average transaction fee that day to a record $127.97.

    Milestones · 00:09 UTCSee block 840,000Sourceord source, first_rune_height = 4 × 210,000 on mainnet

  2. 23 Jul 2024

    Taproot Assets come to the Lightning Network

    Lightning Labs released a version of Taproot Assets that sends assets such as stablecoins over the Lightning Network. In the company's words, "assets route through bitcoin, serving as a global routing currency".

    MilestonesSourceLightning Labs, Taproot Assets on Lightning (23 Jul 2024)

  3. 10 Jan 2025

    Pieter Wuille and Gregory Maxwell win the Finney Freedom Prize

    The Human Rights Foundation and Hal Finney's family awarded the Finney Freedom Prize for 2012 to 2016, the era between Bitcoin's first two halvings, to the developers Pieter Wuille and Gregory Maxwell. The prize, 1 BTC and a physical award, goes to whoever did most for Bitcoin and human rights in each halving era.

    MilestonesSourceBitcoin Magazine (press release), Pieter Wuille and Gregory Maxwell Receive The Finney Freedom Prize (10 Jan 2025)

  4. 30 Jan 2025

    Tether announces USDT for Bitcoin and Lightning

    Tether announced that it would bring USDT, its dollar stablecoin, to Bitcoin and the Lightning Network using Lightning Labs' Taproot Assets. It said USDT would work on both "once fully integrated".

    MilestonesSourceTether, Tether Brings USDt to Bitcoin's Lightning Network (30 Jan 2025)

  5. 10 Jan 2026

    Andreas M. Antonopoulos wins the Finney Freedom Prize

    The Human Rights Foundation and Hal Finney's family awarded the Finney Freedom Prize for 2016 to 2020 to Andreas M. Antonopoulos, for his work explaining Bitcoin to millions. He gave half of the 1 BTC prize to Creative Commons.

    MilestonesSourceHuman Rights Foundation, Weekly Financial Freedom Report #104 (15 Jan 2026; "Announced on January 10th")

  6. 8 Apr 2026

    The New York Times names Adam Back as Satoshi; he denies it

    The New York Times published an investigation by John Carreyrou arguing that Adam Back, the British cryptographer who invented hashcash, is Satoshi Nakamoto. Back answered on X the same morning: "i'm not satoshi".

    Milestones · 04:00 UTCSourceThe New York Times (John Carreyrou), investigation naming Adam Back (8 Apr 2026, published 04:00 UTC; Wayback Machine copy)