Australia and the World Past and Present

Since its launch in 2009, Bitcoin has gone from having a very low value to trading at tens of thousands of US dollars per coin. We have also seen multiple spectacular booms and crashes along the way.

Bitcoin was launched in January 2009. In May 2010, one individual famously paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas. This is often cited as the first real-world Bitcoin transaction. At the time, those coins were worth about US$40.

In 2011, Bitcoin experienced its first major price surge. Starting the year at under US$1, it climbed rapidly to around US$30 by June. However, the uptick did not last. By late 2011, Bitcoin had fallen back to around US$2. This established a pattern that would repeat – rapid speculative growth followed by sharp correction.

2013 was the first major mainstream boom. Bitcoin was becoming more well-known. The price began the year at around US$13 and reached over US$1,100 in November.

This boom was driven by rising global curiosity and, interestingly, the Cyprus banking crisis. Customers of banks in Cyprus were having difficulty withdrawing savings from their accounts. A run on banks developed to the point where banks placed a freeze on withdrawals. This lead a sharp decline in trust in the banking sector and people began to search for different methods of storing and accessing their savings. For many, this highlighted the way in which governments or banks can sometimes arbitrarily intervene in a financial system.

Again, the boom ended in a crash. By early 2015, Bitcoin was trading near US$200.

There was a relatively quiet recovery period in 2015 and 2016, during which Bitcoin gradually climbed back above US$1,000. The next big rally came in 2017.

That year saw an explosion of interest in cryptocurrencies, including the rise of initial coin offerings (ICOs). Retail investors around the world entered the market. Bitcoin was transitioning from a niche asset to one that was gaining wider acceptance. Bitcoin began 2017 at around US$1,000 and soared to nearly US$20,000 by December.

This meteoric rise captured global headlines. Still, the market overheated. In 2018, Bitcoin entered another steep downturn, falling below US$4,000 by the end of the year.

The next dramatic phase began during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, amid global financial panic, Bitcoin briefly fell below US$4,000. But massive monetary stimulus from central banks, combined with growing institutional interest changed the trajectory. Public companies and institutional investors began purchasing Bitcoin. Payment platforms were integrating cryptocurrency services. In late 2020 and throughout 2021 the price surged again. It continued climbing and hit a new all-time high of nearly US$69,000 in November 2021. Bitcoin had entered mainstream financial discussion.

In 2022, tightening global monetary policy, rising interest rates, and a series of high-profile crypto failures triggered another collapse. Some major crypto firms went bankrupt, and confidence in the sector weakened.

Bitcoin fell from near US$69,000 in late 2021 to around US$16,000 by late 2022. This downturn was often referred to as a “crypto winter”.

From 2023 onward, Bitcoin began another recovery phase. There was greater regulatory clarity in some jurisdictions

By 2024 and into 2025, Bitcoin reached new record highs. Late last year, it hit a high of over US$120,000. 1 Bitcoin is now trading at around US$63,000.

Over its history, Bitcoin’s price has followed recurring cycles of sharp price increases, large crashes and gradual recovery and consolidation. Each cycle has generally ended at a higher long-term floor than the previous one.

Bitcoin’s price journey has been extraordinary roller coaster ride.