Bitcoin price history begins at zero. Bitcoin launched in January 2009 with no market price, traded for fractions of a cent and then under $0.10 through most of 2010, and went on to reach an all-time high of $126,080 on October 6, 2025. Between those two points it went through repeated cycles of sharp rallies and drawdowns. Several of those drawdowns erased more than half of the price within months, and the move that followed the October 2025 peak was another one.
Key takeaways
- Bitcoin had no price in 2008 and essentially none in 2009. Its first notable jump came in October 2010.
- Major peaks came in 2011, 2013, 2017, 2021, late 2024 (first close above $100,000) and October 2025 (the all-time high of $126,080).
- Each major peak was followed by a deep decline, several of more than 70%.
- Supply is capped at 21 million coins, and issuance halves roughly every four years, most recently on April 19, 2024.
- U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, approved in January 2024, widened access just before a run to new highs.
Before there was a price: 2008 and 2009
The Bitcoin white paper, credited to the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, was published on October 31, 2008. No coins existed that year, so there is no 2008 bitcoin price. Any chart that appears to start before 2009 is showing something else.
The network went live on January 3, 2009, when the first block (the genesis block) was mined. Through 2009 bitcoin was mined and exchanged mostly by a small group of developers and enthusiasts, with no exchange where a market price could form. Its value at introduction was effectively $0, the lowest it has ever been, and early informal trades valued a coin at a tiny fraction of a cent.
Nakamoto designed bitcoin as a peer-to-peer payment system, not an investment. Its price came to be driven far less by payments than by buyers treating it as a store of value, a speculative trade or an inflation hedge.
2010 to 2012: the first market prices
2010
For most of 2010, bitcoin traded below $0.10. On May 22, 2010, a programmer paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, a date still marked as “Bitcoin Pizza Day.”
The first significant price increase came on October 26, 2010, when bitcoin moved from its long-held level of about $0.10 to $0.15. It approached $0.30 before the year ended, so a coin was worth under a dime for most of 2010 and a few dimes by December.
2011
Bitcoin passed $1 early in 2011 and kept climbing to a peak of $30.05 on June 9, 2011. That was its first true bubble, and it was followed by its first crash. By year-end the price had fallen to about $4, a loss of roughly 87% from the June high.
2012
The price gained a few dollars in 2012, recovering part of the 2011 losses. The more important event came on November 28, 2012, with bitcoin’s first halving: the block reward paid to miners dropped from 50 BTC to 25 BTC, cutting the rate of new supply in half. Bitcoin entered 2013 at about $13.
2013 to 2015: first boom, first exchange collapse
2013
Bitcoin first broke into mainstream awareness in 2013. The price started the year at $13, crossed $100 by April and $200 by October, and in December crossed $1,000 for the first time. The rally did not hold: bitcoin closed 2013 at about $760, still more than 50 times its starting price.
2014 and 2015
In February 2014, Mt. Gox, then the largest bitcoin exchange, halted withdrawals and later filed for bankruptcy after losing a large amount of customer bitcoin. The collapse damaged confidence in the young market. It also showed a risk separate from price volatility: holding coins on a platform that can fail.
Bitcoin spent 2014 and much of 2015 in a prolonged bear market, well below its 2013 peak, consolidating rather than setting new highs.
2016 to 2020: the second halving, the 2017 bubble and the pandemic
2016
Prices climbed slowly through 2016 and finished the year above $900. The second halving took place on July 9, 2016, reducing the block reward from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC.
2017
Bitcoin hovered around $1,000 early in 2017, broke above $2,000 in mid-May and then accelerated sharply, reaching $19,118 on December 18, 2017. That run brought bitcoin to the attention of mainstream investors, governments and the financial press, and it helped set off a wave of competing cryptocurrencies.
2018 and 2019
The 2017 peak was followed by another long decline. Bitcoin moved mostly sideways through 2018 and 2019, with occasional bursts. In July 2019 price and trading volume surged, and bitcoin touched about $12,000. It then gave back those gains and closed December 2019 at $7,294.
2020
The third halving happened on May 11, 2020, cutting the reward from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. The more visible driver that year was the COVID-19 pandemic. Economic shutdowns and the government and central bank response fed investor fears about the global economy and currency debasement, and bitcoin benefited.
Bitcoin opened 2020 at $7,768. It closed at $18,383 on November 23 and at $27,081 on December 28. That was a gain of about 248.6% from the start of the year, and the price ended the year above its 2017 peak.
2021 to 2023: institutional money, record highs and a crypto winter
2021
It took less than a month for bitcoin to beat its 2020 record. By February 8, 2021, it was above $45,000. Institutional interest pushed it to $59,890 on April 12, 2021.
The summer brought a roughly 50% drop, to a close of $30,838 on July 19. A September rally lifted the price to about $52,660, but it closed at $42,200 about two weeks later. On November 8, 2021, bitcoin set a new all-time high of $67,549. By mid-December it had fallen to $46,709, as inflation concerns and the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant unsettled markets.
2022
Bitcoin declined through the first half of 2022. It closed at about $47,100 at the end of March and fell to $29,101 on May 23, its first close below $30,000 since July 2021. That spring the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sister token Luna shook the broader crypto market.
On June 13, bitcoin dropped below $23,000 for the first time since December 2020. In November the exchange FTX collapsed, another blow to confidence in centralized crypto platforms. Bitcoin finished 2022 under $20,000, more than 70% below its November 2021 peak.
2023
Bitcoin opened 2023 at $16,688 and rose steadily, ending the year at $43,599.
2024: spot ETFs, the fourth halving and $100,000
Early 2024
In January 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved exchange-traded products that buy and hold bitcoin directly for their investors. The approval followed a court ruling that forced the agency to revisit its denial of a bitcoin product. Before then, U.S. bitcoin ETFs could only get exposure indirectly through futures contracts.
The new funds drew heavy buying from the start, while the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), converted from an existing trust, saw significant outflows as investors gained cheaper alternatives. Daily flows by fund from January 11, 2024, are in our bitcoin ETF flows tracker.
Bitcoin climbed quickly after the approvals. It passed $60,000 again in late February and early March and set a high of $73,079 on March 13, 2024.
Mid 2024
The fourth halving took place on April 19, 2024, reducing the block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Bitcoin posted a modest gain that day and closed at $63,851.
On September 18, 2024, the Federal Reserve cut its target federal funds rate to 4.75% to 5%, its first cut since the start of the pandemic. Stocks rose, and bitcoin moved with them, trading around $63,000 on September 19, up from about $60,000 two days earlier.
Late 2024
Donald Trump’s election win in November 2024 triggered the next leg up. On November 7, bitcoin hit a record $75,902, up 9% from the November 5 close. It crossed $80,000 on November 10, closed at $90,574 on November 13 and traded just below $100,000 on major venues by midday on November 22.
Bitcoin broke through $100,000 in early December. It first crossed the mark on December 5 after the nomination of a crypto-friendly SEC chair, and it closed at $101,237 on December 8. The rally reflected campaign promises that included replacing the sitting SEC chair, making the U.S. “the crypto capital of the world” and creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
2025: a new all-time high and a sharp reversal
Bitcoin traded largely sideways in January 2025. Corporate buying did not break that range: Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) announced a $1.1 billion bitcoin purchase on January 21, the same day bitcoin closed at $106,136.
New records followed later in the year. Bitcoin closed at $111,679 on May 22. On August 13 it hit $123,339, then dropped below $118,000 two days later after a hotter-than-expected Producer Price Index report.
On October 6, 2025, bitcoin reached its all-time high of $126,080. The record lasted only days. Within five days the price had fallen to about $110,000, and the decline continued through October and November to a low of $84,648 on November 22. By December 1 it had recovered slightly, closing at $92,119.
2026 so far
After a volatile first quarter, bitcoin consolidated in a range of roughly $67,000 to $75,000 around mid-March 2026. Buyers repeatedly stepped in below $68,000, and the $62,000 to $65,000 zone acted as support. Buying in April pushed the price above $77,000, and by mid-May it was slightly above $80,000. From there it declined to the $60,000 to $63,000 range by early to mid-June.
Highs, lows and the size of the drawdowns
Bitcoin’s history makes more sense when measured in drawdowns, the percentage decline from a peak to a later low:
Drawdown = (peak price − later low) ÷ peak price × 100
- 2011: from $30.05 in June to about $4 at year-end, roughly an 87% decline.
- 2013: from above $1,000 in December to about $760 at year-end, a drop of about a quarter within weeks, before a multiyear bear market.
- 2021 to 2022: from $67,549 in November 2021 to under $20,000 at the end of 2022, a decline of more than 70%.
- 2025: from $126,080 in October to $84,648 on November 22, about 33% in roughly seven weeks.
A rally needs a bigger percentage move to undo a decline. After a 50% drop, the price has to double just to get back to the old peak. After an 80% drop, it has to rise fivefold. That asymmetry is why bitcoin has spent long stretches, such as 2014 to 2016 and 2018 to 2020, below earlier highs.
Record closing prices sit a little lower than intraday highs, and exchanges report slightly different peaks, so sources may quote figures a few hundred dollars apart for the same day. For a month-by-month view of gains and losses, see Bitcoin monthly returns.
What has moved bitcoin’s price
Fixed supply and the halving schedule
Only 21 million bitcoin will ever exist, and more than 20 million have already been mined. New coins enter circulation as block rewards to miners. The reward halves every 210,000 blocks, which works out to roughly every four years:
- November 2012: 50 to 25 BTC
- July 2016: 25 to 12.5 BTC
- May 2020: 12.5 to 6.25 BTC
- April 2024: 6.25 to 3.125 BTC
All else equal, slower issuance means less new supply to absorb, and a cap means supply cannot expand to meet demand. Each halving so far has been followed within about 18 months by a new all-time high: 2013, 2017, 2021 and 2024 to 2025. Four instances are a small sample, though, and a fixed supply only supports the price if demand holds.
Demand and sentiment
Bitcoin produces no cash flow, so its price rests on what buyers are willing to pay, and speculation, hype, fear of missing out and panic selling show up directly in it. That is how a single year like 2017 or 2021 can contain both a record high and a 50% fall. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index is one way traders gauge that mood.
ETFs and other investment products
Institutions built products around bitcoin: futures, then spot ETFs in January 2024, then options on select spot bitcoin ETFs, approved by the SEC in October 2024. These widen access to investors who will not hold coins directly, and because a fund must hold more bitcoin when its shares are bought, ETF flows feed into demand for the coin.
Interest rates and the broader economy
Bitcoin has often traded alongside stocks, particularly since 2020. Pandemic-era stimulus coincided with the 2020 to 2021 rally, inflation and rate concerns with the 2022 decline, and the September 2024 Fed cut with gains in both. Economic data such as the August 2025 PPI report can move it too.
Regulation and politics
Regulatory decisions, from the ETF approvals to expectations of friendlier U.S. policy in late 2024, have produced some of the sharpest rallies. Exchange failures such as Mt. Gox and FTX worked the other way.
Competition from other cryptocurrencies
Thousands of other cryptocurrencies compete for investor money, and some, such as Ether, offer uses bitcoin does not. If investors come to believe other coins will prove more valuable, demand for bitcoin can weaken. If crypto adoption broadens overall, bitcoin, as the largest coin, has tended to benefit.
Turning a historical price into a return
The value today of a past purchase needs only two prices:
Current value = amount invested × (price now ÷ price at purchase)
The result ignores trading fees, spreads and taxes, and it assumes the coins were held the whole time on a platform that did not fail.
Hypothetical example: someone puts $1 into bitcoin at the start of 2013, at about $13 per coin. That buys about 0.077 BTC, worth about $9,700 at the October 2025 high of $126,080. The same $1 put in at the November 2021 peak of $67,549 would have bought about 0.0000148 BTC, worth about $0.25 at the end of 2022. For other dates and amounts, the crypto profit calculator runs the same calculation.
FAQ
How much will 1 bitcoin be worth in 2030?
No one knows. Bitcoin's history includes both 2,000% years and 70% declines, and precise forecasts rest on assumptions about demand, regulation and competition that cannot be confirmed in advance. The next halving, expected around 2028, will cut the block reward to 1.5625 BTC, but the supply schedule says nothing about what buyers will pay.