The Price of Bitcoin Over the Years: A Year-by-Year Breakdown

Bitcoin's price history is a story of extremes. The first extreme is obvious — astronomical growth. In gains that are truly hard to grasp, Bitcoin started at $0.0008 and rose to over $100,000 less than 15 years later.

The price of Bitcoin has experienced extreme highs and lows over the years. Here's a year-by-year breakdown of its price history.

2009-2010: The Early Years

When Bitcoin was created in 2008 by an unknown person or group of people using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, it didn't have a standard value or price.

Cryptography enthusiasts who began mining Bitcoin in 2009, following the launch of its blockchain, used it to barter, exchange, and settle bets and challenges with each other online.

It wasn't until 2010 that Bitcoin had its first real-world use case when Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer from Florida, offered 10,000 Bitcoins to anyone who could deliver two pizzas to his house. The offer was eventually taken up by Jeremy Sturdivant, a student from California, who ordered the pizzas from Papa John's and had them delivered to Hanyecz's house.

At the time, the pizzas were valued at around $25, according to U.S. News & World Report, which led the nascent crypto community to agree that a single Bitcoin was worth a quarter of a penny. This moment marked a significant turning point in the history of Bitcoin prices, as the cryptocurrency finally had an agreed-upon value.

Later in 2010, Bitcoin hit the open exchanges, such as the now-infamous and bankrupt Mt. Gox. On these exchanges, the cryptocurrency could be easily bought, sold, and priced against the U.S. dollar.

It opened with an asking price of $0.0008, which is eight 10,000ths of a dollar. From there, the wild ride of the coming decade began almost immediately. By the month's end, Bitcoin's price had already soared to $0.08 — a whole eight pennies.

2011-2013: Bitcoin Gains Traction

In February 2011, Bitcoin breached the $1 mark for the first time, setting off a chain of events that would come to define Bitcoin investing — a price bubble formed.

Within a few months, by June, Bitcoin had soared to around $31 before the bubble did what bubbles do: It burst, and the price flopped back down to the single digits.

Another watershed moment came in 2013. Bitcoin started the year trading at around $12, according to Forbes. By the end of November, that number had vaulted to $1,242, an incredible record high for Bitcoin, which at that point was trading at almost exactly the same price as an ounce of gold. Prices later fell back down to the low triple digits and stayed there — until they didn't.

2014-2017: The Market Matures

In 2016, Bitcoin moved into the high triple digits, and at the very start of 2017, it broke $1,000 again.

In a run that drew comparisons to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, it took off and never stopped until it peaked on Dec. 16, 2017, at $19,497.40. It was yet another bubble. Prices soon collapsed to under $10,000, bottoming out in the low $3,000s at the end of 2018 and the start of 2019.

2018-2021: The Rollercoaster Years

Bitcoin started 2020 at $7,200. By mid-summer, it was back into five figures, where it remains to this day. By the middle of December, it had passed the 2017 record and was trading in the $20,000s for the first time.

Bitcoin began 2021 at just below $30,000. Over the next two-and-a-half years, it essentially went nowhere — although it sure didn't feel like that to its investors.

In a Feb. 8, 2021, Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Tesla announced it had purchased $1.5 billion in Bitcoin the previous month and expected to begin accepting Bitcoin as payment for its products in the near future. By the end of the day, Bitcoin's value had surged nearly 19%, to $46,196. It hit $50,000 for the first time about a week later, on Feb. 16.

Bitcoin had already breached $61,000 and fallen back over to $54,738 when Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in a tweet on March