Bitcoin: a history of surges, crashes, and new records

Throughout its history, Bitcoin has experienced many both favorable and downturn periods: it has increased in price dozens of times and dropped by more than 90%.

Despite this, Bitcoin continues to demonstrate resilience and proves that cryptocurrencies have become an important part of the global financial industry and are not going to óñòóïàòü äðóãèì àêòèâàì.

The first surge and crash of Bitcoin (2011)

The earliest price of Bitcoin was $0.0025 per coin, but by 2011, the value of the first cryptocurrency had increased more than 400 times and surpassed the $1 mark, marking a real breakthrough for the new digital asset.

It was in this year that Bitcoin became widely known, and the popular magazine TIME mentioned it for the first time in its reports. This pushed Bitcoin's price even higher, sending it the a then-record $32. Since the beginning of 2011, Bitcoin has grown by more than 80 times.

Media publications attracted public interest in Bitcoin as a digital alternative to traditional financial assets, especially in the period after the global economic crisis of 2008*, when the collapse in financial markets led to a serious decline in many exchange-traded assets.

* The 2008 economic crisis was a global financial crisis that began in the USA due to problems in the mortgage market. It led to the bankruptcy of major banks, a collapse in stock markets, and massive destruction of capital: according to various estimates, the losses of the global financial system amounted to trillions of dollars, and global stock markets lost about $30 trillion in market value in 2008 alone.

However, Bitcoin failed to stay at the peak for long, and already in July of the same year, the price of the first cryptocurrency began to fall after the hack of the most popular exchange at that time, Mt. Gox, as a result of which attackers withdrew about 25,000 BTC from users' wallets.

At one point, Bitcoin's price dropped to $0.01 amid panic selling by investors — more than 99% down from its peak. This situation demonstrated the strong sensitivity of the newly formed financial asset to the information environment, since the damage from the exchange hack was insignificant, only about $30,000 at the exchange rate at the time of the breach.

The first Bitcoin rally after halving (2013)

2013 became a landmark year for Bitcoin, as during this time the first cryptocurrency surpassed two significant price levels at once — $100 and $1000. Experts partially attribute this rapid growth to the first halving (a reduction in mining rewards) of the cryptocurrency.

Halving (a reduction in mining rewards) halved the rate of cryptocurrency issuance, leading to a sharp reduction in the supply of new BTC on the market and, along with growing demand, triggering price surges.

In the same year, Bitcoin's market capitalization exceeded $1 billion for the first time, and its price reached $1242, surpassing the price of the world's largest asset — gold. This event became a clear example of the role of supply scarcity in the market.

In addition, the rapid growth of Bitcoin was partly influenced by the Cypriot crisis*: due to account freezes, investors saw Bitcoin as an opportunity to eliminate intermediaries thanks to its decentralized nature and as a tool for risk hedging.

* The Cypriot crisis was a banking and debt crisis in Cyprus in 2012–2013. Authorities restricted access to bank accounts and partially wrote off large deposits; for example, major clients of Bank of Cyprus lost up to 47.5% of their uninsured deposits.

Closure of Mt. Gox and regulatory crisis (2014–2015)

In 2014, the Bitcoin price began to fall, and by 2015, the first cryptocurrency had lost more than 80% of its value. In 2014, another hack of the Mt. Gox exchange occurred: more than 850,000 bitcoins were withdrawn from the platform, which at the time amounted to about 7% of the total supply of the first cryptocurrency.

As a result, the trading platform was liquidated, and negative events triggered a collapse in Bitcoin. It was then, according to experts, that the first "crypto winter" occurred.

An already difficult situation was aggravated by regulatory pressure, as the Chinese government announced a complete ban on cryptocurrencies during that period.

The first cryptocurrency boom (2017)

In 2016, after the second halving (reward reduction), Bitcoin's price resumed growth, and already in 2017 it reached a new all-time high, approaching the $20,000 mark, while its market capitalization exceeded $300 billion for the first time. Since the beginning of 2017, the value of the first cryptocurrency has increased more than 20 times.

Amid rising prices, interest in Bitcoin was fueled by mass media coverage, which led investors to pay attention to altcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies). Many new investors entered the crypto market, which led to the ICO boom (initial coin offerings — digital assets on the blockchain). Startups issuing their own tokens (digital assets on the blockchain) raised billions of dollars.

The growth of the main cryptocurrency was also influenced by the launch of the first Bitcoin futures in history on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which attracted professional traders and institutional investors to the crypto market.

Crypto winter and Bitcoin (2018)

After the massive 2017 rally, Bitcoin quotes collapsed: within just a month of reaching its peak, the price of the main cryptocurrency fell by more than half. By the end of the year, Bitcoin had lost more than 80% of its value. This period became known as the "great crypto crash."

Many experts believed that the cryptocurrency bubble had burst, and Bitcoin itself was repeatedly declared dead in major media outlets. Indeed, after rapid growth, a massive wave of sell-offs began because the asset was overbought, and there were not enough new investors to sustain the price. The decline intensified amid panic in the cryptocurrency market.

Partly, the fall of the first cryptocurrency was influenced by rumors of a possible Bitcoin ban in South Korea and by fraud involving one of the largest blockchain platforms at the time, Bitconnect.

Institutional boom (2020–2021)

The last major Bitcoin crash occurred after the World Health Organization announced the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. At that time, Bitcoin's price dropped almost in half in less than a week, from $8000 to $3800. However, Bitcoin quickly resumed growth amid the recovery of the US stock market.

By April 2021, Bitcoin's price had increased more than 15 times, reaching a new all-time high of $60,000, and in November, it reached $69,000. Bitcoin's market capitalization exceeded $1 trillion for the first time, making it one of the largest assets in the world alongside shares of leading technology companies.

A significant role in this rally was played by the reduction of the key interest rate by the Federal Reserve System, which encouraged investors to invest in high-risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.

At the same time, Bitcoin achieved institutional adoption. That year, well-known companies such as MicroStrategy and Tesla began investing in Bitcoin. Large payment platforms, such as PayPal, started offering cryptocurrency exchange services.

Crisis in the cryptocurrency market (2022)

The period of rapid growth in 2021 was followed by a natural decline, and a number of negative factors, such as the collapse of one of the leading blockchain platforms at the time, Terra, and the exchange FTX, intensified the negative dynamics.

By May 2022, Bitcoin had lost more than half its value from its all-time high, and by November, the price of the main cryptocurrency had fallen by nearly 80%.

Macroeconomic data also played a role. The Federal Reserve System tightened monetary policy by raising interest rates, making high-risk assets less attractive to investors.

Global breakthrough of Bitcoin (2024–2025)

In 2024, the first exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on Bitcoin were launched, marking the beginning of a new stage of adoption in the cryptocurrency market. By the end of 2024, Bitcoin's price surpassed the $100,000 mark for the first time, representing a more than sixfold increase from the local minimum of $15,000 in 2023.

Bitcoin reached new highs after the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. Investors expected the new administration to take a more favorable stance, as Trump had previously expressed support for cryptocurrencies.

By October 2025, Bitcoin had gained about another quarter in value and reached a new all-time high — its latest as of April 2026 — at $126,000, while its market capitalization approached $2.5 trillion. Despite this, Bitcoin's growth rate lagged that of some traditional assets, such as gold, suggesting that the cryptocurrency market has become more conservative.

After that, a natural decline in the market began. By April 2026, Bitcoin had lost more than a third of its value due to several factors:

• The crisis in the Middle East.
• Concerns about inflation and economic instability.
• Uncertainty regarding the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve System.
• Profit-taking by large investors, including institutional investors and long-term holders;
• Outflows of funds from Bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds.