History of Crypto

In 2008, a user named Satoshi Nakamoto appeared on the P2P Foundation forum, talking about his work on a “new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party”.

On 31st October, 2008, Satoshi posted the nine-page whitepaper ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’, which outlined how transactions would work, a proof-of-work (PoW) system, and how miners would be incentivised to keep the system going.

The origins of Bitcoin are hotly contested to this day, as the creator of BTC has never been confirmed. For now, he, she or they are simply known as Satoshi Nakamoto – although the white paper repeatedly refers to “we” rather than “I”, suggesting it was a collective effort.

The ecosystem of Bitcoin requires users to ‘mine’ blocks. To do this, people will have a purpose-built computer just to mine Bitcoin.

Mining is a little complicated to explain. In simple terms, each user’s computer makes millions of guesses per second, creating random values until they hit the winning number. If they do, they’ll receive a block reward. As of 2025, that reward is 3.125 BTC + mining fees – but this amount is halved every four years or so.

The first 50 coins are mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, to get the ball rolling, before the community takes over. These days, you have entire mining farms designed just for BTC computers.

Satoshi also whips a few coins over to Hal Finney, marking the first-ever crypto transfer.

By 2010, the pieces were all coming together, but Bitcoin didn’t yet have any serious value. And that led to the most expensive pizzas of all time.

It was 22nd May, 2010, when user laszio – now known to be Laszlo Hanyecz – posted on the bitcointalk forum asking someone to send him two pizzas in exchange for 10,000 BTC, which was worth $41 at the time. He was pretty flexible, giving his fellows forum users the opportunity to cook them up at home or just order something in.

Within a few hours, laszio received two large pizzas and the historic transfer was complete. By August of the same year, 10,000 BTC had increased to around $600, and by November, it had reached $2,600.

Fast forward to October 2025, and those two pizzas effectively cost over $1.2 billion. Probably not worth it, we reckon.

This was also the year that we waved goodbye to Satoshi Nakamoto, possibly forever, with the creator’s final public post on the bitcointalk forum.

In 2011, we saw our first ever altcoin, Namecoin (NMC). It used Bitcoin’s open-source code as a base, but tweaked it for its own purpose, which was to “Protect free-speech rights online by making the web more resistant to censorship”. Specifically, it helped to decentralise the registration process for domain names.

Namecoin might not have taken off as its creators hoped, but it did open the floodgates to countless new tokens. To date, there have been more than 25,000 altcoins created, with over 9,500 still active today. Our altcoin crypto guide explains more about the roles of altcoins.

WikiLeaks, the non-profit website known for leaking sensitive government documents and exposing corruption, begins to accept Bitcoin for donations due to issues with traditional payment methods such as VISA, Mastercard and PayPal.

A relatively quiet year for crypto with one major event: the first Bitcoin halving. Occurring roughly once every four years, the halving sees rewards for miners slashed in half. While that might sound like a bad thing, it generally increases the price.

Decreased rewards means miners have fewer coins to sell. That means less BTC in the sell column of the exchanges. And less BTC means that demand outstrips supply, boosting the price.

Sometimes, less is more, ay?

Silk Road was an online marketplace where users could buy and sell products with BTC. When the FBI discovered that it was largely being used for drugs and other illegal services, they shut it down – doing massive damage to Bitcoin’s reputation.

This year also marked the first taste of a crypto bear market for users and investors. After peaking at $1,000 per coin, BTC’s price went on a downward spiral. It would take two years to recover.

Dogecoin is launched, presenting one of the most unlikely success stories of all time for early investors.

Welsh entrepreneur James Howells accidentally chucks away a laptop containing 8,000 BTC. Oops-a-daisy.

Back then, Mt. Gox was the biggest crypto exchange around. But, at the start of the year, it was hacked, with 850,000 BTC being stolen. The price per BTC at the time was around the $750 mark, making it a $640 million heist.

Later that year, Silk Road 2.0 was shut down in a joint FBI and Europol project dubbed ‘Operation Onymous’. And the IRS decided that Bitcoin would be taxed like property, meaning capital gains tax would be applied to withdrawals.

It wasn’t all bad news, though. We also saw the introduction of the first stablecoin, BitUSD. As a stablecoin, its value is tied to that of the US dollar, offering a way for users to hedge against fluctuating prices without moving back to fiat currencies.

The second-largest crypto by market cap, Ether (ETH), was created by Vitalik Buterin and launched in 2015. It came with its own network, Ethereum, to eventually rival Bitcoin. With it came smart contracts and the option for users to build their own currencies on the Ethereum network, known as ERC-20 tokens.

Blythe Masters, former Exec of JP Morgan, takes up her role as Chief Executive of Digital Asset Holdings (DA), a crypto company. It’s seen as a significant move, even a coup, that further legitimises crypto. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq begins to experiment with blockchain technology.

Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind behind Silk Road, is sentenced to life in prison.

ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering, a bit like an Initial Public Offering, or IPO. It’s a chance for investors to get in at the ground floor of a new investment. With so many altcoins seeing dramatic gains, this was massively appealing to crypto users who wanted to own a large chunk of the next big thing.

While some ICOs were the basis for successful coins, this was also a period that was rife with rug pulls. Many scammers created coins with no utility and rushed whitepapers. Investors who failed to do their research were left holding the bag.

In other words, this was a big learning curve for crypto newbies.

After a rough couple of years, the good times had returned for BTC investors, with the price reaching the $20,000 milestone. We’d come a long way from those pizzas. With BTC on the up, and Ethereum introducing countless new coins and ICO opportunities, crypto was exploding.

Along with this came non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Often looking like something you’d stick on the fridge because you couldn’t tell your child how awful it is, the new era of digital art saw people paying millions for 8-bit designs of a cat in glasses, or a grumpy-looking ape.

CryptoPunk NFTs were released this year, with CryptoPunk #5822 going on to fetch $23.7 million a few years later. Madness.

As we know, the market runs in cycles, and 2018 saw the bubble burst. For many new investors, this was an unexpected and startling turn of events. Fortunes were made and lost, and the usual doom and gloom swept the market. Crypto was declared dead by most mainstream media outlets, with comparisons drawn to the infamous collapse of Dutch tulips back in the 1630s.

Bitcoin drops from $20,000 to $3,300. There’s blood in the streets, but crypto heads tackle it with their usual irreverent humour:

After the initial shock of the market crash began to wear off, those left standing focused on the promising aspects that Ethereum in particular was bringing. And commercial investors were also starting to take an interest. Microsoft even launched a blockchain service for Ethereum contracts, which was groundbreaking stuff back then.

The likes of JP Morgan, Amazon and Chase began to express some interest, but weren’t yet ready to fully commit. Each of them update their Facebook relationship status to “It’s complicated”.

(That reference would’ve killed in 2019.)

A big year for lending, of which there are a few different types.

Leveraged trading is a risky business. You can make a lot more by trading on leverage, but you can also lose it much faster. In short, it’s best avoided.

But 2020 was big for passive income, too. With traditional lending opportunities suffering from an economic crash, Bitcoin and other cryptos provided a great alternative. Crypto holders could lend their money and receive interest, while the recipient could cash out for fiat.

The Bitcoin halving also takes place, slashing mining rewards from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC per block. The SEC files a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, creators of the XRP coin.

…Hold that thought.

Crypto crashes again, right on cue. Holders eat 75% losses on major coins, with some falling into obscurity, never to recover. The news cycles from four years ago are replayed, declaring crypto finished once again. And the crash of FTX leaves customers $8 billion down after CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is accused of fraud and embezzling funds.

Before that, though, Coinbase makes headlines with an ingenious Superbowl advert. After forking out an estimated $14 million for a prime spot, Coinbase rolls an ad with no words and no slogan. It’s just a QR code bouncing around the screen silently for a minute.

The former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, is found guilty and sentenced to 25 years behind bars. Meanwhile, Binance’s founder Changpeng Zhao pleads guilty to money-laundering and settles for an eye-watering $4 billion. For context, that’s enough for nearly seven pizzas.

Institutional money is on its way to crypto, as heavyweights BlackRock and other financial giants submit applications for ETFs.

Bitcoin ends 2023 up 160% from the start of the year.

The Bitcoin halving commences in April, with block rewards slashed from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Investors lick their lips at the prospect of the price boom which often follows shortly after the halving.

The SEC approves a Spot Ether ETF in July, opening the door for traditional investors to diversify in crypto beyond just Bitcoin. This is huge news, as it suggests that others could follow, leading to previously out-of-reach capital flooding into crypto.

Our old friend James Howell, still on the hunt for his missing Bitcoin after more than a decade, sues his local council for £495 million. He is unsuccessful.

In May, the SEC and Ripple reach a $50 million settlement, paving the way for XRP to power forward and boosting investor confidence in the company.

President Donald Trump wastes no time in grabbing a slice of the crypto pie, creating not just one but two meme coins. First, he launches TrumpCoin (TRUMP), then the Melania Meme (MELANIA) less than 48 hours later.

In October, Bitcoin hits an all-time high (ATH) of $126,080.

Having gone through the history of Bitcoin, we thought we’d take a peek at the future – with the final Bitcoin estimated to be mined in 2140.There will be 21 million BTC in total. That number is fixed, and can’t be added on to like the US dollar and other fiat currencies. From there, miners will need to rely on transaction fees alone.

But, if Bitcoin carries on as it has been, we imagine those fees will be pretty damn tasty by 2140.