Bitcoin was invented in 2008, it was a peer-to-peer (P2P) version of electronic cash that would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution, acting as a decentralized ledger of all transactions which is also known as the blockchain technology.
Bitcoin was created by an unknown person or a group of people using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. On January 3, 2009, the first block was mined, named the genesis block of bitcoin (block number 0), and thus the first 50 bitcoins came into existence. The first bitcoin transaction was carried out on January 12, 2009.
In the history of cryptocurrencies, bitcoin has played a pivotal role and emerged as the major cryptocurrency, bitcoin has been part of all the speculative bubbles (crypto crashes) in 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2021.
During its initial years, bitcoin had limited popularity and would occasionally breach the double-digit threshold but would soon return to the single-digit price range.
It was not until November 2013, that bitcoin would break the $1000-mark and gain popularity, bitcoin briefly attained the $1,127.45 price on November 30, 2013. Bitcoin stayed in the higher three-digit range during the first half of 2014 but soon began sliding to the lower three-digit range and finally hit a low of $172.15 in January 2015.
From 2015 to 2017 the bitcoin rose in value to reach the high three-digit range and managed to breach the $1000-mark for the second time, when it reached $1,008.4 in February 2017.
In the year 2017, bitcoin witnessed an unprecedented boom and managed to cross the $10,000 mark. It briefly reached $17,249.92 on December 12, 2017.
The year 2018 turned out to be downhill, with the bitcoin value in freefall for the most part of the year only to stabilize towards the end of 2018 by reaching and maintaining its value well above the $3000-mark.
From 2019 to 2021, bitcoin again rallied to newer heights and briefly reached its highest value of $67,617.02 on November 9, 2021.
From November 2021, bitcoin once again dipped in value.
In terms of adoption, El Salvador became the first country to recognize bitcoin as a legal tender in 2021. El Salvador had been experimenting with the use of bitcoin as a currency since 2019, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador passed a bill on June 8, 2021, which recognized bitcoin as a legal currency within El Salvador (the law came into effect on September 7, 2021).
On February 17, 2022, Ukraine also announced the legalization of cryptocurrencies but with limitations.
Similarly, the Central African Republic passed a law on April 27, 2022, legalizing the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies alongside the CFA franc.
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