Register to get $180 Welcome Bonus!Crypto traders, investors, and enthusiasts should mark their calendars and keep in mind certain dates of the year that pertain to the industry. To help educate traders about crypto’s most significant dates, we’ve compiled a list of what you need to know – ranging from Bitcoin’s creation to when NFTs were launched.
January
January 3, 2009 – Genesis block was created, thus the first Bitcoins were now being generated by the Bitcoin blockchain. About 150 blocks are mined each day. The Bitcoin network will produce a maximum number of 21 million BTC, of which over 18 million are already in circulation. Thus, the genesis block began one of the world’s most important currencies to date, and one that cannot be tampered with or impacted by inflation.
January 12, 2009 – Satoshi Nakamoto transferred some Bitcoin to Hal Finney, which is the first-ever recorded Bitcoin transaction. There are now approximately 300,000 Bitcoin transactions taking place every day. The Lightning Network was created to increase the speed and scalability of Bitcoin transactions.
February
February 28, 2014 – Mt.Gox, the world’s leading platform for buying and selling Bitcoin went bankrupt, resulting in the theft of 650,000 Bitcoin. The Mt.Gox crisis was one of crypto’s darkest moments in Bitcoin history as it resulted in a massive sell-off.
February 8, 2021 – In its SEC filing, Tesla announced it bought $1.5 billion dollars worth of Bitcoin, thus marking one of the first times a well-known Fortune 500 public company purchased the digital asset. Ever since Tesla’s purchase, Bitcoin rose to new heights and sparked a debate about whether public companies should hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets.
March
March X, 2020 – Black Thursday strikes and Bitcoin plunges from $10,000 to $3,800 in just days. This is also part of the Coronavirus stock and crypto market crashes. Even following the winter 2017/2018 crash Bitcoin did not drop to this low. Luckily, it was a multi-year bottom that has held for four years.
March 11, 2021 – Beeple sells an NFT (called Everydays: The First 5000 Days) for $69 million at Christie’s, the most expensive NFT sale ever. This sale started a wave of massive interest in NFTs, which led to the creation of popular NFT collections such as BAYC.
April
April 2, 2019 – Elon Musk puts out his first tweet about Dogecoin saying “Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool.” Dogecoin has found great support from Elon Musk and always benefits from his tweets.
April 12, 2021 – Bitcoin reaches a high of $61,000 – thus signaling crypto’s first peak right before the 2021 crypto market crash.
May
May 22, 2010 – Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC to an anonymous individual to help him buy two pizzas from Papa John’s. This is known as the first time Bitcoin was used to purchase real-world goods. If Laszlo would have held he would have been one of the largest holders of the asset, but of course, it was impossible to know if BTC would reach mainstream popularity as it has now.
May 3, 2014 – A digital artist named Kevin McCoy minted the first-known NFT ‘Quantum’ on the Namecoin blockchain. The NFT market is now valued at over $10 billion.
May 15, 2018 – Circle announces the creation of the USD Coin stablecoin – referred to as USDC. USDC is the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market cap at just over $40 billion.
May X, 2020 – DeFi Summer begins as the liquidity mining crypto strategy on Compound gains traction. This then led to the launch of Yearn Finance and Uniswap. The DeFi market cap is now worth almost $14 billion – with leading protocols being Uniswap, Aave, Maker, PancakeSwap, and Synthetix.
May 20, 2021 – China bans crypto mining and trading. This was one of the catalysts that led to the crypto market crash of the summer of 2021. North America is now the world’s largest cryptocurrency mining geographical area with a market share of over 50%.
June
June 23, 2017 – Larva Labs created the NFT collection called CryptoPunks. The floor price for CryptoPunks is now 66.5 ETH, which equals over $80,000. CryptoPunks are the NFT OGs.
June 18, 2019 – Facebook unveils the details of its own cryptocurrency called Libra. This set off US regulators and brought tremendous attention to the space of Big Tech creating their own forms of digital currencies. However, the Libra (Diem) project is now dead.
July
July 30, 2015 – The official launch of the Ethereum platform and the Ethereum genesis block. Ethereum now has a market cap of $150 billion and is the leading platform for smart contracts and DApp development.
July X, 2017 – When Fed Chair Janet Yellen was giving a testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, someone in the crowd held up a sign that said: “Buy Bitcoin.” This event may have foreshadowed the 2017 price spike for assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
August
August 18, 2008 – The domain/URL Bitcoin.org was registered thus putting Bitcoin on the map. Bitcoin is now the leading crypto by market cap, valued at over $300 billion.
August X, 2018 – Ethereum developers term the name DeFi (for decentralized finance) for the first time. This then led to the rise of DeFi protocols such as MakerDAO, Balancer, Uniswap, and Compound Finance. DeFi has evolved into thousands of protocols and services such as lending, borrowing, staking, yield farming, liquidity mining, trading, swaps, and the like.
September
September 4, 2017 – China bans initial coin offerings (ICOs). ICOs were one of the hottest trends and components of the crypto industry at this time.
September X, 2021 – El Salvador becomes the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender. However, since then, very few countries have followed suit – mainly due to the bear market and global recession. Bitcoin as a legal tender brought criticism and fear from the likes of the United States and the IMF.
October
October 31, 2008 – On this date, the Bitcoin whitepaper was published. The Bitcoin whitepaper was being drafted as the financial crisis was ongoing. It’s safe to say that the creation of Bitcoin is a direct result of the global financial crisis that began in 2008/2009 in the US.
October 28, 2021 – Facebook makes a blockbuster announcement and changes its company name to Meta, thus setting off a trend where companies pivot towards the metaverse – whether that’s through cryptocurrencies, blockchain, or Web3 technology. The metaverse market is estimated to surpass $1 trillion by 2030.
November
November 9, 2008 – The term blockchain was first used by Hal Finney. Blockchain technology now finds application in a variety of sectors including finance, healthcare, supply chain, entertainment, and government. The blockchain market value is estimated to reach $60 billion by 2026.
November 20, 2014 – The name Tether (USDT) was finally created from a rebranding of the Realcoin stablecoin cryptocurrency. USDT is the largest stablecoin by market cap at a valuation of $66 billion.
November 8, 2021 – The crypto market cap makes its second-highest valuation and reaches $2.8 trillion dollars. This was the peak of the last bull market.
December
December 5, 2013 – The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) issued its first notice prohibiting banks from handling transactions related to Bitcoin. This is known as the first “China ban” related to cryptocurrencies.
December 6, 2013 – Dogecoin’s official launch date, and in under 30 days over a million visitors came to the Dogecoin website. Dogecoin now has a market cap of $11 billion and is Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency.
December 18, 2013 – User GameKyuubi wrote a long note on a Bitcointalk forum outlining his strategy and mindset for trading Bitcoin, which is to “hold on for dear life” or HODL. HODL is now a popular term to describe long-term believers and investors in crypto who refuse to sell their assets or engage in day trading.
December 10, 2017 – Bitcoin futures contracts were finally launched, thus allowing investors and traders to trade derivatives. Bitcoin futures trading surpassed spot trading volume in mid-2021.
