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Bitcoin timeline
110 events. Pick a category or year, or search, to see them.
Highlights
- 1990protocol
DigiCash is founded
David Chaum founds DigiCash in April 1990 to commercialize cryptographic electronic cash based on blind signatures. Banks including Deutsche Bank later licensed the eCash system; DigiCash filed for bankruptcy in 1998.
Source: DigiCash / Deutsche Bank press release (May 7, 1996)
- 1993protocol
A Cypherpunk's Manifesto
Eric Hughes publishes A Cypherpunk's Manifesto, arguing that privacy in an open society requires cryptography and software that individuals write and run themselves. The cypherpunks' mailing list becomes a seedbed for later digital-cash designs.
- 1997protocol
Hashcash proof-of-work proposed
Adam Back proposes Hashcash, a proof-of-work system originally aimed at email spam and denial-of-service. Bitcoin later cites Hashcash as the proof-of-work function used to mint new coins and secure the chain.
- 1998protocol
Wei Dai publishes b-money
Wei Dai describes b-money, a proposal for anonymous, distributed electronic cash secured by computational work and a public ledger of accounts. Satoshi cites b-money in the Bitcoin white paper.
- 2004protocol
Hal Finney releases RPOW
Hal Finney releases Reusable Proofs of Work (RPOW), a system that makes Hashcash tokens transferable by reissuing them from a trusted server after each spend. Finney later becomes one of Bitcoin's first users.
- 2005protocol
Nick Szabo publishes bit gold
Nick Szabo posts a detailed description of bit gold: unforgeable costly bits created by proof-of-work, chained and timestamped. The design is often cited among Bitcoin's conceptual precursors.
- 2008protocol
bitcoin.org domain registered
The bitcoin.org domain is registered on August 18, 2008. Bitcoin.org later states that the domain was originally registered and owned by Satoshi Nakamoto and Martti Malmi.
- protocol
The white paper is announced
Satoshi Nakamoto posts "Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper" to the Cryptography Mailing List, linking a nine-page PDF that describes a peer-to-peer electronic cash system without trusted third parties.
- 2009protocol
Genesis block
Block 0 is mined with timestamp 18:15:05 UTC. Its coinbase contains the Times headline "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." The 50 BTC subsidy in the genesis block is unspendable by design.
- protocol
Bitcoin v0.1 released
Satoshi announces the first public release of the Bitcoin software on the Cryptography Mailing List, with Windows binaries and source code.
- protocol
First bitcoin transaction to Hal Finney
Satoshi sends 10 BTC to Hal Finney as a test. The transfer is confirmed in block 170. Finney later wrote that he was the first person besides Satoshi to run the software.
- 2010adoption
Bitcoin Pizza Day
Laszlo Hanyecz reports on BitcoinTalk that he traded 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, after posting the offer on May 18, 2010. The thread becomes a lasting marker of early bitcoin-as-payment experiments.
- markets
Bitcoin Market exchange announced
dwdollar announces Bitcoin Market on BitcoinTalk, an early web exchange that lets users trade bitcoin for dollars via PayPal. It is among the first dedicated bitcoin/fiat marketplaces.
- security
Value overflow incident
A transaction in block 74,638 creates about 184 billion BTC by exploiting a signed-integer overflow in output-value checks. Within hours the chain is forked to a fixed client; the bad chain is abandoned. The incident is one of Bitcoin's earliest consensus-critical bugs.
- protocol
ArtForz reports GPU mining
Forum user ArtForz describes mining with ATI GPUs on BitcoinTalk, noting large speedups over CPU mining. GPU mining soon dominates until FPGAs and ASICs arrive.
- 2011legal
Silk Road launches
Federal prosecutors later stated that the Silk Road marketplace operated from January 2011 to October 2013, using bitcoin as its primary means of payment for illicit goods.
- security
Mt. Gox 2011 security breach
In June 2011 Mt. Gox suffers a major compromise in which the exchange rate is manipulated and accounts are breached. The incident damages confidence in early custodial exchanges.
- governance
P2SH soft-fork vote (BIP 16 vs BIP 17)
Developers and miners choose between BIP 16 (P2SH) and BIP 17 (OP_EVAL alternative). BIP 16 wins miner support and later activates, an early example of soft-fork governance by running code.
Source: BIP 16 discussion history on BitcoinTalk / BIPs repo
- 2012protocol
P2SH (BIP 16) activates
Pay-to-Script-Hash soft-fork activates, letting complex scripts (including early multisig) be paid to a script hash instead of revealing the full script up front. BIP 16 defines the rules.
- protocol
BIP 32 hierarchical deterministic wallets
BIP 32 specifies HD wallets: a master seed can derive many keys without storing each privately. The design becomes the basis for modern seed-phrase wallets (later BIP 39/44).
- protocol
First halving
Block 210,000 cuts the block subsidy from 50 BTC to 25 BTC, the first of the protocol's programmed subsidy halvings every 210,000 blocks.
- 2013protocol
March 2013 blockchain fork
Bitcoin Core 0.8 and 0.7 nodes disagree on a block after a BDB locks limit change, splitting the chain. Operators are urged to temporarily run 0.7; the shorter chain is abandoned.
- protocol
March 2013 chain fork
A blockchain fork occurs after different Bitcoin Core versions disagree on a block database limit (BDB locks). Operators are urged to downgrade; the shorter chain is abandoned. The incident hardens upgrade discipline.
- legal
FinCEN virtual currency guidance
FinCEN issues FIN-2013-G001. It treats administrators and exchangers of convertible virtual currency as money transmitters under the Bank Secrecy Act, while ordinary users spending virtual currency for goods or services are not MSBs solely for that use.
- legal
U.S. seizes Mt. Gox Dwolla account
Homeland Security seizes Mt. Gox's U.S. Dwolla account funds, alleging the exchange operated as an unregistered money transmitter. The action foreshadows heavier U.S. AML enforcement.
Source: U.S. District Court seizure warrant coverage / FinCEN context
- protocol
BIP 39 mnemonic seed phrases
BIP 39 defines mnemonic codes for generating deterministic wallets, the word-list seed phrases used by most hardware and software wallets today.
- legal
Silk Road shut down; Ross Ulbricht arrested
Federal agents arrest Ulbricht in San Francisco and seize the Silk Road website. Prosecutors allege Ulbricht operated the marketplace under the name Dread Pirate Roberts.
- legal
FBI seizes Silk Road bitcoins
Along with shutting Silk Road, federal agents seize large quantities of bitcoin associated with the marketplace and Ulbricht, later auctioned by the U.S. Marshals Service.
- legal
U.S. Senate hearing on virtual currencies
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee holds a hearing titled Beyond Silk Road, examining risks and promises of virtual currencies with FinCEN and other witnesses.
- legal
U.S. Senate hearings on virtual currencies
Senate committees hold hearings on bitcoin and virtual currencies. Regulators including FinCEN and the Federal Reserve discuss AML treatment and consumer risks without calling for an outright ban.
Source: Senate Homeland Security / Banking hearing records (Nov 2013)
- 2014security
Mt. Gox halts withdrawals
Mt. Gox stops bitcoin withdrawals, citing a "transaction malleability" bug. Two weeks later the company files for bankruptcy in Tokyo after disclosing massive missing bitcoin.
Source: MtGox Co., Ltd. announcement (Feb 28, 2014), describing the early-February transfer bug
- security
Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy
Mt. Gox Co., Ltd. files for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo after suspending withdrawals and reporting that hundreds of thousands of bitcoins belonging to customers and the company are missing. Customer claims proceed for years through Japanese court proceedings.
- legal
IRS signals property treatment (IR-2014-36)
The IRS issues IR-2014-36 alongside Notice 2014-21, publicly summarizing that virtual currency is property for federal tax purposes.
- legal
IRS Notice 2014-21
The IRS issues Notice 2014-21, stating that convertible virtual currency is treated as property for U.S. federal tax purposes. General property-transaction rules apply to gains, losses and payments.
- protocol
BIP 44 multi-account HD paths
BIP 44 defines a logical hierarchy for HD wallets (purpose'/coin_type'/account'/change/address_index), standardizing derivation paths across vendors.
- legal
NYDFS publishes BitLicense proposal
NYDFS releases a proposed virtual currency regulation for comment, the draft that becomes 23 NYCRR Part 200 in 2015 after revisions.
- 2015legal
Ulbricht convicted on all counts
A Manhattan federal jury finds Ulbricht guilty on seven counts, including narcotics trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and computer hacking conspiracy, tied to Silk Road.
- legal
Ulbricht sentenced to life in prison
Judge Katherine Forrest sentences Ulbricht to life imprisonment plus forfeiture after the February 2015 conviction. Appeals follow; the life sentence stands until a 2025 pardon.
- legal
NYDFS announces final BitLicense framework
Superintendent Ben Lawsky announces the final BitLicense regulation text. The regulation is published and takes effect June 24, 2015 as 23 NYCRR Part 200.
- protocol
BIP 66 strict DER signatures activate
BIP 66 requires strict DER encoding of ECDSA signatures, closing malleability vectors that complicated unconfirmed transaction chains and early Lightning designs.
- legal
NYDFS BitLicense takes effect
New York's 23 NYCRR Part 200 virtual currency regulation (BitLicense) takes effect. Firms engaging in covered virtual-currency business activity involving New York must obtain a license from NYDFS.
- protocol
BIP 9 version bits deployed
BIP 9 defines a miner-signaling mechanism for soft-fork activation with timeouts, later used for CSV and SegWit signaling pathways.
- protocol
BIP 125 opt-in Replace-by-Fee
BIP 125 documents signaling rules for opt-in full replace-by-fee, letting users bump fees on unconfirmed transactions when nodes enforce the policy.
- protocol
CLTV (BIP 65) activates
CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY activates, enabling absolute timelocks in scripts. Together with later CSV, it underpins Lightning channel constructions.
- 2016protocol
Lightning Network paper
Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja publish a draft of The Bitcoin Lightning Network, describing hashed timelock contracts and off-chain payment channels that settle on Bitcoin.
- protocol
SegWit BIPs formally proposed
BIPs 141, 143 and 144 specify Segregated Witness. Activation politics dominate 2016–17, culminating in BIP 91 and the August 2017 activation.
- protocol
CSV / BIP 68/112/113 activate
CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY and related BIPs activate, enabling relative lock-time in scripts. The change is a building block for Lightning payment channels.
- protocol
Second halving
Block 420,000 cuts the subsidy from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC.
- security
Bitfinex hack
Bitfinex reports a security breach involving a large loss of bitcoin from a multi-signature setup. Later U.S. criminal cases describe about 119,754 BTC stolen in August 2016.
- security
Bitfinex distributes loss as BFX tokens
After the August 2 hack, Bitfinex socializes the remaining shortfall by issuing BFX creditor tokens to customers, later redeemed as the exchange recovers.
- security
Bitcoin Core alert system retired
Bitcoin Core publishers announce retirement of the network-wide alert system after key-compromise concerns. Later releases remove alert support entirely.
- 2017markets
SEC denies Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust
The SEC denies the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust listing application, citing markets for bitcoin being "readily susceptible to manipulation." Spot ETP approvals arrive years later in 2024.
- governance
New York Agreement announced
Digital Currency Group circulates the New York Agreement: miners and companies pledge to activate SegWit and later raise the base block size (SegWit2x). The compromise splits the community and ultimately fails on the hard-fork half.
Source: Digital Currency Group NYA letter (archived discussions)
- governance
BIP 148 UASF published
BIP 148 specifies that non-SegWit-signaling blocks are rejected after August 1, 2017 by UASF nodes, raising the stakes of the block-size conflict.
- protocol
BIP 174 Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions
BIP 174 specifies PSBT, an interchange format so wallets, hardware devices and multisig cosigners can collaboratively sign without exposing private keys.
- protocol
BIP 91 locks in SegWit signaling
BIP 91 reaches its signaling threshold, effectively committing miners to SegWit activation and defusing an immediate chain split over the New York Agreement timeline.
- governance
UASF BIP 148 flag day
User Activated Soft Fork (BIP 148) nodes enforce SegWit signaling after August 1, 2017. Combined with BIP 91 miner signaling, SegWit locks in without a permanent chain split on the Bitcoin network.
- governance
Bitcoin Cash hard fork
A faction opposing SegWit and supporting larger on-chain blocks creates Bitcoin Cash at block 478,558, raising the block size limit on its chain. Bitcoin Core's chain continues without that rule change.
- protocol
SegWit activates
Segregated Witness (BIP 141) activates at block 481,824 after years of block-size debate. Witness data is discounted for block weight, enabling Lightning and fixing certain malleability issues.
- governance
SegWit2x hard fork cancelled
Major SegWit2x supporters state that the planned November hard fork to raise the base block size lacks sufficient consensus and will not proceed, ending the New York Agreement's remaining on-chain size increase.
- markets
CME bitcoin futures launch
CME Group launches cash-settled bitcoin futures after self-certifying the contract with the CFTC. Trading begins for the December 18, 2017 trade date.
- 2018protocol
Lightning Network mainnet betas
Multiple Lightning implementations (including lnd, c-lightning and eclair) reach usable mainnet beta stages, allowing real bitcoin channels after SegWit. Early capacity is small and software still experimental.
- 2019protocol
Lightning onion routing (BOLT 4)
BOLT 4 specifies Sphinx-style onion routing for Lightning payments so intermediate nodes learn only the prior and next hop, a core privacy and routing property of the network.
- protocol
Sphinx onion routing in Lightning
Lightning payments use Sphinx-style onion routing so intermediate nodes learn only previous and next hops. BOLT specs document the cryptographic path construction.
- protocol
BOLTs become the Lightning specification
Basis of Lightning Technology (BOLT) documents define interoperable Lightning protocol rules across implementations. Spec work continues as an open multi-implementation process.
- 2020protocol
Third halving
Block 630,000 cuts the subsidy from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.
- markets
MicroStrategy buys bitcoin as treasury reserve
MicroStrategy announces it has purchased 21,454 BTC for about $250 million as its primary treasury reserve asset, an early large public-company bitcoin treasury move.
- adoption
PayPal enables bitcoin buying
PayPal announces U.S. users can buy, hold and sell bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in its app, expanding retail access while keeping assets custodial inside PayPal.
- 2021markets
Tesla discloses a bitcoin purchase
Tesla's Form 10-K for 2020 discloses that the company invested $1.50 billion in bitcoin. Later filings and posts describe partial sales and policy changes on accepting bitcoin for cars.
- markets
Coinbase lists on NASDAQ
Coinbase Global, Inc. lists on NASDAQ under ticker COIN via a direct listing. The prospectus and Form S-1 detail exchange revenues and risk factors.
- protocol
China intensifies crypto mining crackdown
China's State Council Financial Stability and Development Committee calls for a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading. Provincial actions accelerate through May and June 2021, pushing a large share of global hashrate offline.
Source: gov.cn State Council Financial Stability Committee meeting
- adoption
El Salvador passes Bitcoin Law
El Salvador's Legislative Assembly approves Decree No. 57 (Bitcoin Law) on June 8, 2021, published June 9. The law makes bitcoin legal tender with unrestricted liberating power; it takes effect 90 days after publication.
Source: Invest El Salvador Bitcoin Law translation · El Salvador and Bitcoin
- protocol
Hashrate migrates after China crackdown
Through June 2021, publicly reported hashrate estimates fall sharply as Chinese mining exits. Subsequent months show recovery as machines relocate, preceding the July 3 record difficulty drop.
- protocol
Record difficulty drop after China's mining ban
Difficulty adjusts down about 27.94% at block 689,472 as hash power leaves China—the largest downward adjustment recorded to that date. Mining capacity later reappears in North America and elsewhere.
Source: blockstream.info block 689472 · Glassnode Week On-Chain
- adoption
El Salvador Bitcoin Law takes effect
Ninety days after Official Gazette publication, bitcoin becomes legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar. The government rolls out a Chivo wallet and ATM network; adoption and technical issues are widely reported.
Source: Invest El Salvador Bitcoin Law (Art. 16) · El Salvador and Bitcoin
- protocol
Taproot activates
Taproot (BIPs 340/341/342) activates at block 709,632, adding Schnorr signatures, Taproot outputs and Tapscript. Complex spends can look like single-key spends on-chain when conditions cooperate.
- 2022legal
Arrests in Bitfinex hack proceeds case
Federal prosecutors announce the arrest of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan on charges related to laundering cryptocurrency allegedly stolen in the 2016 Bitfinex hack. Agents seize a wallet holding roughly 94,636 BTC.
- legal
U.S. Executive Order 14067 on digital assets
President Biden signs EO 14067 directing agencies to report on digital-asset consumer protection, financial stability, illicit finance and U.S. competitiveness.
- security
Celsius pauses withdrawals
Celsius Network pauses customer withdrawals amid market stress, later filing bankruptcy. The failure is a major custodial-lender case study for self-custody advocates.
- security
Celsius Network files for bankruptcy
After pausing withdrawals in June 2022, Celsius Network LLC files Chapter 11. The case becomes a major example of custodial yield-platform failure.
- security
FTX files for bankruptcy
FTX Trading Ltd. and affiliates file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a run on deposits. Criminal cases against founder Sam Bankman-Fried follow; bitcoin markets sell off sharply.
- 2023security
Genesis / Digital Currency Group stress
Genesis Global Capital files for bankruptcy amid DCG-related credit stress after FTX. Institutional lending contagion continues into 2023.
- security
Genesis Global Capital files bankruptcy
Genesis Global Capital, a major crypto lender tied to Digital Currency Group, files for Chapter 11 amid post-FTX credit stress.
- protocol
First Ordinals inscription
Casey Rodarmor's Ordinals protocol numbers satoshis and enables inscriptions of arbitrary content in witness data. Inscription #0 is recorded; the practice later drives large fee spikes and policy debates over data-carrying transactions.
- protocol
Ordinals-driven fee spike
Inscription demand pushes median fees sharply higher for stretches of 2023. Mempool.space and similar explorers show congestion; debates over "spam" versus valid fee-paying use intensify.
- legal
SEC sues Binance and Coinbase
The SEC files civil complaints against Binance entities (June 5) and Coinbase (June 6), alleging unregistered securities offerings and exchange registration violations. Litigation continues for years.
- legal
SEC sues Binance entities
The SEC files a civil complaint against Binance entities and Zhao alleging unregistered exchange, broker-dealer and securities offerings. A related Coinbase suit follows the next day.
- legal
D.C. Circuit rules for Grayscale against SEC
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacates the SEC's denial of Grayscale's proposal to convert its Bitcoin Trust into a spot bitcoin ETP, holding the SEC's reasoning arbitrary and capricious relative to futures-based products.
- legal
Binance and CZ resolve U.S. criminal case
Binance pleads guilty to BSA violations; Changpeng Zhao steps down and later receives a prison sentence. The plea agreements are filed in federal court.
- 2024markets
US spot bitcoin ETPs approved
The SEC approves the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products. Chair Gensler issues a statement on the approvals the same day.
- markets
Spot bitcoin ETPs begin trading
The day after SEC approval, spot bitcoin exchange-traded products begin trading on U.S. exchanges. Issuers publish prospectuses and holdings methodologies.
- markets
Spot bitcoin ETPs begin trading
Approved spot bitcoin ETPs begin trading on U.S. exchanges the day after SEC approval. Issuers publish holdings and fee schedules in prospectuses.
- protocol
Runes protocol launches near fourth halving
Casey Rodarmor's Runes fungible-token protocol launches around the fourth halving, contributing to elevated fees. Like Ordinals, it uses Bitcoin transaction data without changing consensus rules.
- protocol
Fourth halving
Block 840,000 (timestamped 00:09:27 UTC) cuts the subsidy from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
- protocol
Runes protocol launches at fourth halving
Casey Rodarmor's Runes fungible-token metaprotocol launches around block 840,000. Like Ordinals, it uses Bitcoin transaction data without changing consensus rules and coincides with elevated fees.
- legal
Samourai Wallet developers arrested and charged
Prosecutors charge Samourai's co-founders with conspiracy to commit money laundering and to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, alleging the mixer moved criminal proceeds. Privacy advocates such as Coin Center argue non-custodial software developers should not be treated as money transmitters.
- 2025legal
Ross Ulbricht pardoned
President Trump grants Ulbricht a full pardon. The Office of the Pardon Attorney lists the grant among 2025 clemency actions.
- adoption
El Salvador reforms Bitcoin Law acceptance rules
Legislative Decree No. 199 (Jan 29, 2025), published Jan 30, reforms the Bitcoin Law so acceptance of bitcoin by private parties is voluntary rather than mandatory, among other changes. Bitcoin remains recognized under the revised framework.
Source: El Salvador jurisprudence archive (reforms) · El Salvador and Bitcoin
- governance
IMF approves El Salvador program
The IMF Executive Board approves a 40-month Extended Fund Facility of about US$1.4 billion for El Salvador. Prior actions include making private-sector bitcoin acceptance voluntary and taxes payable only in U.S. dollars; the program confines the state's bitcoin purchases.
- governance
Datacarrier options undeprecated in Core
Discussion and follow-up PRs (including #33453) reverse the deprecation of -datacarrier / -datacarriersize after user feedback, clarifying that operators may keep configuring the limit even after Core 30's default change.
- governance
Proposal to relax OP_RETURN standardness limits
Antoine Poinsot posts to the bitcoindev mailing list proposing to relax Bitcoin Core's OP_RETURN / datacarrier standardness limits. He argues the limits no longer bind data storage (witness data is cheaper) and push some protocols toward unspendable fake pubkeys that bloat the UTXO set.
Source: bitcoindev: Relax OP_RETURN standardness restrictions
- governance
PR #32406 opened: uncap datacarrier by default
Greg Sanders (instagibbs) opens Bitcoin Core pull request #32406 to raise the default -datacarriersize to 100,000 bytes and allow multiple OP_RETURN outputs per transaction for relay and mining, while retaining (and deprecating) the config options.
- security
Coinbase discloses customer data breach
Coinbase files an SEC Form 8-K describing an incident in which overseas support contractors were bribed to copy customer account data. The company states that passwords, private keys and funds were not exposed.
- governance
Delving Bitcoin thread on OP_RETURN objections
Poinsot publishes a long Delving Bitcoin post answering community objections to relaxing OP_RETURN limits. Critics reply that filters raise the cost of spam, that Bitcoin should prioritize monetary use, and that UTXO-bloat arguments are inconsistent with not filtering inscriptions.
- governance
PR #32406 merged into Bitcoin Core
PR #32406 is merged. Default datacarrier policy will ship in the next major release: effectively uncapped OP_RETURN size for standardness purposes, with multiple data-carrier outputs allowed under an aggregate size budget.
- legal
Samourai developers plead guilty
Both co-founders plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to operate a money transmitting business that transmitted criminal proceeds.
- governance
Bitcoin Core 30.0 released
Bitcoin Core 30.0 is published. Release notes state that -datacarriersize defaults to 100,000 (effectively uncapped given the max transaction size) and that multiple OP_RETURN outputs are permitted; operators can set -datacarriersize=83 to restore the prior limit. The change is policy, not consensus.
Source: bitcoincore.org 30.0 release notes · release-notes-30.0.md
- legal
Samourai developers sentenced
Keonne Rodriguez is sentenced to five years (Nov 6) and William Lonergan Hill to four years (Nov 19). The case remains a focal point in debates over privacy tools and developer liability.
- 2026security
COLDCARD weak-seed thefts begin
Attackers begin sweeping wallets whose seeds were generated by flawed firmware on certain COLDCARD devices. Coinkite publishes advisories; see Security Status for dated firmware guidance.
- governance
Bitcoin Knots near one-sixth of reachable nodes
On October 15, 2026, bitdis.org (sourcing btcnodes.io and mempool.space) reports Bitcoin Knots at 4,426 of 26,581 known nodes (16.65%), with Bitcoin Core at 22,093 (83.12%). Many Knots operators cite tighter default filters on data-carrying transactions; node-count methods differ across dashboards, so treat figures as estimates for that day's crawl.
Narrative: history chapters · quotes · difficulty · supply.