What happened, and who did it.

Timeline

61 dated events from 2008 to 2026. Each one links to the page of ours that tells it and to the source its date was checked against.

1. 2008

   1. 31 Oct

      Satoshi announces the Bitcoin whitepaper

      Satoshi Nakamoto announces a paper describing "a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party". From Whitepaper. Source: Cryptography Mailing List.

2. 2009

   1. 3 Jan

      Genesis block starts the chain at 50 BTC per block

      Block 0, the genesis block, is dated January 3, 2009, and the block subsidy starts at 50 BTC. From Halvings. Source: Bitcoin Core source code.

   2. 8 Jan

      Bitcoin 0.1.0 is released

      Satoshi announces the first release of Bitcoin on the Cryptography Mailing List. From The Time Warp. Source: Cryptography Mailing List.

   3. 12 Jan

      Satoshi sends the first Bitcoin transaction to Hal Finney

      Hal Finney receives the first Bitcoin transaction, ten coins from Satoshi, in block 170. From Bitcoin Units. Source: mempool.space, block 170.

3. 2010

   1. 15 Jul Satoshi adds the one-megabyte block size limit Source: Bitcoin source code, commit

   2. 15 Aug

      Value overflow bug creates 184 billion BTC

      Block 74,638 created 184 billion BTC against a 21 million cap. A patch was out within five hours. From The Inflation Bug Postmortem. Source: Bitcoin forum, archive copy.

   3. 16 Aug The patched chain overtakes the bad one Source: Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin forum

   4. 9 Nov First 'Bitcoin is dead' obituary is published Source: The Underground Economist, archive copy

4. 2011

   1. Jan Silk Road opens, accepting only bitcoin Source: US Department of Justice, archive copy

   2. 14 Jun WikiLeaks announces it accepts Bitcoin donations Source: WikiLeaks on X

   3. 19 Jun Compromised Mt. Gox account crashes the price to pennies Source: Ars Technica

   4. 19 Sep Amir Taaki writes BIP-1 Source: BIP-1

5. 2012

   1. 11 Feb BIP-32 proposes HD wallets: one seed, every future key Source: BIP-32

   2. 28 Nov

      First halving cuts the subsidy to 25 BTC

      At block 210,000 the block subsidy dropped from 50 to 25 BTC. From Halvings. Source: mempool.space, block 210,000.

6. 2013

   1. Jan First ASIC miners ship to customers Source: Bitcoin Magazine

   2. 11 Mar

      Block 225,430 splits the chain between 0.7 and 0.8 nodes

      A software upgrade split Bitcoin into two chains at block 225,430. It was back together 7 hours 41 minutes later. From The 2013 Chain Fork. Source: bitcoin.org, 2013 archive copy.

   3. 11 Aug bitcoin.org warns all Android wallets are open to theft Source: bitcoin.org, 2013 archive copy

   4. Oct 'A Fistful of Bitcoins' shows how coins can be traced Source: Meiklejohn et al., IMC 2013

   5. Oct Federal agents seize Silk Road Source: US Senate hearing record

   6. Dec China's central bank bars banks from handling bitcoin Source: People's Bank of China

7. 2014

   1. 7 Feb Mt. Gox halts withdrawals Source: Mt. Gox press release, archive copy

   2. 28 Feb

      Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy protection; 850,000 BTC missing

      Mt. Gox applies for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo with about 850,000 BTC missing, about 750,000 of them customers' coins. From Mt. Gox to FTX. Source: Mt. Gox announcement.

   3. 13 Jun GHash.io briefly holds 51 percent of mining power Source: The Guardian

8. 2015

   1. 4 Jul Miners build on an invalid block during BIP-66 soft fork Source: Gregory Maxwell, bitcoin-dev

   2. 15 Aug Bitcoin XT is released with its bigger-blocks patch Source: Mike Hearn, bitcoin-dev

   3. 17 Sep CFTC holds that bitcoin is a commodity Source: CFTC

9. 2016

   1. Bitfinex loses 119,754 BTC to theft Source: US Department of Justice, archive copy

   2. 14 Jan Mike Hearn declares the Bitcoin experiment failed Source: Mike Hearn, archive copy

   3. 21 Feb Hong Kong roundtable ends in a SegWit-for-2 MB deal Source: Bitcoin Roundtable statement, archive copy

   4. 9 Jul Second halving cuts the subsidy to 12.5 BTC Source: mempool.space, block 420,000

10. 2017

    1. Mar BIP-148 sets a user-activated flag day for SegWit Source: BIP-148

    2. 23 May The New York Agreement is signed Source: Digital Currency Group, archive copy

    3. 1 Aug

       Bitcoin Cash forks off with bigger blocks

       A faction that wanted bigger blocks forked off onto its own chain, Bitcoin Cash. Its first block was 1.9 MB. From The Block Size War. Source: Bitcoin Cash block 478,559.

    4. 24 Aug

       SegWit activates at block 481,824

       SegWit locked in on August 9 and went live at block 481,824 on August 24. From The Block Size War. Source: mempool.space, block 481,824.

    5. 4 Sep China bans token sales and bars token trading platforms Source: People's Bank of China

    6. 8 Nov SegWit2x hard fork is called off Source: SegWit2x mailing list, archive copy

    7. Dec Bitcoin futures begin trading at CME and Cboe Source: CFTC testimony

11. 2018

    1. 23 Jan Gregory Maxwell's post proposes Taproot Source: Gregory Maxwell, bitcoin-dev

    2. 15 Mar First Lightning mainnet beta, lnd 0.4, is released Source: Lightning Labs

    3. 17 Sep Inflation bug CVE-2018-17144 is reported and patched Source: Bitcoin Core

    4. 9 Dec QuadrigaCX's chief dies; the exchange fails two months later Source: Ontario Securities Commission

12. 2019

    1. 6 May Pieter Wuille posts the Taproot and Tapscript drafts Source: Pieter Wuille, bitcoin-dev

13. 2020

    1. 11 May Third halving cuts the subsidy to 6.25 BTC Source: mempool.space, block 630,000

14. 2021

    1. 21 May China calls for a crackdown on Bitcoin mining Source: State Council of China

    2. 12 Jun Taproot locks in under Speedy Trial Source: mempool.space, block 687,284

    3. 3 Jul Difficulty falls 27.94 percent, the largest cut on record Source: mempool.space, difficulty data

    4. 7 Sep

       El Salvador makes bitcoin legal tender

       Bitcoin becomes legal tender in El Salvador, with a government wallet and a US$30 bonus for signing up. From Rat Poison, Tulips and a Pet Rock. Source: IMF, archive copy.

    5. 14 Nov

       Taproot activates at block 709,632

       Block 709,632 arrived at 05:15 UTC, mined by F2Pool, and Taproot's rules were live. From How Taproot Actually Works. Source: mempool.space, block 709,632.

15. 2022

    1. Feb US seizes about 94,000 BTC from the Bitfinex hack Source: US Department of Justice, archive copy

    2. 12 Jun Celsius freezes all customer withdrawals Source: US Department of Justice, archive copy

    3. 11 Nov

       FTX files for bankruptcy

       FTX, Alameda and about 100 related companies filed for bankruptcy. The customer shortfall was about $8 billion. From Mt. Gox to FTX. Source: SEC complaint.

    4. 14 Dec The first inscription stores data in a Taproot spend Source: ordinals.com, archive copy

16. 2023

    1. 2 Nov Sam Bankman-Fried is convicted Source: US Attorney, SDNY, archive copy

17. 2024

    1. 10 Jan

       SEC approves US spot bitcoin ETFs

       The SEC approved US spot bitcoin ETFs, three months before the fourth halving. From Halvings. Source: SEC.

    2. 14 Mar UK court rejects Craig Wright's claim to be Satoshi Source: High Court judgment

    3. 20 Apr Fourth halving cuts the subsidy to 3.125 BTC Source: mempool.space, block 840,000

    4. 24 Apr US charges the founders of Samourai Wallet Source: US Attorney, SDNY, archive copy

18. 2025

    1. 6 Mar US executive order creates a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Source: Federal Register

19. 2026

    1. 9 Mar The 20 millionth bitcoin is issued Source: mempool.space, block 939,999

    2. 29 Jul Weak COLDCARD Mk2 and Mk3 seeds are drained Source: Bitcoin Optech

    3. 8 Aug Newer Bitcoin Knots nodes stop following the main chain Source: bitcoin/bips pull request 2245