Bitcoin Museum
From the whitepaper to spot ETFs: verified milestones, famous blocks and transactions, Satoshi's own words and the early price history. Every exhibit links to its source.
Artifact: the genesis block message
Raw coinbase bytes of block 0, read from the blockchain and decoded. No third-party images: everything here is rendered from on-chain data.
04ffff001d0104455468652054696d65 732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368 616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e 6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c 6f757420666f722062616e6b73
- 2008-08-18 · Milestone
bitcoin.org is registered
The domain that would host the whitepaper and the first software is registered.
- 2008-10-31 · Milestone
The whitepaper
Satoshi Nakamoto posts “Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper” to the Cryptography Mailing List: “I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.”
- 2009-01-03 · Block
Genesis block (block 0)
Block 0 is timestamped 18:15:05 UTC. Its coinbase carries the text “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”. Its 50 BTC reward can never be spent.
- 2009-01-08 · Milestone
Bitcoin v0.1 is released
Satoshi announces the first release on the Cryptography Mailing List (19:27 UTC): “Announcing the first release of Bitcoin, a new electronic cash system…”
- 2009-01-12 · Transaction
First person-to-person transaction
Satoshi sends 10 BTC to Hal Finney in block 170 (03:30 UTC). It is the first bitcoin transaction that is not a mining reward.
- 2010-05-22 · Transaction
Bitcoin Pizza Day
Laszlo Hanyecz pays 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, the first notable purchase of physical goods with bitcoin. The payment confirmed in block 57,043. He had posted the offer on May 18.
- 2010-08-15 · Block
Value overflow incident
A bug let a transaction in block 74,638 create 184,467,440,737 BTC. A fixed client was released within hours, and the chain without that block overtook it. The only serious inflation bug in Bitcoin's history.
- 2010-12-12 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $0.23
Satoshi's last forum post
Satoshi announces version 0.3.19 on BitcoinTalk: “There's more work to do on DoS, but I'm doing a quick build of what I have so far in case it's needed…” No public posts follow.
- 2012-11-28 · Block · BTC ≈ $12.5
First halving (block 210,000)
The block reward falls from 50 to 25 BTC at 15:24 UTC.
- 2014-02-28 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $583.05
Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy
The largest exchange of its time stops withdrawals and files for bankruptcy protection in Japan; about 850,000 BTC are reported missing (200,000 later found). See Hacks & losses.
- 2016-07-09 · Block · BTC ≈ $663
Second halving (block 420,000)
The reward falls from 25 to 12.5 BTC at 16:46 UTC.
- 2017-08-01 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $2,862.9
Bitcoin Cash splits off
A hard fork creates Bitcoin Cash with bigger blocks; Bitcoin keeps its rules.
- 2017-08-24 · Block · BTC ≈ $4,133.67
SegWit activates (block 481,824)
Segregated Witness, a soft fork, activates. It fixes transaction malleability and opens the way to Lightning.
- 2020-05-11 · Block · BTC ≈ $8,754.46
Third halving (block 630,000)
The reward falls from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC at 19:23 UTC.
- 2021-09-07 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $52,677.4
Legal tender in El Salvador
El Salvador's Bitcoin Law takes effect, making it the first country with bitcoin as legal tender. Under a December 2024 IMF deal, mandatory acceptance by merchants was dropped.
- 2021-11-14 · Block · BTC ≈ $64,420.94
Taproot activates (block 709,632)
The Taproot soft fork activates, adding Schnorr signatures and more private, efficient scripts.
- 2024-01-10 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $46,143.31
US spot bitcoin ETFs approved
The SEC approves the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products; trading begins the next day.
- 2024-04-20 · Block · BTC ≈ $63,823.55
Fourth halving (block 840,000)
The reward falls from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC at 00:09 UTC.
- 2025-03-06 · Milestone · BTC ≈ $90,608.57
US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
The US President signs an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve funded with bitcoin already forfeited to the government.
Satoshi in his own words
Every quote checked word for word against the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute archive. Russian is our translation.
“We have proposed a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust.”
“It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. If enough people think the same way, that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.”
“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work.”
“I'm sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume.”
“Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.”
“Writing a description for this thing for general audiences is bloody hard. There's nothing to relate it to.”
“If you don't believe me or don't get it, I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry.”
“WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.”
Early price history
BTC/USD daily price from blockchain.info, first data point 2010-08-18; log scale. Before that bitcoin had no regular market price. · Now: $82,702 (Coinbase)
| First day at or above | Date | Price |
|---|---|---|
| $0.1 | 2010-09-16 | $0.15 |
| $1 | 2011-02-11 | $1.08 |
| $10 | 2011-06-03 | $11 |
| $100 | 2013-04-02 | $104 |
| $1,000 | 2013-11-29 | $1,014 |
| $10,000 | 2017-12-02 | $10,880 |
| $100,000 | 2024-12-09 | $101,180 |
| Year | Highest daily price | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | $0.47 | 2010-11-08 |
| 2011 | $34 | 2011-06-11 |
| 2012 | $15 | 2012-08-18 |
| 2013 | $1,137 | 2013-12-05 |
| 2014 | $916 | 2014-01-07 |
| 2015 | $464 | 2015-12-16 |
| 2016 | $976 | 2016-12-29 |
| 2017 | $19,280 | 2017-12-17 |
Daily values are blockchain.info averages, not intraday highs. blockchain.info ↗
Every block and transaction checked via mempool.space API (height, hash, timestamp, amounts); every Satoshi quote checked word-for-word against the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute archive; other dates against the linked primary source or Wikipedia.