# Bitcoin Historical Events — Full Content

> A growing collection of 219 notable dates, milestones, and events in bitcoin history. From the pre-Bitcoin era of cryptographic foundations through the Genesis Block, scaling debates, institutional adoption, and beyond. Each event includes a full description and historical context. Made by Coinkite Inc.

- [Homepage](https://bitcoin.holiday): Interactive calendar with all events
- [Contribute](https://github.com/coinkite/bitcoin.holiday.pub): Submit new events via GitHub

## Milestones & Price

### First Bitcoin Exchange Rate (2009-10-05)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2009-10-05-first-bitcoin-exchange-rate

New Liberty Standard publishes the first known Bitcoin exchange rate: 1,309.03 BTC = $1 USD. The rate was calculated using the cost of electricity to mine Bitcoin. This established the first bridge between Bitcoin and fiat currency.

Bitcoin Wiki: New Liberty Standard

### First Bitcoin Exchange (2010-02-06)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-02-06-first-bitcoin-exchange

Bitcoin Market, the first cryptocurrency exchange, is established by bitcointalk user dwdollar. It allowed users to buy and sell bitcoin using PayPal, providing the first structured marketplace for price discovery.

Before Bitcoin Market, trading was done informally on forums. The exchange gave Bitcoin its first real market price and paved the way for Mt. Gox and all the exchanges that followed.

Original BitcoinTalk announcement

### Bitcoin Price 10x in 5 Days (2010-07-12)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-07-12-bitcoin-price-10x-in-5-days

Bitcoin's price surges tenfold from $0.008 to $0.08 over just five days after Slashdot, one of the internet's most popular tech news sites, publishes a story about Bitcoin version 0.3. The flood of traffic from tech-savvy Slashdot readers overwhelmed the nascent Bitcoin community and brought a wave of new users to the network. It was Bitcoin's first taste of viral media attention and demonstrated how even a single story on a major platform could move the market. The "Slashdot effect" proved that there was real demand for a decentralized digital currency.

Slashdot: Bitcoin Releases Version 0.3

### Mt. Gox Opens for Trading (2010-07-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-07-18-mt-gox-opens-for-trading

Jed McCaleb launches Mt. Gox on July 18, 2010, which would become the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, handling over 70% of all Bitcoin transactions at its peak. The name came from "Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange," a domain McCaleb had originally registered for trading game cards. McCaleb later sold the site to Mark Karpeles in March 2011. Mt. Gox would ultimately collapse in February 2014 after losing approximately 850,000 BTC, making it the most infamous exchange failure in Bitcoin history.

Wikipedia: Mt. Gox

### Dollar Parity Day (2011-02-09)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-02-09-dollar-parity-day

Bitcoin reaches $1.00 USD for the first time on the Mt. Gox exchange on February 9, 2011. From 1,309 BTC per dollar in October 2009 to parity in under two years. The psychological significance was enormous -- one bitcoin was now worth one dollar, a benchmark that made the abstract concept of digital money tangible. By June 2011, the price would surge to over $31, but this was the moment Bitcoin first proved it could hold real monetary value.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### $10 Bitcoin (2011-06-02)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-06-02-10-bitcoin

Bitcoin crosses $10 for the first time on June 2, 2011, a 10x increase in under four months since reaching dollar parity in February. The first taste of exponential growth. A Gawker article about Silk Road published a few days earlier had driven a flood of new interest, and the price would continue its parabolic rise to over $31 by June 8. Early adopters who had mined or bought bitcoin for pennies were suddenly sitting on life-changing returns.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### The great bitcoin bubble of 2011 (2011-06-12)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-06-12-the-great-bitcoin-bubble-of-2011

The price of 1 bitcoin peaked at $31.91 USD on June 8, 2011, during the first major speculative bubble before crashing over 93% to approximately $2 by November. Fueled by a Gawker article about Silk Road and early media attention, BTC had rallied from $1 to $31 in just four months. The crash that followed produced the first wave of "Bitcoin is dead" articles. It would take over two years for Bitcoin to reclaim its 2011 high -- the first of many boom-bust cycles that would define its path to global adoption.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### The First Halving (2012-11-28)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2012-11-28-the-first-halving

Bitcoin's block reward halves from 50 BTC to 25 BTC at block 210,000 on November 28, 2012. The first test of Satoshi's programmatic monetary policy -- proving the supply schedule would execute exactly as designed, with no central authority required. Bitcoin was trading around $12 at the time. Skeptics predicted miners would abandon the network, but hashrate continued to climb. Within a year, the price would surge past $1,000 -- establishing the post-halving bull cycle pattern that has repeated with every subsequent halving.

Bitcoin Wiki: Controlled supply

### The Billion Dollar Day (2013-03-28)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-03-28-the-billion-dollar-day

On this day in 2013, the market cap of the entire Bitcoin network surpassed $1-billion USD for the first time, with approximately 11 million BTC in circulation trading around $92 each. Just four years after the genesis block, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system created by an anonymous developer had reached a ten-figure valuation -- without venture capital, without a marketing department, and without anyone's permission.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### $100 Bitcoin (2013-04-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-04-01-100-bitcoin

Bitcoin crosses $100 for the first time on Mt. Gox on April 1, 2013. From $1 to $100 in just over two years. No April Fools' joke. The rally was driven by the Cyprus banking crisis, which saw depositors lose savings to government bail-ins -- a stark reminder of why sovereign, censorship-resistant money matters. Three-figure Bitcoin silenced some early critics while attracting a new wave of believers.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF Filing (2013-07-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-07-01-winklevoss-bitcoin-etf-filing

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss file the first-ever Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application with the SEC, proposing the "Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust" to trade on the NASDAQ. The twins, famous for their legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook, had reportedly purchased approximately 1% of all bitcoin in circulation. The filing was a landmark moment that signaled Wall Street's first serious attempt to bring Bitcoin to mainstream investors. The SEC would ultimately reject the proposal in March 2017, but the Winklevoss filing opened a door that would take over a decade to walk through.

SEC: Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust S-1 Filing

### Bitcoin Surpasses PayPal in Daily Volume (2013-11-22)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-11-22-bitcoin-surpasses-paypal-in-daily-volume

During the November 2013 price surge, daily Bitcoin transaction volume briefly exceeds PayPal's for the first time. As BTC rockets toward $1,000, the dollar value of on-chain transactions surpasses the payments giant that once froze WikiLeaks' account. The milestone is a powerful symbolic moment -- a five-year-old open-source protocol with no CEO, no headquarters, and no employees is moving more value in a day than one of the world's largest payment processors.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### $1,000 Bitcoin (2013-11-27)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-11-27-1000-bitcoin

Bitcoin crosses $1,000 for the first time on Mt. Gox on November 27, 2013, driven by massive Chinese demand on BTC China and growing mainstream awareness worldwide. From a whitepaper to four figures in five years. The rally saw Bitcoin's price increase over 80x from its January 2013 level of about $13. US Senate hearings on Bitcoin weeks earlier had given it unexpected legitimacy, and media coverage reached a fever pitch.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Bitcoin Surpasses Gold (Per Ounce) (2013-11-29)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-11-29-bitcoin-surpasses-gold-per-ounce

Bitcoin's price exceeds the price of one troy ounce of gold for the first time, reaching $1,242 on Mt. Gox while gold traded at $1,241.98. A symbolic milestone for "digital gold." Though this parity was brief -- Bitcoin's price would crash back below $200 within a year -- it planted the seed of a narrative that would define the next decade. Bitcoiners had long argued that a scarce, portable, divisible digital asset would eventually rival gold. On this day, the market agreed, if only for a moment.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Bitcoin Surpasses Western Union Market Cap (2013-11-29)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-11-29-bitcoin-surpasses-western-union-market-cap

During the explosive November 2013 rally, Bitcoin's total market capitalization briefly surpasses that of Western Union, one of the world's oldest and largest money transfer companies. Western Union, founded in 1851, had spent over 160 years building a global remittance network with 500,000 agent locations -- and a digital currency barely four years old had just eclipsed it in market value. The milestone was a powerful symbol of disruption and validated the thesis that Bitcoin could challenge legacy financial infrastructure. The comparison between a centuries-old company and a nascent protocol became a favorite talking point for Bitcoiners.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Mt. Gox Halts All Withdrawals (2014-02-07)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-02-07-mt-gox-halts-all-withdrawals

Mt. Gox, still the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, suspends all Bitcoin withdrawals citing a bug known as "transaction malleability." The announcement sends shockwaves through the market and marks the beginning of the exchange's final collapse. Behind the scenes, 850,000 BTC are already missing. Over the next two weeks, the situation deteriorates rapidly -- leaked internal documents reveal insolvency, and Mt. Gox shuts down entirely on February 24, 2014.

Wikipedia: Mt. Gox

### The death of Mt. Gox (2014-02-24)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-02-24-the-death-of-mt-gox

On this day in 2014, Mt. Gox, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, went offline due to insolvency. At the time, Mt. Gox was the most widely used bitcoin currency exchange market. Mt. Gox closed February 25, 2014 and has since filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan and the United States, after losing 640 thousand bitcoins.

Wikipedia: Mt. Gox

### US Marshals Silk Road Auction (2014-06-27)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-06-27-us-marshals-silk-road-auction

Venture capitalist Tim Draper wins all 29,657 BTC seized from the Silk Road marketplace in a US Marshals Service auction, paying approximately $19 million. Nearly 45 bidders competed for the coins, which were offered in blocks of 3,000 BTC. Draper famously declared he would never sell and became one of Bitcoin's most vocal billionaire advocates. The auction was a pivotal moment -- the US government was legitimizing Bitcoin by conducting an official sale, and a prominent investor was treating it as a long-term store of value.

US Marshals Service: Bitcoin Auction

### The Slaying of the BearWhale (2014-10-06)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-10-06-the-slaying-of-the-bearwhale

On this glorious day of battle, a bitcoin whale posted a 30,000 BTC sell wall, resulting in an epic skirmish between hodlers and the BearWhale. Over the course of six hours, the price stalled at $300 until all of the coins sold off and the BearWhale was defeated.

Watch the battle here.

### Bitstamp Hack (2015-01-04)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2015-01-04-bitstamp-hack

Bitstamp, one of the oldest and largest Bitcoin exchanges, is hacked for approximately 19,000 BTC (~$5 million at the time) through a social engineering attack targeting an employee. The exchange suspended operations for several days before resuming with improved security. Unlike Mt. Gox, Bitstamp survived the breach and continued operating. Yet another reminder of the risks of custodial solutions and the importance of self-custody: not your keys, not your coins.

Wikipedia: Bitstamp

### Coinbase Exchange Launches (2015-01-26)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2015-01-26-coinbase-exchange-launches

Coinbase launches its U.S.-based Bitcoin exchange, backed by $75 million in funding from the New York Stock Exchange, USAA, and several major banks. It was the first Bitcoin exchange to receive regulatory approval in all 50 U.S. states.

The launch was a milestone for Bitcoin's institutional legitimacy. Unlike earlier exchanges, Coinbase operated with full regulatory compliance from day one, making it easier for mainstream investors to buy Bitcoin through a trusted, insured platform.

Wikipedia: Coinbase

### The Second Halving (2016-07-09)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2016-07-09-the-second-halving

Block reward halves from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC at block 420,000 on July 9, 2016. Bitcoin's price was around $650. The second halving confirmed that Satoshi's programmatic monetary policy would execute reliably every 210,000 blocks. Like the first halving, skeptics predicted a miner death spiral that never materialized. Instead, the reduced supply issuance preceded a historic bull run to nearly $20,000 by December 2017, reinforcing the stock-to-flow thesis among Bitcoiners.

Bitcoin Wiki: Controlled supply

### Bitfinex Hack — 120,000 BTC Stolen (2016-08-02)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2016-08-02-bitfinex-hack-120000-btc-stolen

Bitfinex, one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges, is hacked for approximately 120,000 BTC (~$72 million). The stolen funds would later be partially recovered by the US DOJ in 2022, leading to the arrest of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan.

Wikipedia: 2016 Bitfinex hack

### Bitcoin Passes $1,000 Again (2017-01-05)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-01-05-bitcoin-passes-1000-again

Bitcoin crosses $1,000 for the first time since the 2013 crash, reclaiming the milestone after three long years in the wilderness. The price had collapsed from $1,100 to under $200 following the Mt. Gox disaster and China's first ban. This recovery signals the start of the legendary 2017 bull run that would carry BTC to nearly $20,000 by December. Those who held through the bear market are vindicated -- and HODL culture is forged in fire.

CoinDesk: Bitcoin Price Tops $1,000

### Gold Parity Day (2017-03-03)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-03-03-gold-parity-day

On this day in 2017, 1 bitcoin surpassed the price of 1 troy ounce of gold for the first time, with BTC crossing $1,268 while gold traded at approximately $1,233. The symbolic "flippening" of gold by "digital gold" was a milestone long anticipated by Bitcoiners. From a fraction of a cent in 2009 to more valuable per unit than humanity's oldest store of value in under eight years -- a moment that crystallized Bitcoin's monetary ambitions for the world.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### SEC Rejects Winklevoss ETF (2017-03-10)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-03-10-sec-rejects-winklevoss-etf

The SEC officially denies the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF application after nearly four years of review, citing concerns about market manipulation and the unregulated nature of bitcoin exchanges. Bitcoin's price dropped roughly 18% immediately following the announcement, falling from $1,350 to around $1,100. The rejection was the first of many SEC denials of Bitcoin ETF proposals over the following years, with the agency repeatedly citing similar concerns. The Winklevoss twins vowed to continue fighting, and the broader quest for a spot Bitcoin ETF would not succeed until January 2024.

SEC: Winklevoss ETF Disapproval Order

### China Closes All Exchanges (2017-09-14)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-09-14-china-closes-all-exchanges

Chinese regulators order all cryptocurrency exchanges operating in mainland China to shut down, following the ICO ban earlier in the month. Major exchanges including BTC China, Huobi, and OKCoin announced they would cease trading by the end of September. Bitcoin's price dropped sharply from over $4,000 to around $3,000 on the news. The closures marked the end of China's dominance in bitcoin spot trading and pushed Chinese traders onto peer-to-peer platforms and overseas exchanges. Several major exchanges relocated to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malta to continue operations outside Chinese jurisdiction.

Reuters: China Orders Bitcoin Exchanges to Shut Down

### $10,000 Bitcoin (2017-11-28)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-11-28-10000-bitcoin

Bitcoin crosses $10,000 for the first time across multiple exchanges on November 28, 2017. Five figures. The run from $1,000 to $10,000 took less than a year, fueled by the ICO mania, increasing retail interest, and the anticipation of CME and CBOE Bitcoin futures launches. $20,000 was only weeks away. Mainstream media coverage reached an all-time high, and "How to buy Bitcoin" became one of Google's top searches. The FOMO was palpable.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Bitcoin Futures Launch (2017-12-10)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-12-10-bitcoin-futures-launch

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) launches the first Bitcoin futures contracts on a regulated U.S. exchange, with CME Group following a week later on December 18. The CBOE website crashed within minutes due to overwhelming demand.

Bitcoin futures gave institutional investors their first regulated way to gain exposure to Bitcoin's price movements. The launch was a watershed moment for Bitcoin's acceptance by traditional finance, though some argue the introduction of derivatives also enabled new forms of price suppression.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin Futures

### $20,000 Day (2017-12-17)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-12-17-20000-day

Bitcoin reaches its then all-time high near $19,783 on multiple exchanges on December 17, 2017, bringing mainstream attention worldwide. Front page of every newspaper. Your uncle asked you about Bitcoin at Christmas dinner. CBOE Bitcoin futures had launched just days earlier on December 10, and CME futures followed on December 18. The price had risen from under $1,000 in January to nearly $20,000 in twelve months -- a 20x return that defined an era. A brutal two-year bear market would follow.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Stock-to-Flow Model Published (2019-03-22)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2019-03-22-stock-to-flow-model-published

Anonymous Dutch analyst PlanB publishes "Modeling Bitcoin's Value with Scarcity" on Medium, introducing the Stock-to-Flow (S2F) model that maps Bitcoin's price to its scarcity ratio. The model predicts dramatically higher prices after each halving and becomes the most debated Bitcoin price prediction framework ever created. Adherents treat it as gospel while critics call it pseudoscience. Regardless, S2F dominates Bitcoin discourse for years.

PlanB: Modeling Bitcoin's Value with Scarcity

### Bitcoin Hits $13,000 (2019-06-26)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2019-06-26-bitcoin-hits-13000

Bitcoin surges past $13,000, its highest price since January 2018 and the first significant recovery milestone after the brutal 2018 bear market that saw BTC drop over 80% from its all-time high. The rally was fueled by renewed institutional interest, Facebook's Libra announcement, and growing global economic uncertainty. For many who had endured the "crypto winter," the recovery to five figures validated the long-held conviction that Bitcoin's boom-and-bust cycles always resolve higher. The $13,000 level proved to be the peak for 2019 -- Bitcoin would not sustainably surpass it until late 2020.

CoinDesk: Bitcoin Hits $13,000

### Xi Jinping Endorses Blockchain (2019-10-24)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2019-10-24-xi-jinping-endorses-blockchain

Chinese President Xi Jinping calls blockchain technology "an important breakthrough" during a Politburo study session, urging China to accelerate blockchain adoption. Bitcoin surges 40% in 24 hours -- from $7,500 to over $10,000 -- marking the largest single-day gain since 2011. The market reacts as though China endorsed Bitcoin itself, even though Xi was referring to permissioned enterprise blockchains. China's state media quickly clarifies that Bitcoin speculation is still not welcome. The pump is short-lived but legendary.

BBC: China Blockchain Endorsement

### Federal Reserve Emergency Rate Cut (2020-03-03)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-03-03-federal-reserve-emergency-rate-cut

The Federal Reserve makes an emergency rate cut in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, eventually slashing rates to near zero and launching unlimited quantitative easing. Bitcoin initially crashes alongside all risk assets on Black Thursday (March 12), but the unprecedented money printing becomes the most powerful narrative fuel in Bitcoin's history. Within months, BTC begins a historic rally from $5,000 to $69,000 as "money printer go brrr" becomes the meme that orange-pills a generation of institutional investors.

Federal Reserve Press Release

### Black Thursday (2020-03-12)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-03-12-black-thursday

Bitcoin crashes from $7,900 to $3,800 in a single day as COVID-19 panic triggers a global liquidity crisis. Everything sold — stocks, bonds, gold, and Bitcoin. The crash would prove to be the bottom, with Bitcoin reaching $60,000 within a year.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### The Third Halving (2020-05-11)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-05-11-the-third-halving

Block reward halves from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC at block 630,000 on May 11, 2020. Occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic with Bitcoin trading around $8,600 -- and just weeks after the March 2020 crash had briefly taken BTC below $4,000. The third halving reduced Bitcoin's annual inflation rate to approximately 1.8%, below the Federal Reserve's 2% target. With central banks printing trillions in stimulus worldwide, Bitcoin's predetermined scarcity schedule had never looked more relevant. A rally to $64,000 followed within a year.

Bitcoin Wiki: Controlled supply

### MicroStrategy Buys Bitcoin (2020-08-11)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-08-11-microstrategy-buys-bitcoin

MicroStrategy becomes the first publicly traded company to adopt Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset, announcing on August 11, 2020, the purchase of 21,454 BTC for $250 million at an average price of ~$11,653 per coin. CEO Michael Saylor, a former Bitcoin skeptic turned maximalist, argued that holding cash was "like holding an ice cube." His move would inspire hundreds of companies to follow and pioneer the corporate Bitcoin treasury strategy. MicroStrategy (later renamed Strategy) would continue buying, eventually holding over 500,000 BTC.

Wikipedia: Strategy (MicroStrategy)

### Square Buys Bitcoin (2020-10-08)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-10-08-square-buys-bitcoin

Square, Inc. (now Block, Inc.) announces a $50 million investment in Bitcoin, representing approximately 1% of its total assets. Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO, said Bitcoin has the potential to be a more ubiquitous currency in the future.

Square was among the first major payment companies to put Bitcoin on its balance sheet, following MicroStrategy's lead. Dorsey would become one of Bitcoin's most prominent corporate advocates, eventually renaming the company to Block and making Bitcoin development a core mission.

Wikipedia: Block, Inc.

### MassMutual Buys $100M in Bitcoin (2020-12-11)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-12-11-massmutual-buys-100m-in-bitcoin

MassMutual, a 170-year-old insurance giant managing over $235 billion in assets, purchases $100 million in Bitcoin for its general investment account through NYDIG. The purchase signals a major shift in traditional finance's acceptance of Bitcoin as a legitimate asset class. When a conservative insurance company that has been in business since 1851 buys Bitcoin, it validates the "digital gold" thesis for institutional investors watching from the sidelines.

WSJ: MassMutual Joins the Bitcoin Club

### Bitcoin Becomes a Trillion Dollar Network (2021-01-08)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-01-08-bitcoin-becomes-a-trillion-dollar-network

Bitcoin's market capitalization surpasses $1 trillion for the first time, putting it in the same league as Apple, Amazon, and gold. A network launched by an anonymous cypherpunk in 2009, worth more than most countries' GDP.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Tesla Buys $1.5 Billion in Bitcoin (2021-02-08)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-02-08-tesla-buys-15-billion-in-bitcoin

Tesla discloses a $1.5 billion Bitcoin purchase in its SEC filing and announces plans to accept Bitcoin as payment for vehicles. The largest corporate Bitcoin purchase at the time, and the catalyst for the "corporate treasury" movement.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### The Trillion Dollar Day (2021-02-19)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-02-19-the-trillion-dollar-day

On this day in 2021, the market cap of the entire Bitcoin network surpassed $1-trillion USD, with BTC trading above $53,000. Bitcoin joined the exclusive club of trillion-dollar assets alongside Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and gold. The milestone came just eight years after hitting $1 billion -- a 1,000x increase driven by institutional adoption, the MicroStrategy playbook, and growing recognition of Bitcoin as a legitimate store of value.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Bitcoin ATH $64,895 (2021-04-14)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-04-14-bitcoin-ath-64895

Bitcoin reaches its first major all-time high of the 2021 bull run at $64,895, coinciding with the Coinbase NASDAQ direct listing. The milestone capped a remarkable run fueled by institutional adoption, with MicroStrategy, Tesla, and Square all having added Bitcoin to their balance sheets. The day represented a convergence of narratives -- the first major crypto company going public on a US exchange while the asset it was built on hit record prices. However, this peak would prove to be the first top of a double-peak cycle, with BTC crashing to $29,000 before rebounding to nearly $69,000 in November.

CoinDesk: Bitcoin Surges Above $64K

### Coinbase Goes Public (2021-04-14)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-04-14-coinbase-goes-public

Coinbase Global (ticker: COIN) lists on NASDAQ via direct listing on April 14, 2021, opening at $381 per share with a peak-day valuation of $85.8 billion. The first major crypto exchange to go public on a US stock exchange. Founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, Coinbase had grown to serve over 56 million users. The listing was seen as a landmark moment of legitimacy for the Bitcoin and crypto industry on Wall Street, coinciding with Bitcoin trading near its then all-time high of $64,000.

Wikipedia: Coinbase

### First Bitcoin Futures ETF Launches (2021-10-19)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-10-19-first-bitcoin-futures-etf-launches

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) launches on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the first US Bitcoin-linked ETF. It trades over $1 billion in volume on its first day, making it one of the most successful ETF debuts in history. While based on futures rather than spot Bitcoin, BITO opens the door for traditional investors to gain Bitcoin exposure through their brokerage accounts. The spot ETF would follow three years later.

ProShares BITO

### $69,000 All-Time High (2021-11-10)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-11-10-69000-all-time-high

Bitcoin reaches $69,044.77 on multiple exchanges on November 10, 2021, marking the peak of the 2021 bull cycle. The "nice number" was not lost on Bitcoin Twitter, which celebrated with predictable enthusiasm. The all-time high came amid a wave of institutional adoption, El Salvador's legal tender law, and growing mainstream acceptance. It would take over two years and a spot ETF approval before Bitcoin would reclaim this level in March 2024.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Terra-Luna Collapse (2022-05-12)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-05-12-terra-luna-collapse

The TerraUSD (UST) algorithmic stablecoin and its sister token Luna collapse in a death spiral, erasing ~$40 billion in value in days. Bitcoin drops to $27,000 in the contagion. The event triggers a cascade that would bring down Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, Voyager, and eventually FTX — all centralized entities. Bitcoin the protocol is unaffected.

Wikipedia: Terraform Labs

### Bitcoin Drops Below $18,000 (2022-06-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-06-18-bitcoin-drops-below-18000

Bitcoin crashes below the previous cycle's all-time high for the first time in its history, falling to $17,600. The collapse is driven by contagion from the Terra/LUNA implosion and the insolvency of Three Arrows Capital (3AC), which triggers the largest crypto margin calls ever seen. Celsius, Voyager, and BlockFi all freeze withdrawals. The carnage proves that leverage and centralized lending platforms are the real risk -- not Bitcoin itself. BTC recovers within months while the lenders stay dead.

Wikipedia: 2022 Crypto Crash

### Tesla Sells Bitcoin (2022-07-20)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-07-20-tesla-sells-bitcoin

Tesla reveals it sold approximately 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in Q2 2022, converting roughly $936 million worth of BTC back to fiat. Elon Musk said the sale was due to uncertainty around COVID lockdowns in China and the need for cash liquidity.

The news rattled markets but Bitcoin absorbed the selling pressure. The move came after Tesla had previously stopped accepting Bitcoin for vehicle purchases, citing environmental concerns about mining energy usage — a claim that drew significant pushback from the Bitcoin community.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### FTX Files for Bankruptcy (2022-11-11)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-11-11-ftx-files-for-bankruptcy

FTX, the third-largest crypto exchange, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 11, 2022, after revelations that billions in customer funds had been secretly funneled to Alameda Research, Sam Bankman-Fried's trading firm. SBF's empire, once valued at $32 billion, imploded in under a week following a bank run triggered by CoinDesk reporting and a Binance liquidation of FTT tokens. Approximately $8 billion in customer funds went missing. SBF was later convicted on seven federal fraud charges. Not your keys, not your coins -- proven once again.

Wikipedia: FTX

### BlackRock Files for Bitcoin ETF (2023-06-15)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2023-06-15-blackrock-files-for-bitcoin-etf

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager with over $9 trillion in assets under management, files an application with the SEC for a spot Bitcoin ETF (iShares Bitcoin Trust). The filing sent Bitcoin's price surging.

After years of SEC rejections of spot Bitcoin ETF applications, BlackRock's entry changed everything. With a near-perfect ETF approval record, BlackRock's filing signaled that institutional Bitcoin adoption had reached the highest levels of traditional finance. The ETF was approved in January 2024.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin ETF

### Spot Bitcoin ETF Approved (2024-01-10)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2024-01-10-spot-bitcoin-etf-approved

On January 10, 2024, the SEC approves 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs simultaneously, including BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), and offerings from ARK, Bitwise, and others. The approval came after over a decade of rejections dating back to the Winklevoss twins' first filing in 2013. The moment Bitcoin got a seat at the table of traditional finance. IBIT would become the fastest-growing ETF in history, reaching $10 billion in assets in just seven weeks. Over $4 billion flowed into the new ETFs on day one.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin ETF

### Pre-Halving All-Time High (2024-03-14)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2024-03-14-pre-halving-all-time-high

Bitcoin hits $73,750, setting a new all-time high before a halving for the first time in its history. Previous cycles always saw Bitcoin peak after the halving, not before.

The rally was fueled by massive inflows into the newly approved spot Bitcoin ETFs, which had been live for just two months. This broke the traditional four-year cycle pattern and signaled that institutional demand through ETFs had fundamentally changed Bitcoin's market structure.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### The Fourth Halving (2024-04-20)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2024-04-20-the-fourth-halving

Block reward halves from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC at block 840,000 on April 20, 2024. The first halving after spot ETF approval, with institutional demand from BlackRock, Fidelity, and others meeting reduced supply issuance. Bitcoin was trading around $64,000. Daily new BTC issuance dropped to approximately 450 coins per day -- while spot ETFs were frequently buying multiples of that amount. Bitcoin's annual inflation rate fell to roughly 0.9%, lower than gold's estimated 1.5-2% annual supply increase.

Bitcoin Wiki: Controlled supply

### $100,000 Day (2024-11-22)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2024-11-22-100000-day

Bitcoin crosses $100,000 for the first time on November 22, 2024. Six figures. From a whitepaper by an anonymous cypherpunk to a hundred-thousand-dollar asset in sixteen years. The milestone was driven by post-election euphoria, record spot ETF inflows, and growing institutional adoption. At $100,000, Bitcoin's total market cap exceeded $2 trillion, placing it among the largest assets on Earth -- larger than silver, Saudi Aramco, and most sovereign wealth funds. The hardest money ever created reached a price that early Bitcoiners had dreamed about for years.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Bitcoin Inauguration ATH (2025-01-20)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2025-01-20-bitcoin-inauguration-ath

Bitcoin reaches $109,350 on the day of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration, setting a new all-time high. Trump had campaigned on pro-Bitcoin policies including a strategic Bitcoin reserve and friendlier regulation.

The inauguration day price surge reflected market optimism that the new administration would deliver on its crypto promises — a stark contrast to the regulatory hostility of the previous four years.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Bitcoin ETF AUM Surpasses Gold ETF (2025-01-22)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2025-01-22-bitcoin-etf-aum-surpasses-gold-etf

Combined US spot Bitcoin ETF assets under management surpass gold ETFs for the first time on January 22, 2025 -- just over one year after the spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved. BlackRock's IBIT alone holds over $60 billion in BTC, making it one of the largest ETFs of any kind. Bitcoin achieves in one year what gold ETFs took two decades to build since the first gold ETF (GLD) launched in 2004. The "digital gold" narrative had moved from metaphor to measurable market reality.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin ETF

### $125,000 All-Time High (2025-08-13)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2025-08-13-125000-all-time-high

Bitcoin reaches a new all-time high of $125,725, driven by institutional demand through spot ETFs, sovereign accumulation following the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and the supply shock from the fourth halving. From $3,800 on Black Thursday 2020 to $125,000 in five years.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Strategy Surpasses 500,000 BTC (2025-11-28)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2025-11-28-strategy-surpasses-500000-btc

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) surpasses 500,000 BTC in its corporate treasury, worth over $50 billion, making it the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in history by a wide margin. Michael Saylor's conviction bet, started with 21,454 BTC in August 2020 at ~$11,653 per coin, grew through a relentless series of purchases funded by convertible notes, at-the-market stock offerings, and operating cash flow. Strategy's stock (MSTR) became a de facto leveraged Bitcoin proxy, outperforming nearly every asset on the NASDAQ over the period.

Wikipedia: Strategy (MicroStrategy)

## Hardware & Products

### Casascius Physical Bitcoins (2011-12-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-12-01-casascius-physical-bitcoins

Mike Caldwell begins minting Casascius physical bitcoins -- brass, silver, and gold-plated coins with a hidden private key embedded under a tamper-evident hologram. Each coin was pre-loaded with BTC, creating a tangible way to hold and trade bitcoin in the physical world. The coins became iconic collector's items in Bitcoin culture. In November 2013, FinCEN contacted Caldwell and classified his operation as money transmission, forcing him to stop selling funded coins. Unfunded Casascius coins remain highly prized collectibles.

Bitcoin Wiki: Casascius Physical Bitcoins

### First ASIC Miner Ships (2013-01-30)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-01-30-first-asic-miner-ships

Canaan Creative ships the Avalon 1 — the world's first ASIC Bitcoin miner. Purpose-built to run SHA-256 and nothing else, the Avalon delivered hashrates that made GPU mining obsolete overnight. Only 300 units were produced in the first batch.

The arrival of ASICs transformed Bitcoin mining from a hobbyist activity into an industrial operation. Within months, Bitmain and other manufacturers entered the market, kicking off an arms race that would drive Bitcoin's hashrate up by orders of magnitude and make the network exponentially more secure.

Bitcoin Wiki: Avalon

### Bitcoin ATM Day (2013-05-02)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-05-02-bitcoin-atm-day

On this day in 2013, the first Bitcoin ATM in the world was installed at Waves Coffee House in Vancouver, Canada, by the company Robocoin. The machine contained a built-in palm scanner designed to prevent users from processing more than $3,000 CAD per day and comply with anti-money-laundering regulations. On its first day, the ATM processed over $10,000 in transactions. By 2024, there would be over 38,000 Bitcoin ATMs worldwide, making it easier than ever to acquire BTC with cash.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin ATM

### Antminer S1 Launches (2013-11-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-11-01-antminer-s1-launches

Bitmain releases the Antminer S1, its first Bitcoin mining product, delivering 180 GH/s at 80-200 watts. It was the beginning of what would become the most dominant mining hardware brand in Bitcoin history.

Founded by Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan, Bitmain would go on to produce the S-series miners that secured the majority of Bitcoin's hashrate for over a decade. The Antminer brand became synonymous with Bitcoin mining itself.

Wikipedia: Bitmain

### Trezor One Launches (2014-07-29)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-07-29-trezor-one-launches

SatoshiLabs ships the Trezor One — the world's first Bitcoin hardware wallet. Created by Czech developers Marek "Slush" Palatinus and Pavol Rusnak, the Trezor introduced the concept of storing private keys on a dedicated offline device, away from internet-connected computers.

Before Trezor, securing Bitcoin meant paper wallets, encrypted files, or trusting an exchange. The Trezor One created an entirely new product category and proved that self-custody could be both secure and user-friendly. Every hardware wallet that followed owes something to this device.

Wikipedia: Trezor

### Opendime makes its debut (2014-09-02)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-09-02-opendime-makes-its-debut

On this day in 2014, the first bitcoin bearer instrument, Opendime, was announced by Coinkite. Designed as a tiny USB stick that holds a single Bitcoin private key, Opendime allows BTC to be physically passed from person to person like a gold coin or dollar bill -- no blockchain transaction needed until the seal is broken. It introduced the concept of "Bitcoin credit sticks" and trustless physical Bitcoin transfers to the community.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.

### Ledger Nano Launches (2014-12-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-12-01-ledger-nano-launches

Ledger releases its first product, the Ledger Nano — a Bitcoin hardware wallet built on smartcard security. The company emerged from the merger of BTChip, Chronocoin, and La Maison du Bitcoin, combining French cryptography expertise with hardware manufacturing.

The original Nano was a compact USB device focused on affordability and ease of use. Ledger would go on to become the highest-volume hardware wallet manufacturer in the world, though the company later drew controversy from the Bitcoin community over its key extraction firmware update in 2023.

Wikipedia: Ledger

### Opendime Ships (2016-04-27)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2016-04-27-opendime-ships

Coinkite ships the first batch of Opendime — the world's first Bitcoin bearer bond. A small USB stick that holds Bitcoin like a physical coin, Opendime can be passed from hand to hand without touching the blockchain until it's finally "unsealed" to spend.

Demonstrated as a "cyberpunk credstick" at launch, Opendime brought physical Bitcoin transactions to life. Each unit generates a private key internally that even the owner can't see until the device is physically broken open, making trustless in-person Bitcoin transfers possible for the first time.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.
opendime.com

### Antminer S9 Launches (2016-06-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2016-06-01-antminer-s9-launches

Bitmain releases the Antminer S9 — the first 16nm ASIC miner, delivering 14 TH/s. It became the most iconic and longest-lived Bitcoin miner ever built, securing the network through the 2017 bull run, the 2018 bear market, and well into 2020.

The S9's efficiency was so far ahead of its time that it remained profitable for nearly five years — an eternity in mining hardware. At its peak, S9s represented the majority of Bitcoin's global hashrate. Even after retirement from large farms, S9s found second lives heating homes and greenhouses.

Wikipedia: Bitmain

### Coldcard makes its debut (2017-12-14)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-12-14-coldcard-makes-its-debut

On this day in 2017, the world's most trusted and secure bitcoin hardware wallet, the Coldcard, was first announced by Coinkite. Built from the ground up as a Bitcoin-only signing device, Coldcard introduced an air-gapped, open-source architecture with a secure element, PSBT support, and no USB data connection required. Its paranoid security model -- including brick-me PINs, duress wallets, and fully verifiable firmware -- set a new standard for hardware wallet design and inspired an entire generation of signing devices.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.

### BLOCKCLOCK Launched (2018-11-29)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2018-11-29-blockclock-launched

Coinkite launches the original BLOCKCLOCK — a limited edition electromechanical display built to celebrate Bitcoin's 10-year anniversary. Only 500 serialized units were made, priced at 1 BTC each (roughly $4,000 at the time). Each unit was individually soldered, inspected, and hand-assembled.

The BLOCKCLOCK displays the current Bitcoin price, block height, and other blockchain data on split-flap digits. It became an iconic piece of Bitcoin culture, later famously spotted behind Jack Dorsey during his Congressional testimony. Coinkite followed up with the more affordable BLOCKCLOCK Mini and Micro for wider adoption.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.
getblockclock.com

### COLDCARD Mk3 (2019-08-26)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2019-08-26-coldcard-mk3

Coinkite announces the COLDCARD Mk3, a major hardware upgrade to the Bitcoin-only signing device. The Mk3 introduced a second secure element for additional protection, making it significantly harder to compromise the device's private key storage.

The Mk3 cemented COLDCARD's reputation as the most security-focused Bitcoin hardware wallet on the market. Its air-gapped design, PSBT support, and duress PIN features set the standard that other hardware wallets would try to match.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.
coldcard.com

### Antminer S19 Launches (2020-03-23)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-03-23-antminer-s19-launches

Bitmain opens sales for the Antminer S19 series, delivering 95-110 TH/s with dramatically improved energy efficiency. Both models sold out in under 24 hours, with first shipments scheduled for May 11 — the exact date of Bitcoin's third halving.

The S19 series powered the mining industry through the institutional adoption era, the 2021 bull run, and China's mining ban. The timing of its launch — right as COVID crashed markets and just before the halving — made it one of the most consequential miner releases in Bitcoin history.

Wikipedia: Bitmain

### SEEDPLATE Launched (2020-05-05)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-05-05-seedplate-launched

Coinkite launches SEEDPLATE, a stainless steel plate for stamping Bitcoin seed words as a fireproof, waterproof, and crush-resistant metal backup. The simple, no-nonsense design reflected Coinkite's philosophy: Bitcoin security doesn't need to be complicated.

SEEDPLATE became one of the most popular metal backup solutions in the Bitcoin ecosystem, offering a durable alternative to paper seed phrase backups that could be destroyed by fire, flood, or time.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.
SEEDPLATE at the Coinkite Store

### Bitcoin ATMs Reach 30,000 Worldwide (2021-10-07)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-10-07-bitcoin-atms-reach-30000-worldwide

The number of Bitcoin ATMs installed globally crosses 30,000, with the United States hosting over 80% of them. From the first Bitcoin ATM in a Vancouver coffee shop in 2013 to tens of thousands across gas stations, malls, and convenience stores, Bitcoin ATMs become the on-ramp for millions of people who prefer buying with cash or lack traditional bank accounts. The rapid growth reflects Bitcoin's expanding retail adoption beyond tech-savvy early adopters.

Coin ATM Radar

### COLDCARD Mk4 (2022-01-23)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-01-23-coldcard-mk4

Coinkite announces the COLDCARD Mk4 with early-bird reservations. The Mk4 brought a complete redesign with USB-C, NFC tap-to-sign capability, a faster processor, and a third secure element — making it the most hardened Bitcoin signing device ever built.

The Mk4 also introduced Virtual Disk mode for easier PSBT file transfer and expanded multisig support. NFC tap-to-sign meant users could sign transactions by simply tapping their phone, while maintaining full air-gap security.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.
coldcard.com

### SATSCARD & TAPSIGNER (2022-01-24)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-01-24-satscard-tapsigner

Coinkite announces SATSCARD and TAPSIGNER — two NFC card products that bring Bitcoin to the tap-and-go form factor. SATSCARD is a reloadable Opendime in card form with ten address slots, while TAPSIGNER is a signing device the size of a credit card.

SATSCARD lets you load Bitcoin onto a card and hand it to someone as a bearer instrument — tap to verify, break the seal to sweep. TAPSIGNER turns any NFC-enabled phone into a hardware wallet interface. Both products made Bitcoin self-custody more accessible and physical than ever before.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.
SATSCARD | TAPSIGNER

### Bitaxe Created (2023-01-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2023-01-01-bitaxe-created

Engineer Skot creates the Bitaxe — the first open-source ASIC Bitcoin miner — by reverse-engineering a commercial Bitmain chip and building fully open hardware and firmware (AxeOS) around it. A compact, low-power board that solo mines over Wi-Fi, no computer required.

Bitaxe brought the cypherpunk ethos back to Bitcoin mining. While industrial miners dominated hashrate, Bitaxe proved that anyone could participate in securing the network from home. Multiple solo Bitaxe operators have found full blocks, with combined payouts exceeding $1 million — lottery-ticket mining made real.

Bitaxe on GitHub

### COLDCARD Q Announced (2023-02-09)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2023-02-09-coldcard-q-announced

Coinkite opens early-bird reservations for the COLDCARD Q — a completely new form factor featuring a full QWERTY keyboard, a large LCD screen, and a QR code scanner. The Q was designed for power users who wanted a more capable air-gapped signing experience.

With its built-in camera for scanning QR-based PSBTs, the COLDCARD Q eliminated the need for microSD cards entirely for transaction signing. The larger screen and keyboard also made seed phrase entry, passphrase management, and multisig setup dramatically easier.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.
coldcard.com

### NFC PushTx (2024-06-26)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2024-06-26-nfc-pushtx

Coinkite releases NFC PushTx for COLDCARD Mk4 and Q — tap your COLDCARD to your phone to broadcast a signed Bitcoin transaction directly to the blockchain. No apps, no computer, no wallet software required.

PushTx encodes the complete signed transaction into a URL served over NFC. When you tap your phone on the COLDCARD, your browser opens and the transaction is immediately broadcast via mempool.space or coldcard.com. It's the simplest possible path from air-gapped signing to on-chain confirmation — one tap.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.
coldcard.com/pushtx

### COLDCARD Co-Sign & Key Teleport (2025-04-17)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2025-04-17-coldcard-co-sign-key-teleport

Coinkite releases COLDCARD Co-Sign (CCC) and Key Teleport — turning COLDCARD into a collaborative multisig HSM with no centralized servers. CCC adds a Spending Policy Key that enforces rules like magnitude limits, velocity limits, address whitelisting, and 2FA directly in hardware.

Key Teleport lets you securely transfer seeds, Seed Vault entries, secure notes, multisig PSBTs, and full device backups between COLDCARD Q devices using QR codes or NFC via the keyteleport.com helper site. After signing a multisig PSBT, you can teleport it directly to the next signer — no USB drives, no SD cards, no trust required.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.
Key Teleport docs

### COLDCARD Mk5 (2026-03-10)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2026-03-10-coldcard-mk5

Coinkite introduces the COLDCARD Mk5, the latest generation of the most trusted Bitcoin signing device. Building on the Mk4's security foundation, the Mk5 continues Coinkite's tradition of iterating on hardware security for Bitcoin self-custody.

Since the original COLDCARD debuted in December 2017, Coinkite has shipped five generations of the device — each one raising the bar for what a Bitcoin hardware wallet should be.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.
coldcard.com

## Protocol & Technical

### Diffie-Hellman day (1976-11-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/1976-11-01-diffie-hellman-day

In November 1976, Whitfield Diffie and Martin E. Hellman published "New Directions in Cryptography" in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory -- a paper that revolutionized the field by introducing the concept of public-key cryptography and the first practical key exchange protocol. Their breakthrough made it possible for two parties to establish a shared secret over an insecure channel without prior communication. This foundational work underpins virtually all modern secure communication, including SSL/TLS, SSH, and critically, the elliptic curve cryptography that secures every Bitcoin transaction.

Read their 1976 paper titled "New Directions in Cryptography" here.

### A Cypherpunk's Manifesto (1993-03-09)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/1993-03-09-a-cypherpunks-manifesto

Eric Hughes publishes "A Cypherpunk's Manifesto," laying out the philosophical foundation for the movement that would eventually produce Bitcoin. The manifesto declared: "Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age."

The cypherpunks mailing list, founded in late 1992 by Hughes, Timothy C. May, and John Gilmore, became the breeding ground for ideas about digital cash, cryptographic protocols, and privacy-preserving technology that directly influenced Satoshi Nakamoto's design.

Read the manifesto

### Hashcash Invented (1997-03-28)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/1997-03-28-hashcash-invented

Adam Back proposes Hashcash, a proof-of-work system originally designed to limit email spam and denial-of-service attacks. The concept required a sender to perform a computational task before sending a message, making mass spam economically impractical.

Hashcash's proof-of-work mechanism became a direct ancestor of Bitcoin's mining algorithm. Satoshi Nakamoto cited Hashcash in the Bitcoin whitepaper, and Adam Back was one of the first people Satoshi contacted before publishing the paper.

Read the Hashcash paper

### b-money Proposal (1998-11-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/1998-11-01-b-money-proposal

Wei Dai publishes the b-money proposal on the cypherpunks mailing list, describing for the first time a system of electronic cash that cannot be regulated by governments. The proposal outlined two protocols for maintaining a distributed ledger of account balances using proof of work.

b-money was cited as the first reference in the Bitcoin whitepaper. Satoshi Nakamoto emailed Wei Dai before publishing the paper, and the smallest unit of Bitcoin's predecessor currency was named after him in spirit.

Read the b-money proposal

### RPOW Launched (2004-08-15)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2004-08-15-rpow-launched

Hal Finney launches RPOW (Reusable Proofs of Work), a system that allowed proof-of-work tokens to be reused as a form of digital cash. RPOW was the first working implementation of a transferable proof-of-work system.

Finney, a legendary cypherpunk and key PGP developer, would later become the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi Nakamoto. RPOW demonstrated many concepts that Bitcoin would refine, including using proof of work as a basis for digital value.

RPOW archived at Nakamoto Institute

### Bitcoin.org Registered (2008-08-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2008-08-18-bitcoinorg-registered

Satoshi Nakamoto registered Bitcoin.org using Anonymousspeech.com, a privacy-focused domain registration service, on August 18, 2008 -- over two months before the official release of the Bitcoin whitepaper on October 31. It is the earliest known public timestamp associated with the inception of Bitcoin, suggesting Satoshi had been working on the project well before going public. The domain would host the whitepaper, software downloads, and serve as Bitcoin’s home on the internet for years to come.

bitcoin.org

### Satoshi Emails Adam Back For Hashcash Citation (2008-08-20)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2008-08-20-satoshi-emails-adam-back-for-hashcash-citation

Satoshi Nakamoto contacted Adam Back on this day to let Adam Back know about the whitepaper Satoshi was working on and to confirm the correct citation information for Adam Back's Hashcash paper, which describes Proof of Work, as used by Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Wiki: Genesis block

### Bitcoin Whitepaper Day (2008-10-31)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2008-10-31-bitcoin-whitepaper-day

Satoshi Nakamoto releases the Bitcoin white paper to the cryptography mailing list, marking its official introduction into the world. Satoshi introduces Bitcoin as an electronic cash system with several important properties: double-spending is prevented with a peer-to-peer network; no mint or other trusted parties; participants can be anonymous; new coins are made from Hashcash style proof-of-work; the proof-of-work for new coin generation also powers the network to prevent double-spending.

The Bitcoin whitepaper can be viewed here.

### The Bitcoin Mailing List Begins (2008-12-10)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2008-12-10-the-bitcoin-mailing-list-begins

Satoshi Nakamoto began the Bitcoin mailing list on http://sourceforge.net with the message

"Welcome to the Bitcoin mailing list!"

It has since morphed into the Bitcoin Development Mailing List we now know today on: https://groups.google.com/g/bitcoindev

Satoshi's original announcement on the cryptography mailing list

### Bitcoin's birthday! (2009-01-03)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2009-01-03-bitcoins-birthday

The Genesis Block is mined by Satoshi Nakamoto. This is the official birth of the Bitcoin Blockchain. A genesis block is the first block of a block chain. It is a special case in that it does not reference a previous block, and for Bitcoin and almost all of its derivatives, it produces an unspendable subsidy (a 50 Bitcoin block reward). The genesis block famously contains the dated title of a newspaper article in The Times: The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.

View the genesis block here.

### Running Bitcoin Day! (2009-01-10)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2009-01-10-running-bitcoin-day

On this day in 2009, Hal Finney posted the legendary tweet "Running bitcoin" -- just seven days after Satoshi mined the genesis block. Finney, a renowned cryptographer, cypherpunk, and creator of the first reusable proof-of-work system (RPOW), was the first person besides Satoshi to run the Bitcoin software. The next day, Satoshi sent him the first-ever Bitcoin transaction: 10 BTC in block 170. Hal's two-word tweet is now considered one of the most iconic moments in Bitcoin's history, and Hal is forever memorialized as a true icon of the movement.

View the original tweet here.

### Genesis Transaction Day (2009-01-11)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2009-01-11-genesis-transaction-day

On this day in 2009, the first transaction ever broadcast over the Bitcoin network was sent by Satoshi Nakamoto to Hal Finney in block 170. Satoshi sent 10 BTC to Hal, who was the first person besides Satoshi to run the Bitcoin software. This transaction proved that peer-to-peer electronic cash transfers worked as described in the whitepaper. Hal Finney, a renowned cryptographer and cypherpunk, had replied "Running bitcoin" on Twitter just the day before.

View the genesis transaction here.

### GPU Mining Begins (2010-07-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-07-18-gpu-mining-begins

Laszlo Hanyecz -- the same man who bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC -- publishes the first working GPU mining code for Bitcoin, proving that graphics cards could mine vastly more efficiently than CPUs. The release triggered an arms race that saw Bitcoin's hashrate explode by orders of magnitude. GPU mining democratized and intensified competition simultaneously, as anyone with a gaming PC could now mine far more effectively. This marked the beginning of the end for CPU mining and foreshadowed the eventual transition to dedicated ASIC hardware that would transform Bitcoin mining into an industrial-scale operation.

BitcoinTalk: GPU Mining Thread

### Value Overflow Incident (2010-08-15)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-08-15-value-overflow-incident

A critical bug creates 184 billion BTC in a single transaction. Satoshi Nakamoto quickly releases a patch and the blockchain is soft-forked to remove the invalid transaction. The only time the 21 million cap was technically breached.

Bitcoin Wiki: Value overflow incident

### #Bitcoin Channel Created on IRC (2010-10-07)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-10-07-bitcoin-channel-created-on-irc

The #bitcoin channel is created on the Freenode IRC network, establishing the first dedicated real-time chat community for Bitcoin developers and enthusiasts. IRC became the primary coordination hub for Bitcoin's early development, where core developers discussed protocol changes, users reported bugs, and newcomers learned about the technology. The channel fostered the collaborative culture that would define Bitcoin's open-source community. As Bitcoin grew, communication eventually spread to forums, Twitter, and other platforms, but IRC remained a home base for technical discussion for years.

Bitcoin Wiki: IRC Channels

### First Bitcoin Mining Pool (2010-12-16)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-12-16-first-bitcoin-mining-pool

Slush Pool (now Braiins Pool), the world's first Bitcoin mining pool, mines its first block. Created by Marek "Slush" Palatinus in the Czech Republic, the pool pioneers the concept of combining hashrate from multiple small miners to compete for block rewards, which are then split proportionally. Before pooled mining, solo miners with modest hardware had almost no chance of earning rewards. Slush Pool democratizes mining and remains operational to this day.

Braiins Pool

### Bitcoin Reaches 10,000 Users (2011-03-06)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-03-06-bitcoin-reaches-10000-users

The number of unique Bitcoin addresses with a non-zero balance crosses the 10,000 mark, a milestone that demonstrated growing adoption of the then-obscure digital currency. Just two years after Satoshi mined the genesis block, Bitcoin had grown from a single node to a global network of thousands of participants. While 10,000 addresses does not equal 10,000 users (one person can hold many addresses), it represented a meaningful threshold in the network's growth. By 2025, the number of non-zero addresses would surpass 50 million.

BitInfoCharts: Bitcoin Address Statistics

### Bitcoin Fog Launches (2011-09-27)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-09-27-bitcoin-fog-launches

Bitcoin Fog, the first major Bitcoin mixing and tumbling service, goes live on the dark web. The service allows users to obscure the origin of their Bitcoin transactions by pooling and redistributing coins among multiple users. It sparks an ongoing debate about financial privacy versus money laundering that continues to this day. Bitcoin Fog operates for nearly a decade before its alleged operator, Roman Sterlingov, is arrested by the IRS in 2021 and later convicted.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin Fog

### Litecoin Launches (2011-10-07)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-10-07-litecoin-launches

Former Google engineer Charlie Lee releases Litecoin, branding it "the silver to Bitcoin's gold." Based on Bitcoin's codebase but using the Scrypt hashing algorithm instead of SHA-256, Litecoin offers faster 2.5-minute block times and a supply cap of 84 million coins. It becomes the first major Bitcoin fork to gain significant traction and market capitalization. Litecoin later serves as a testbed for technologies like SegWit and Lightning Network before they activate on Bitcoin.

Wikipedia: Litecoin

### CoinJoin Concept Published (2013-01-15)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-01-15-coinjoin-concept-published

Gregory Maxwell publishes the CoinJoin concept on the Bitcoin Forum — a method for multiple users to combine their transactions into one, improving privacy without requiring any changes to the Bitcoin protocol. The foundation of Bitcoin privacy technology.

Original CoinJoin post on BitcoinTalk

### 24 block rollback (2013-03-12)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-03-12-24-block-rollback

On this day, versions 0.7 and 0.8 of the Bitcoin reference client software diverged from each other in behavior due to a bug, causing the block chain to “fork” into two. A fast response from the developers, community, miners, and services orchestrated a rollback of 24 blocks, preventing a fork in the Bitcoin network.

Bitcoin Wiki: BIP 50 — March 2013 Chain Fork

### XT Fork Controversy (2015-08-15)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2015-08-15-xt-fork-controversy

Mike Hearn and Gavin Andresen release Bitcoin XT, the first serious attempt to fork Bitcoin by increasing the block size from 1 MB to 8 MB. The release ignited the "block size war" that would consume the Bitcoin community for the next two years. Supporters argued larger blocks were needed to scale Bitcoin as a payment system, while opponents warned it would centralize the network by making nodes more expensive to run. Bitcoin XT ultimately failed to gain sufficient miner support. The debate laid the groundwork for SegWit, the Lightning Network, and the eventual Bitcoin Cash fork in 2017.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin XT

### Network Hashrate Exceeds 1 Exahash (2016-01-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2016-01-01-network-hashrate-exceeds-1-exahash

Bitcoin's network hashrate surpasses 1 exahash per second (1,000,000,000,000,000,000 hashes per second) around the start of 2016. A milestone in computational security that makes the network effectively impossible to attack through raw computing power. To put it in perspective, 1 EH/s represents more computational work than the combined power of the world's top 500 supercomputers. The hashrate had grown from effectively zero in January 2009 to this staggering figure in just seven years, driven by the evolution from CPU to GPU to ASIC mining.

Bitcoin Wiki: Hash per second

### Lightning Whitepaper Day (2016-01-14)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2016-01-14-lightning-whitepaper-day

Official release of the Lightning Network whitepaper by Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja. The whitepaper proposes scalable off-chain instant payments using a decentralized system, whereby transactions are sent over a network of micropayment channels whose transfer of value occurs off-blockchain.


Read the Lightning Network whitepaper here.

### Bitcoin Roundtable Consensus (2016-02-21)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2016-02-21-bitcoin-roundtable-consensus

Representatives from major Bitcoin mining pools and companies sign the "Hong Kong Agreement" at a roundtable meeting, pledging to implement Segregated Witness (SegWit) and work toward a hard fork to increase the base block size to 2 MB. The agreement was an attempt to resolve the contentious block size debate through compromise. However, the agreement quickly fell apart as different factions disagreed on the timeline and implementation details. The failure of the Hong Kong Consensus demonstrated that Bitcoin's decentralized governance cannot be captured by backroom deals -- a feature, not a bug.

Bitcoin Roundtable Consensus Statement

### First Lightning payment on LTC (2017-05-10)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-05-10-first-lightning-payment-on-ltc

Christian Decker of Blockstream made the first full, secure Lightning payment on a non-test network, and the first Lightning payment on Litecoin, sending a microscopic payment not normally possible or economic on a blockchain, fully settled in a fraction of a second. Early adopters using the lightning network on the mainnet instead of testnet with larger than needed amounts of Bitcoin, despite warnings that it was still experimental, led to the term "reckless" being used during this period in bitcoin's history.

This video documents the (most likely) first non-testnet Lightning channel being established on Litecoin.

### Bitcoin Cash Fork (2017-08-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-08-01-bitcoin-cash-fork

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) forks from Bitcoin at block 478,558, increasing the block size limit to 8 MB. The culmination of the blocksize war. Bitcoin keeps its 1 MB base blocks with SegWit, and the market eventually renders its verdict: BTC wins.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin Cash

### Bitcoin Independence Day (2017-08-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-08-01-bitcoin-independence-day

The official end of the Blocksize Wars. On August 1, 2017, Bitcoin users demonstrated their independence from miner control by successfully deploying a software upgrade through a user-activated soft fork (UASF) that circumvented uncooperative miners, making it clear that users (ie nodes), not miners or companies, control the rules of the Bitcoin network.


The Blocksize War (book by Jonathan Bier)

### SegWit Lock-in Day (2017-08-08)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-08-08-segwit-lock-in-day

Segregated Witness is officially locked in on the Bitcoin network after signaling threshold was reached during BIP 91 signaling period. The User Activated Soft Fork (UASF) movement, driven by node operators running the BIP 148 client, applied critical pressure on miners to signal support. After months of the blocksize war, SegWit lock-in at block 479,808 marked a decisive victory for Bitcoin's decentralized governance -- users, not miners or corporations, determined the protocol's direction. Activation would follow two weeks later on August 24.

Bitcoin Wiki: Segregated Witness

### Activation Day (2017-08-23)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-08-23-activation-day

On this day in 2017 at 1:57 UTC, Segregated Witness activated on the Bitcoin mainnet at block height 481,824. The upgrade, defined in BIP 141, fixed transaction malleability, increased effective block capacity, and laid the groundwork for the Lightning Network. SegWit activation was the hard-won culmination of the blocksize war -- a multi-year battle that proved Bitcoin's consensus rules are controlled by node-running users, not miners or corporations. The first SegWit transaction was mined in the very same block.

Bitcoin Wiki: Segregated Witness

### SegWit Activates on Mainnet (2017-08-24)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-08-24-segwit-activates-on-mainnet

Segregated Witness (BIP141) activates on Bitcoin mainnet at block 481,824 on August 24, 2017. The upgrade fixes transaction malleability, enables the Lightning Network, and effectively increases block capacity to approximately 2-4 MB through witness data discounting. The culmination of years of development and the blocksize war, SegWit's activation was a victory for backward-compatible soft forks and user-driven governance. The first SegWit transaction was included in the activation block itself, and adoption would grow steadily to over 80% of transactions in subsequent years.

BIP 141: Segregated Witness

### First On-Chain Atomic Swap (2017-09-23)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-09-23-first-on-chain-atomic-swap

The first successful on-chain atomic swap between Bitcoin and Litecoin is executed on September 23, 2017, by developer Charlie Lee (Litecoin's creator). Using hash time-locked contracts (HTLCs) enabled by SegWit, the swap proved that trustless cross-chain trading is possible without intermediaries or centralized exchanges. Decentralized exchange moved from theory to reality. While atomic swaps never achieved widespread retail adoption, they demonstrated a fundamental cryptographic principle: you don't need to trust anyone to trade.

Wikipedia: Atomic swap

### S2X Failure to Launch Day (2017-11-17)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-11-17-s2x-failure-to-launch-day

On this day in 2017, a group of miners decided to try to make the SegWit2X proposal work by continuing to mine, despite the abandonment of those who spearheaded it. Unsurprisingly, the poorly reviewed and rushed code had a major bug, and the S2X chain never produced a block.

Wikipedia: SegWit2x

### Lightning Pay Day (2018-01-08)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2018-01-08-lightning-pay-day

On this day in 2018, the first known real-world purchase over the Lightning Network was completed when a user paid for a TorGuard VPN subscription. The payment was made using an early Lightning implementation on Bitcoin mainnet, months before the official beta releases. Just as Laszlo's pizza purchase proved Bitcoin could work as money in 2010, this transaction proved that instant, near-zero-fee Bitcoin payments over Layer 2 were not just theoretical -- they were real and working.

Wikipedia: Lightning Network

### Lightning Network Goes Live on Mainnet (2018-03-14)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2018-03-14-lightning-network-goes-live-on-mainnet

Lightning Labs releases lnd 0.4-beta on March 14, 2018 (Pi Day), the first mainnet-ready Lightning Network implementation. Co-founded by Elizabeth Stark and Olaoluwa Osuntokun, Lightning Labs had been developing lnd since 2016. The beginning of Bitcoin's Layer 2 scaling era -- instant, near-free payments built on top of the most secure settlement layer ever created. ACINQ's eclair and Blockstream's c-lightning soon followed with their own mainnet releases, creating a diverse multi-implementation ecosystem.

lnd on GitHub

### China Mining Ban (2021-06-09)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-06-09-china-mining-ban

China's State Council declares a nationwide crackdown on Bitcoin mining, leading to the shutdown of mining operations across the country. At the time, China hosted approximately 65% of global Bitcoin hashrate. The ban triggered the largest hashrate migration in Bitcoin history, as miners scrambled to relocate equipment to the United States, Kazakhstan, Russia, and other countries. Bitcoin's hashrate plummeted by over 50% but fully recovered within six months -- a stunning demonstration of the network's resilience and decentralization. The exodus ultimately made Bitcoin mining more geographically distributed than ever.

BBC: China Declares All Crypto Transactions Illegal

### Taproot Activation (2021-11-14)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-11-14-taproot-activation

Taproot activates at block 709,632 — Bitcoin's biggest protocol upgrade since SegWit. Introduces Schnorr signatures, enabling more efficient multisig transactions, improved privacy, and the foundation for more advanced smart contracts on Bitcoin. Achieved through Speedy Trial activation.

BIP 341: Taproot

### Taproot Goes Live (2021-11-16)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-11-16-taproot-goes-live

The Taproot soft fork activates at block 709,632, Bitcoin's most significant protocol upgrade since SegWit in 2017. Taproot introduced Schnorr signatures, improving privacy, efficiency, and smart contract capabilities.

The upgrade made multisig transactions indistinguishable from single-sig transactions on-chain, enhanced Lightning Network channel opens, and laid the groundwork for more complex Bitcoin scripts. Notably, Taproot achieved activation through the Speedy Trial method after contentious debates about activation mechanisms.

Bitcoin Wiki: Taproot

### Jack Dorsey Funds Nostr (2022-12-15)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-12-15-jack-dorsey-funds-nostr

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey donates 14 BTC (approximately $245,000) to fiatjaf, the pseudonymous creator of Nostr, a decentralized social media protocol. Nostr (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) uses cryptographic keypairs instead of centralized accounts, making censorship nearly impossible. Bitcoiners flock to the protocol as a Twitter alternative, and Dorsey's funding accelerates development of clients like Damus and Primal. Nostr becomes the social layer Bitcoiners always wanted.

GitHub: Nostr Protocol

### Ordinals Protocol Launches (2023-01-13)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2023-01-13-ordinals-protocol-launches

Casey Rodarmor launches the Ordinals protocol on January 13, 2023, enabling arbitrary data (images, text, code) to be inscribed directly on individual satoshis using Bitcoin's SegWit and Taproot witness space. The first "Bitcoin NFTs" ignite a fierce debate about block space usage, fee market dynamics, and what Bitcoin is for. Supporters argued Ordinals increased miner revenue and proved Bitcoin's versatility; critics saw it as spam clogging the network. Either way, Ordinals drove a surge in transaction fees and renewed attention to Bitcoin's base layer.

Ordinals documentation

### BBQr Protocol (2023-11-23)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2023-11-23-bbqr-protocol

Coinkite proposes BBQr (Better Bitcoin QR) — an open protocol for encoding files too large for a single QR code into a series of animated QR codes that can cross air gaps. Designed primarily for PSBTs and signed Bitcoin transactions, but also supporting CBOR, JSON, and plain text.

Air-gapped Bitcoin wallets had long struggled with QR-based transaction signing — large multisig PSBTs simply didn't fit in one QR code. BBQr solved this with a clean, efficient encoding scheme that was quickly adopted across the ecosystem by wallets like BlueWallet, Sparrow, and Nunchuk.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.
bbqr.org

### One Billion Transactions (2024-05-05)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2024-05-05-one-billion-transactions

The Bitcoin network processes its one billionth transaction in block 842,241 at 9:34 PM UTC — 15 years, four months, and two days after Satoshi mined the genesis block.

Over its lifetime, the network averaged 178,475 daily transactions. The milestone came shortly after the fourth halving and amid record activity from ordinals and new Bitcoin protocols, demonstrating the network's enduring utility and growth.

mempool.space

## Culture & Community

### Bitcoin Pizza Day (2010-05-22)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-05-22-bitcoin-pizza-day

The first real world purchase in bitcoin was done by Lazlo Hanyecz, buying two pizzas from Jeremy Sturdivant for 10,000 bitcoin. The 10,000 bitcoin were quoted at $41 at the time of the offer. Bitcoiners celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day by ordering pizza.

Original BitcoinTalk post by Laszlo

### Bitcoin Faucet Launches (2010-06-11)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-06-11-bitcoin-faucet-launches

Gavin Andresen creates the famous Bitcoin Faucet, a website that gave away 5 BTC to every visitor simply for completing a captcha. At the time, Bitcoin had virtually no monetary value and Andresen wanted to spread awareness and distribution as widely as possible. The faucet gave away a total of 19,715 BTC before shutting down. Those free coins would eventually be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, making it one of the most generous giveaways in financial history.

Bitcoin Wiki: Faucet

### Believe Me Day (2010-07-29)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-07-29-believe-me-day

On July 29, 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto responded to a skeptic on the BitcoinTalk forum with this legendary line:

”If you don't believe me or don't get it, I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry.”

This quote has since become a core part of Bitcoin culture. It represents conviction, self-sovereignty, and the unapologetic belief in decentralization.

Original source on BitcoinTalk

### Bitcoin Logo Day (2010-11-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-11-01-bitcoin-logo-day

On this day in 2010, an anonymous artist using the handle "bitboy" shared one of the best brand images of all time for free on the BitcoinTalk forum. The iconic orange circle with a white "B" and two vertical strokes -- tilted 14 degrees clockwise -- became Bitcoin's universally recognized logo. Bitboy released the design into the public domain, asking for nothing in return. The logo has since appeared on millions of devices, signs, and products worldwide, a testament to open-source culture and the power of a great design released freely.

View the original post here.

### La Fuga - Satoshi's Final Message (2010-12-12)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2010-12-12-la-fuga-satoshis-final-message

On this day in 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto posted their final message on the BitcoinTalk forum, a brief post about DoS attack mitigation in Bitcoin software version 0.3.19. After this, Satoshi ceased all public communication with the Bitcoin community, never to be heard from again. The disappearance of Bitcoin's creator is one of the most remarkable acts in technology history -- voluntarily walking away from a creation that would grow to be worth trillions, ensuring Bitcoin would truly belong to no one.

Satoshi's last BitcoinTalk post

### Silk Road Day (2011-01-27)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-01-27-silk-road-day

The Silk Road marketplace went online on January 27, 2011, created by Ross Ulbricht under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts." A proof of concept for Bitcoin’s independence, censorship resistance, and pseudonymity, Silk Road was the first modern darknet market -- an online marketplace accessible only via Tor that used Bitcoin as its sole currency. While controversial, it demonstrated that Bitcoin could function as permissionless money beyond the reach of any government. By the time the FBI shut it down in October 2013, Silk Road had processed over 9.5 million BTC in transactions.

Wikipedia: Silk Road

### Stefan Thomas Locks 7,002 BTC (2011-02-10)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-02-10-stefan-thomas-locks-7002-btc

Programmer Stefan Thomas stores 7,002 BTC on an encrypted IronKey hardware device and loses the password. The IronKey allows only 10 password attempts before permanently encrypting the drive's contents forever. By the time the story gained widespread attention in 2021, the bitcoin was worth over $220 million and Thomas had already used 8 of his 10 guesses. With only 2 attempts remaining, Thomas has refrained from trying again, waiting for potential advances in cryptographic cracking. The tale became the definitive cautionary story about the importance of secure key management and backup procedures.

New York Times: Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Bitcoin

### TIME Covers Bitcoin (2011-04-16)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-04-16-time-covers-bitcoin

TIME Magazine publishes one of the first mainstream media articles about Bitcoin, titled "Online Cash Bitcoin Could Challenge Governments, Banks." The article introduced Bitcoin to millions of readers who had never heard of cryptocurrency.

The coverage helped spark Bitcoin's first major rally, with the price climbing from around $1 to over $30 within weeks. It also triggered the first wave of mainstream scrutiny, with questions about Bitcoin's legality, volatility, and potential for misuse.

TIME: Online Cash Bitcoin Could Challenge Governments

### Altcoin Genesis Day (2011-04-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-04-18-altcoin-genesis-day

On this day in 2011, the first altcoin, Namecoin, mined its genesis block. Namecoin (NMC) is a cryptocurrency originally forked from bitcoin software and it is also limited to 21 million coins. It is based on the code of bitcoin and uses the same proof-of-work algorithm.

Wikipedia: Namecoin

### Bitcoin in Good Hands (2011-04-23)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-04-23-bitcoin-in-good-hands

On this day in 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto sent their final known private communication -- an email to developer Mike Hearn stating that Bitcoin is "in good hands" and that Satoshi had "moved on to other things." This was the last confirmed message from Bitcoin's creator, sent over four months after the final public BitcoinTalk post in December 2010. Satoshi's graceful exit ensured Bitcoin had no leader, no figurehead, and no single point of failure -- a truly leaderless protocol.

Satoshi's email to Mike Hearn

### Gavin Andresen Presents to CIA (2011-06-14)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-06-14-gavin-andresen-presents-to-cia

Bitcoin's lead developer Gavin Andresen gives a presentation about Bitcoin to the CIA at In-Q-Tel, the intelligence agency's venture capital arm in Langley, Virginia. Andresen openly disclosed the visit to the Bitcoin community beforehand, sparking heated debate about whether engaging with US intelligence was wise or dangerous for the project. The visit highlighted Bitcoin's growing significance -- it had caught the attention of the world's most powerful intelligence agency barely two years after launch.

Wired: Bitcoin Developer Visits CIA

### WikiLeaks Accepts Bitcoin (2011-06-14)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-06-14-wikileaks-accepts-bitcoin

WikiLeaks begins accepting Bitcoin donations after being cut off from traditional payment processors including Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal. One of Bitcoin's first real-world demonstrations of censorship resistance. Satoshi had earlier discouraged WikiLeaks from using Bitcoin, calling it "the hornet's nest."

Satoshi's "hornet's nest" post on BitcoinTalk

### Mt. Gox Hack — Price Crashes to $0.01 (2011-06-19)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-06-19-mt-gox-hack-price-crashes-to-001

Mt. Gox suffers a major security breach. An attacker compromises an auditor's account and uses it to crash the Bitcoin price to $0.01 on the exchange, executing thousands of buy orders at a penny. Trading is halted and rolled back. The first major exchange security incident.

Wikipedia: Mt. Gox

### "Bitcoin Is Dead" — First Obituary (2011-06-20)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-06-20-bitcoin-is-dead-first-obituary

Underground Economist publishes one of the earliest prominent "Bitcoin is dead" articles on June 20, 2011, after the price crashes from its $31 peak toward $2. The article confidently declared Bitcoin a failed experiment. Bitcoin has been declared dead over 470 times since -- by Nobel laureates, JPMorgan's CEO, and countless journalists. It keeps not dying. The 99bitcoins.com Bitcoin Obituaries page tracks every obituary, serving as a monument to the world's worst predictions and a source of endless amusement for Bitcoiners.

Bitcoin Obituaries

### Len Sassaman Memorial (2011-07-26)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-07-26-len-sassaman-memorial

A tribute to cryptographer Len Sassaman is embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain at block 138,725 using an ASCII art portrait encoded in a transaction. Sassaman, a contributor to PGP and remailer technology, passed away on July 3rd. His work laid the groundwork for the privacy technologies that Bitcoin builds upon.

Wikipedia: Len Sassaman

### Coinkite Was Born #140,900 (2011-08-13)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2011-08-13-coinkite-was-born-140900

On this day in 2011, at Block 140,900, Coinkite was established by Rodolfo Novak (NVK) and Peter Gray in Toronto, Canada. Originally launched as a Bitcoin web wallet and payment processing platform, Coinkite evolved into a hardware-focused company responsible for some of the most trusted Bitcoin products in the world, including Coldcard, Opendime, BLOCKCLOCK, Satscard, Tapsigner, and Seedplate. Coinkite has remained Bitcoin-only since day one.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.

### "This Is Good For Bitcoin" (2012-03-30)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2012-03-30-this-is-good-for-bitcoin

Redditor Julian702 posts the first known usage of "This is good for Bitcoin" on r/bitcoin, unwittingly coining one of the internet's most enduring sarcastic phrases. The expression becomes the definitive response to every piece of bad news in the Bitcoin world — exchange hacks, government bans, price crashes, celebrity criticism. If it exists, it's good for Bitcoin. The meme perfectly captures Bitcoiners' irrepressible optimism in the face of everything.

Know Your Meme: This Is Good For Bitcoin

### SatoshiDice Launches (2012-04-24)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2012-04-24-satoshidice-launches

Erik Voorhees launches SatoshiDice, a provably fair bitcoin gambling site that used on-chain transactions for every bet. At its peak, SatoshiDice accounted for roughly half of all Bitcoin transactions, sparking debate about blockchain congestion and what constituted legitimate use of block space. The site demonstrated Bitcoin's power as a permissionless payment rail. In July 2013, Voorhees sold SatoshiDice for 126,315 BTC (about $11.5 million at the time), one of the largest bitcoin-denominated acquisitions in history.

Bitcoin Wiki: SatoshiDice

### Bitcoin Magazine First Issue (2012-05-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2012-05-01-bitcoin-magazine-first-issue

Vitalik Buterin and Mihai Alisie publish the first print issue of Bitcoin Magazine, the first serious publication dedicated entirely to cryptocurrency. The magazine brings journalistic credibility to Bitcoin coverage at a time when mainstream media largely ignores or mocks it. It becomes the go-to source for technical analysis, market commentary, and community news during Bitcoin's early growth years.

Bitcoin Magazine

### Bitcoin's First Ponzi Collapses (2012-08-17)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2012-08-17-bitcoins-first-ponzi-collapses

The "Bitcoin Savings & Trust" operated by a BitcoinTalk user known as pirateat40 (Trendon Shavers) shuts down after collecting an estimated 700,000 BTC from investors by promising 7% weekly returns. It was Bitcoin's first major Ponzi scheme and a harsh early lesson for the community about counterparty risk and the age-old adage: not your keys, not your coins. Shavers was eventually charged by the SEC and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in 2016.

Wikipedia: Trendon Shavers

### Bitcoin Foundation Launched (2012-09-27)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2012-09-27-bitcoin-foundation-launched

The Bitcoin Foundation is established with founding members including Gavin Andresen and Charlie Shrem, modeled after the Linux Foundation. Intended to promote Bitcoin development and adoption. Its influence would fade as Bitcoin proved it doesn't need a foundation.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin Foundation

### Magic Internet Money (2013-02-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-02-18-magic-internet-money

Redditor mavensbot creates the now-legendary MS Paint Bitcoin wizard ad for r/Bitcoin, advertising "Magic Internet Money" with a crude stick-figure wizard. The ad becomes the most successful cryptocurrency meme ever made, perfectly capturing Bitcoin's absurd-yet-unstoppable energy. It coincides with BTC's meteoric rise from $26 to over $1,000 that year. South Park pays homage in a November 2013 episode. The wizard endures as Bitcoin's unofficial mascot.

Know Your Meme: Magic Internet Money

### FinCEN Issues First Virtual Currency Guidance (2013-03-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-03-18-fincen-issues-first-virtual-currency-guidance

The US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issues its first regulatory guidance on virtual currencies, classifying Bitcoin exchanges and certain administrators as money services businesses subject to Bank Secrecy Act requirements. The guidance is a watershed moment -- the US government officially acknowledges Bitcoin exists and applies existing financial regulations to it. The ruling forces exchanges to implement KYC/AML procedures and shapes the regulatory landscape for years to come.

FinCEN Guidance FIN-2013-G001

### Shitcoin Day (2013-07-03)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-07-03-shitcoin-day

This day marks the beginning of the first ever “utility token” ICO, called Mastercoin (later rebranded as Omni). J.R. Willett's fundraiser raised approximately 5,000 BTC by promising a protocol layer on top of Bitcoin. Mastercoin pioneered the ICO model that would later spawn thousands of scam tokens during the 2017 bubble, collectively draining billions from retail investors. Bitcoiners mark this date as a cautionary reminder of why Bitcoin's lack of a pre-mine, ICO, or “founder's reward” matters.

Wikipedia: Omni Layer (Mastercoin)

### James Howells Throws Away 8,000 BTC (2013-08-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-08-01-james-howells-throws-away-8000-btc

Welsh IT worker James Howells accidentally throws away a hard drive containing the private keys to 8,000 BTC while cleaning out his office. The drive ended up in the Newport city landfill in Wales. By the time Howells realized his mistake, the bitcoin was worth millions and the city council refused to let him excavate the site, citing environmental regulations. Howells has spent years proposing increasingly elaborate recovery plans involving AI-powered robotic sorting systems, but as of 2025 the drive remains buried. The lost fortune grew to be worth over half a billion dollars.

BBC: Man's Bitcoin Fortune in Landfill

### Bitcoin Embassy Opens in Montreal (2013-08-26)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-08-26-bitcoin-embassy-opens-in-montreal

The world's first Bitcoin Embassy opens at 3485 St-Laurent Boulevard in Montreal, Canada. It becomes a hub for Bitcoin education, meetups, and advocacy, offering the public a physical space to learn about and buy Bitcoin. The Embassy hosts workshops, conferences, and developer meetups, helping to grow the Canadian Bitcoin community. The concept later inspires similar Bitcoin spaces in cities around the world.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin Embassy

### Bitcoin Time Traveler Post (2013-08-31)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-08-31-bitcoin-time-traveler-post

A Reddit user posting as u/Luka_Magnotta claims to be a time traveler from the year 2025, predicting Bitcoin will reach $1,000,000 and describing fortified "Bitcoin Citadels" where the wealthy protect themselves from the have-nots. The post's price predictions prove eerily accurate for several years running. The concept of Bitcoin Citadels becomes permanent lore in the community, referenced endlessly as both aspiration and warning.

Medium: The Bitcoin Time Traveler

### Free Ross Day (2013-10-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-10-01-free-ross-day

On October 1, 2013, Ross Ulbricht was arrested by the FBI at the Glen Park branch of the San Francisco Public Library for his role in creating and operating the Silk Road marketplace. He was later convicted and sentenced to two life terms plus 40 years without the possibility of parole -- all for non-violent offenses. The severity of the sentence galvanized the Bitcoin community and launched the Free Ross movement, which campaigned for over a decade until his pardon in January 2025.

freeross.org

### FBI Seizes Silk Road (2013-10-02)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-10-02-fbi-seizes-silk-road

The FBI shuts down Silk Road and arrests Ross Ulbricht, seizing approximately 26,000 BTC. The marketplace had demonstrated both Bitcoin's utility for censorship-resistant commerce and its challenges. Bitcoin's price briefly dips, then rallies — proving the network is bigger than any single use case.

Wikipedia: Silk Road

### Kristoffer Koch's $27 Fortune (2013-10-29)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-10-29-kristoffer-kochs-27-fortune

Norwegian student Kristoffer Koch makes international headlines after discovering that 5,000 BTC he purchased in 2009 for 150 Norwegian kroner (about $27) was now worth approximately $886,000. Koch had bought the bitcoin while writing a thesis on encryption and then completely forgotten about them. After a frantic search for his old password, he cashed out enough to buy an apartment in Oslo. The story became one of Bitcoin's most famous "what if" tales, inspiring countless others to take a closer look at the technology.

The Guardian: Man Buys Apartment with Forgotten Bitcoin

### U.S. Senate Bitcoin Hearing (2013-11-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-11-18-us-senate-bitcoin-hearing

The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security holds the first congressional hearing on Bitcoin, titled "Beyond Silk Road: Potential Risks, Threats, and Promises of Virtual Currencies." To the surprise of many, the tone was largely positive.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke submitted a letter stating virtual currencies "may hold long-term promise." The hearing helped legitimize Bitcoin in the eyes of lawmakers and investors, contributing to Bitcoin's rally past $1,000 for the first time just nine days later.

Senate hearing transcript

### Haters in Disbelief Day (2013-11-28)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-11-28-haters-in-disbelief-day

Bitcoin breaks four digits for the first time in 2013! On November 28, BTC surpassed $1,000 on the Mt. Gox exchange, fueled by surging Chinese demand on BTC China and growing global awareness. Mainstream media scrambled to explain what Bitcoin was. Critics dismissed it as a bubble. Hodlers celebrated. From under a penny in 2009 to $1,000 in four years -- a 10-million-x return that left doubters in complete disbelief.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### China's First Bitcoin Ban (2013-12-05)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-12-05-chinas-first-bitcoin-ban

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) issues a notice prohibiting Chinese financial institutions from handling Bitcoin transactions, declaring that BTC is "not a currency" and cannot be used as legal tender. The announcement sent Bitcoin's price crashing nearly 50% from its recent high of $1,150. This was the first of many Chinese crackdowns on Bitcoin, establishing a pattern that would repeat throughout the decade. Despite the ban, Chinese traders and miners continued to dominate the Bitcoin ecosystem for years.

BBC: China Bans Financial Institutions from Bitcoin

### HODL day (2013-12-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2013-12-18-hodl-day

On this day in 2013, a self-admittedly drunk user named GameKyuubi on the BitcoinTalk forum posted "I AM HODLING" -- a whiskey-fueled typo that birthed one of Bitcoin's most enduring memes. With BTC crashing from $1,100 to around $500, GameKyuubi declared he was a bad trader and would simply hold through the chaos. The misspelling "HODL" was immediately adopted by the community and retroactively backronymed as "Hold On for Dear Life." It remains the battle cry of every Bitcoiner who refuses to sell.

Read the original discussion, "I AM HODLING", here.

### Bitcoin Rainbow Chart Created (2014-01-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-01-01-bitcoin-rainbow-chart-created

Bitcointalk user Trolololo creates the logarithmic regression rainbow chart for Bitcoin's price, later colorized by fellow user azop. The chart maps BTC's long-term price trajectory into color bands ranging from "Basically a Fire Sale" (deep blue) to "Maximum Bubble Territory" (dark red). Despite carrying the disclaimer "this is not investment advice," it becomes one of Bitcoin's most shared price visualization tools and remains popular over a decade later.

Blockchain Center: Bitcoin Rainbow Chart

### Overstock Accepts Bitcoin (2014-01-09)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-01-09-overstock-accepts-bitcoin

Overstock.com becomes the first major online retailer to accept Bitcoin as payment, processing through Coinbase. CEO Patrick Byrne was a vocal Bitcoin advocate who saw it as a way to disrupt traditional finance.

In the first 21 hours, Overstock processed $124,000 in Bitcoin orders. This was a landmark moment for Bitcoin adoption, proving that mainstream e-commerce could integrate cryptocurrency payments at scale.

Wikipedia: Overstock.com

### Charlie Shrem Arrested (2014-01-26)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-01-26-charlie-shrem-arrested

Charlie Shrem, CEO of the bitcoin exchange BitInstant and a founding member of the Bitcoin Foundation, is arrested at JFK Airport on charges of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business linked to Silk Road transactions. Shrem was one of Bitcoin's most prominent early advocates and his arrest sent shockwaves through the community. He pleaded guilty and served two years in federal prison. The case underscored the regulatory risks facing early bitcoin entrepreneurs.

Wikipedia: Charlie Shrem

### I am not Dorian Nakamoto (2014-03-07)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-03-07-i-am-not-dorian-nakamoto

On this day in 2014, Satoshi Nakamoto's P2P Foundation account posted its first message in five years, stating simply: "I am not Dorian Nakamoto." The post came days after Newsweek ran a cover story claiming to have found Bitcoin's creator -- a 64-year-old Japanese-American man named Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto living in Temple City, California. The article was widely criticized for doxxing an innocent man. Whether the P2P Foundation post was actually from Satoshi or a compromised account remains debated.

P2P Foundation: Satoshi's post

### IRS Declares Bitcoin Property (2014-03-25)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-03-25-irs-declares-bitcoin-property

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service issues Notice 2014-21, ruling that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are to be treated as property for federal tax purposes, not as currency. This meant capital gains tax applied to every Bitcoin transaction.

The ruling had massive implications: every purchase with Bitcoin became a taxable event. While it legitimized Bitcoin in the eyes of U.S. regulators, it also made using Bitcoin as everyday currency significantly more burdensome.

IRS Virtual Currency Guidance

### Dell Accepts Bitcoin (2014-07-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-07-18-dell-accepts-bitcoin

Dell, with annual revenue of $57 billion, begins accepting Bitcoin through a partnership with Coinbase, making it the largest company in the world to accept Bitcoin payments at the time.

The announcement was a major milestone for Bitcoin legitimacy. Michael Dell personally championed the move. Though Dell later quietly dropped Bitcoin support, the moment proved that even Fortune 50 companies could integrate Bitcoin into their payment infrastructure.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Hal Finney's Passing (2014-08-28)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-08-28-hal-finneys-passing

Hal Finney, the first person to receive a Bitcoin transaction (from Satoshi), cypherpunk legend, PGP contributor, and creator of Reusable Proofs of Work, passes away from ALS. He was cryopreserved. His final Bitcoin Forum post: "I am pretty lucky overall."

Hal Finney's last BitcoinTalk post

### Butterfly Labs Shut Down by FTC (2014-09-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-09-18-butterfly-labs-shut-down-by-ftc

The Federal Trade Commission shuts down Kansas-based Butterfly Labs for deceptive business practices. The company took over $50 million in pre-orders for ASIC Bitcoin miners but was caught mining with customers' hardware before shipping it -- often months or years late. Over 500 customer complaints piled up. The case becomes a cautionary tale about trusting third parties in the mining hardware gold rush and the dangers of pre-order mania.

FTC Press Release

### First Bitcoin Wedding (2014-09-27)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-09-27-first-bitcoin-wedding

David Mondrus and Joyce Bayo become the first couple to record their marriage on the Bitcoin blockchain at the Coins in the Kingdom conference held at Disney World in Orlando. The ceremony uses a Bitcoin transaction to permanently timestamp their vows on the most immutable ledger ever created. The event captures media attention worldwide and becomes one of Bitcoin's most memorable cultural moments.

CoinDesk: Bitcoin Wedding

### Satoshi Nakamoto Statue Unveiled in Budapest (2014-10-31)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-10-31-satoshi-nakamoto-statue-unveiled-in-budapest

Hungary unveils the world's first physical statue of Satoshi Nakamoto in Budapest's Graphisoft Park. The bronze figure features a featureless, polished reflective face -- because Satoshi could be anyone. Created by sculptors Reka Gergely and Tamas Gilly, the statue is funded by Bitcoin community donations. Visitors see their own face reflected in Satoshi's, reinforcing the idea that Bitcoin belongs to everyone and no single identity. It stands as a monument to pseudonymous innovation.

Wikipedia: Statue of Satoshi Nakamoto

### This is Gentlemen! (2014-11-11)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-11-11-this-is-gentlemen

On this day in 2014, an overexcited Reddit user in the r/BitcoinMarkets daily discussion posted "This is gentlemen" -- accidentally omitting the word "it" from the phrase "This is it, gentlemen." The typo, made during a modest price uptick in an otherwise brutal bear market, was instantly iconic. The Bitcoin community adopted "This is gentlemen" as an ironic rallying cry, deployed whenever the price shows any sign of life. It lives alongside "HODL" and "Have fun staying poor" in the pantheon of Bitcoin's accidental meme canon.

Read the Reddit daily discussion on Bitcoin Markets here.

### Microsoft Accepts Bitcoin (2014-12-11)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-12-11-microsoft-accepts-bitcoin

Microsoft begins accepting Bitcoin payments for Xbox games, apps, and Windows software through a partnership with BitPay. One of the largest companies in the world acknowledging Bitcoin as a payment method -- at a time when BTC was trading around $350, deep in the post-Mt. Gox bear market. Microsoft's move signaled that major corporations were willing to integrate Bitcoin despite the price downturn, lending credibility when the community needed it most.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Mastering Bitcoin Published (2014-12-20)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2014-12-20-mastering-bitcoin-published

Andreas Antonopoulos publishes "Mastering Bitcoin," the definitive technical guide to how Bitcoin works under the hood. Released for free on GitHub under an open-source license, the book explains transactions, mining, the blockchain, and the scripting language in rigorous detail. It becomes the most important Bitcoin education resource ever written, translated into dozens of languages, and is still recommended to every new developer entering the space.

GitHub: Mastering Bitcoin

### Scaling Bitcoin Conference (2015-06-22)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2015-06-22-scaling-bitcoin-conference

The first Scaling Bitcoin conference is held in Montreal, bringing together developers and researchers to address Bitcoin's scalability challenges. The block size debate had reached a fever pitch, and this conference aimed to find technical solutions through rigorous academic process.

The conference series became a critical venue for discussing proposals like SegWit, the Lightning Network, and other layer-2 solutions. It demonstrated Bitcoin's unique governance model: no single entity decides, but the best technical ideas eventually win.

scalingbitcoin.org

### EU Rules Bitcoin VAT-Exempt (2015-10-22)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2015-10-22-eu-rules-bitcoin-vat-exempt

The European Court of Justice rules that exchanging Bitcoin for traditional currencies is exempt from value-added tax (VAT) across all EU member states, classifying it as a currency rather than a commodity or service. The landmark decision in the Hedqvist case meant that buying and selling bitcoin in Europe would not incur the same tax burden as purchasing goods. The ruling was a major win for Bitcoin's legitimacy in Europe and set a precedent that influenced how other jurisdictions approached cryptocurrency taxation.

CJEU: Hedqvist Decision (C-264/14)

### The Trust Machine (2015-10-31)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2015-10-31-the-trust-machine

The Economist publishes its iconic cover story "The Trust Machine," introducing blockchain technology to mainstream audiences. The cover featured Bitcoin's blockchain as a technology that could transform how the world does business.

Published on Halloween — the anniversary of the Bitcoin whitepaper — the article marked a turning point in how legacy media covered Bitcoin, shifting the narrative from "criminal currency" to "revolutionary technology."

The Economist: The Trust Machine

### WIRED and Gizmodo Identify Craig Wright (2015-12-08)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2015-12-08-wired-and-gizmodo-identify-craig-wright

WIRED and Gizmodo simultaneously publish investigations claiming Australian businessman Craig Wright is likely Satoshi Nakamoto, based on leaked emails, legal documents, and blog posts. Within hours, Australian Federal Police raid Wright's home and offices (for unrelated tax matters). The Bitcoin community is skeptical from the start, noting inconsistencies in the evidence. Subsequent analysis reveals some documents were backdated or fabricated. The story launches years of controversy that culminates in Wright's claims being rejected by a UK court in 2024.

WIRED: Bitcoin's Creator

### Craig Wright Claims to Be Satoshi (2016-05-02)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2016-05-02-craig-wright-claims-to-be-satoshi

Australian computer scientist Craig Wright publicly claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto in coordinated interviews with the BBC, The Economist, and GQ. Bitcoin Core developer Gavin Andresen initially supports the claim, saying he believes Wright demonstrated proof in a private signing session. However, the broader community rejects it after Wright fails to provide verifiable cryptographic proof on-chain. The episode damages Andresen's credibility and begins Wright's years-long legal crusade that a UK court ultimately rejects in 2024.

Wikipedia: Craig Steven Wright

### The DAO Hack (2016-06-17)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2016-06-17-the-dao-hack

An attacker drains 3.6 million ETH (~$50M) from "The DAO" smart contract on Ethereum. The resulting hard fork to reverse the theft splits Ethereum into ETH and ETC — proving that "immutable" blockchains aren't when humans decide otherwise. Bitcoin's refusal to ever roll back transactions looks increasingly wise.

Wikipedia: The DAO

### Bitconneeeeeeeeect! (2016-11-15)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2016-11-15-bitconneeeeeeeeect

This day marks the launch of the BitConnect ICO, which was without question the most entertaining and popcorn-consuming scam produced in the 2016-2017 ICO bubble. BitConnect promised 1% daily returns through a "trading bot" that was pure fiction. At its peak, BCC tokens reached a market cap of over $2.6 billion. The scheme collapsed in January 2018. Carlos Matos' unhinged "BITCONNEEEEECT!" keynote at a 2017 conference became one of Bitcoin culture's most legendary memes.

View the infamous event here.

### Japan Recognizes Bitcoin as Legal Payment (2017-04-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-04-01-japan-recognizes-bitcoin-as-legal-payment

Japan's Payment Services Act comes into effect, officially recognizing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as legal methods of payment. Japan becomes one of the first major economies to establish a clear legal framework for Bitcoin.

Wikipedia: Legality of cryptocurrency by country

### NY Disagreement Day (2017-05-23)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-05-23-ny-disagreement-day

The Bitcoin Scaling Agreement, better known as the New York Agreement, proposed jointly by over 50 companies at Consensus 2017, provoked the 2017 blocksize war. The New York Agreement intended to put an end to Bitcoin’s long-lasting scaling debate by increasing the block capacity through activating Segregated Witness and doubling the block size (ie SegWit2X).

Bitcoin Wiki: New York Agreement

### ₿ — Bitcoin Gets a Unicode Symbol (2017-06-21)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-06-21-bitcoin-gets-a-unicode-symbol

The Bitcoin symbol ₿ is officially encoded in Unicode 10.0 at position U+20BF on June 21, 2017. Bitcoin joins the ranks of $, €, £, and ¥ as a currency with its own Unicode character. The proposal was championed by Ken Shirriff and others starting in 2015. Having ₿ in Unicode meant every computer, phone, and operating system in the world could natively render the Bitcoin currency symbol -- a small but significant step toward Bitcoin being treated as a legitimate global currency rather than a niche internet experiment.

Unicode Currency Symbols chart

### Bitcoin Sign Guy (2017-07-12)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-07-12-bitcoin-sign-guy

Christian Langalis holds up a yellow notepad reading "Buy Bitcoin" behind Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen during her Congressional testimony on live television. The image goes instantly viral. The Bitcoin community donates over 7 BTC to his public address in gratitude. Langalis becomes a folk hero, and the original sign later sells at auction for $1 million in 2024 — proving the sign's own advice was sound.

CNBC: Buy Bitcoin Sign at Yellen Testimony

### McAfee's Bitcoin Bet (2017-07-17)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-07-17-mcafees-bitcoin-bet

John McAfee tweets that if Bitcoin doesn't hit $500,000 by the end of 2020, he will eat his own dick on national television. He later doubles down, raising the target to $1 million. The deadline — December 31, 2020 — becomes known as "The Dickening." Bitcoin ends 2020 at $29,000, nowhere close. McAfee eventually admits he never believed the prediction and is found dead in a Spanish prison in June 2021.

McAfee's Original Tweet

### China Bans ICOs (2017-09-04)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-09-04-china-bans-icos

The People's Bank of China declares all Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fundraising activities illegal, ordering an immediate halt and demanding refunds for completed token sales. The ban triggered a massive market crash, with Bitcoin falling from $4,700 to under $3,500 within days. Dozens of ICO projects were forced to return funds to Chinese investors. The crackdown was part of a broader Chinese regulatory assault on cryptocurrency that would intensify over the following years, eventually culminating in a full mining ban in 2021.

BBC: China Bans Initial Coin Offerings

### Steam Drops Bitcoin (2017-12-07)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2017-12-07-steam-drops-bitcoin

Valve Corporation announces that Steam, the world's largest PC gaming platform, will stop accepting Bitcoin as payment for games. Valve cited extreme price volatility and high transaction fees as the reasons, noting that fees had risen to nearly $20 per transaction during the 2017 bull run. Steam had first begun accepting Bitcoin in April 2016 through BitPay. The move became a cautionary example for Bitcoin critics and a rallying cry for those building the Lightning Network as a solution to on-chain scaling challenges.

Steam: Removing Bitcoin Payment Option

### Lightning Pizza Day (2018-02-25)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2018-02-25-lightning-pizza-day

Eight years after buying two pizzas for 10,000 BTC in the first real-world bitcoin purchase, Laszlo Hanyecz returned to buy pizza again -- this time over the Lightning Network. Laszlo paid a friend in London via a Lightning payment, who then ordered the pizza locally for delivery. The transaction settled in seconds with negligible fees, demonstrating how far Bitcoin's payment infrastructure had come since those original 10,000 BTC Papa John's pizzas on May 22, 2010.

Wikipedia: Lightning Network

### The Bitcoin Standard Published (2018-04-24)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2018-04-24-the-bitcoin-standard-published

Saifedean Ammous publishes "The Bitcoin Standard," making the Austrian economics case for Bitcoin as the hardest money ever invented. The book traces the history of money from primitive stones to government fiat, arguing that Bitcoin's fixed supply makes it superior to all predecessors. It becomes the bible of the Bitcoin maximalist movement, translated into 37 languages, and reframes the conversation from "internet money" to "sound money."

Wikipedia: The Bitcoin Standard

### "Rat Poison Squared" (2018-05-05)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2018-05-05-rat-poison-squared

Warren Buffett calls Bitcoin "probably rat poison squared" at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha. BTC is trading at roughly $9,700. If you had invested $1,000 in Bitcoin that day, it would be worth over $10,000 by 2025. The quote becomes one of the most mocked predictions in financial history, trotted out by Bitcoiners every time BTC reaches a new all-time high. Buffett never changes his mind.

CNBC: Buffett Says Bitcoin Is Rat Poison Squared

### QuadrigaCX CEO Dies (2018-12-09)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2018-12-09-quadrigacx-ceo-dies

Gerald Cotten, the 30-year-old CEO of Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, dies while traveling in India. Cotten was reportedly the sole person with access to the exchange's cold wallet passwords, leaving approximately $169 million in customer funds locked and inaccessible. The exchange filed for bankruptcy in January 2019. An investigation later revealed Cotten had been misusing customer deposits for years in a Ponzi-like scheme. The case became the subject of a Netflix documentary and remains one of crypto's most bizarre and tragic scandals.

Wikipedia: QuadrigaCX

### Proof of Keys Day (2019-01-03)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2019-01-03-proof-of-keys-day

To celebrate Bitcoin’s 10th Birthday, Trace Mayer started an annual Proof of Keys Celebration. Participants can declare monetary sovereignty by withdrawing all BTC held with trusted 3rd parties to software they control the private keys for, like a secure hardware wallet like the coldcard. Not your keys, not your bitcoin!

You can read Trace Mayer's original tweet here.

### Lightning Network Torch (2019-01-19)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2019-01-19-lightning-network-torch

Pseudonymous Twitter user hodlonaut began a game-like promotional test of the Lightning Network by sending 100,000 satoshis (0.001 bitcoin) to a trusted recipient where each recipient added 10,000 satoshis ($0.34 at the time) to send to the next trusted recipient. The "lightning torch" payment reached notable personalities including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Litecoin Creator Charlie Lee, Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark, and Binance CEO "CZ" Changpeng Zhao, among others. 

The tweet that started the lightning torch.

### Bitcoin Beach Begins (2019-03-01)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2019-03-01-bitcoin-beach-begins

An anonymous donor gives Bitcoin to the small surf town of El Zonte, El Salvador, with one condition: never convert it to USD. Mike Peterson and Roman Martinez use it to build a circular Bitcoin economy -- locals pay for groceries, surf lessons, and utilities in BTC. The grassroots experiment proves Bitcoin works as everyday money for the unbanked, and directly inspires President Bukele's 2021 legal tender law.

Bitcoin Beach

### Facebook Announces Libra (2019-06-18)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2019-06-18-facebook-announces-libra

Facebook announces Libra (later renamed Diem), a global digital currency backed by a basket of fiat currencies. The announcement sent shockwaves through governments worldwide and inadvertently validated Bitcoin's thesis.

Regulators who had largely ignored Bitcoin suddenly panicked at the idea of a Big Tech company launching its own money. The backlash effectively killed Libra, but it accelerated central bank digital currency research and drove more attention to Bitcoin as the only truly decentralized alternative.

Wikipedia: Diem (Libra)

### Trump's First Bitcoin Tweet (2019-07-02)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2019-07-02-trumps-first-bitcoin-tweet

President Donald Trump tweets "I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air." It was his first public statement on Bitcoin and seemed to put the most powerful person in the world firmly in the anti-Bitcoin camp. The tweet came days after Bitcoin had rallied above $12,000 and amid growing interest from Facebook's Libra project. In a remarkable reversal, Trump would later embrace Bitcoin during his 2024 presidential campaign, promising to make America the "crypto capital of the world."

Trump's original Bitcoin tweet

### Money Printer Go Brrr (2020-03-09)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-03-09-money-printer-go-brrr

The "Haha money printer go brrr" meme explodes on Twitter as the Federal Reserve announces trillions of dollars in emergency money printing to combat the COVID-19 economic crisis. The meme — featuring a panicked Boomer Fed worker and a smug Zoomer at the printing press — becomes the perfect Bitcoin recruitment tool. It crystallizes the core argument: infinite fiat money printing versus Bitcoin's hard cap of 21 million coins.

Know Your Meme: Money Printer Go Brrr

### Craig Wright is a Fraud Day (2020-05-25)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-05-25-craig-wright-is-a-fraud-day

This day celebrates the embarrassment of Craig Steven Wright, the infamous liar and Satoshi Nakamoto impersonator (often referred to as Faketoshi). On this day in 2020, the owner of mined coins from as early as 37 days after the Genesis Block, signed a message with 145 private keys stating, "Craig Steven Wright is a liar and a fraud".

Wikipedia: Craig Steven Wright

### Twitter Bitcoin Hack (2020-07-15)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-07-15-twitter-bitcoin-hack

Hackers compromise the Twitter accounts of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Apple, Bill Gates, and dozens of other high-profile figures to promote a Bitcoin scam promising to "double your money." The attackers gained access through a social engineering attack on Twitter employees and collected approximately 12.86 BTC (about $117,000) before the scheme was shut down. The mastermind turned out to be a 17-year-old from Florida. The incident exposed critical security flaws at Twitter and ironically gave Bitcoin massive mainstream media coverage.

Wikipedia: 2020 Twitter Bitcoin Scam

### HFSP Day (2020-09-13)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-09-13-hfsp-day

On this day in 2020, Udi Wertheimer told Bitaroo (an Australian Bitcoin exchange) to "have fun staying poor" (HFSP) in a now-legendary tweet. The phrase quickly became one of Bitcoin’s most iconic memes, used by Bitcoiners toward skeptics, nocoiners, and critics who dismiss BTC -- implying they’ll miss out on Bitcoin’s financial benefits. HFSP captured the confident, unapologetic attitude of the Bitcoin community during the early stages of what would become the 2020-2021 bull run.

See the original tweet here.

### PayPal Announces Bitcoin Support (2020-10-21)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2020-10-21-paypal-announces-bitcoin-support

PayPal announces support for buying, selling, and holding Bitcoin for its 346 million active users worldwide. While not self-custody -- users cannot withdraw BTC to their own wallets -- it marked a watershed moment for mainstream adoption. The same company that had banned early Bitcoin businesses was now embracing it. PayPal's announcement contributed to a rally that took Bitcoin from $12,000 in October to over $40,000 by January 2021.

Wikipedia: PayPal

### Elon Adds (2021-01-29)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-01-29-elon-adds

Elon Musk, then the world's richest person, changes his Twitter bio to simply "#Bitcoin" on January 29, 2021 -- the price instantly jumps ~$5,000 in an hour, from around $32,000 to $37,000. The move demonstrated the outsized influence a single high-profile endorsement could have on a still-maturing market. Ten days later on February 8, Tesla would announce a $1.5 billion Bitcoin purchase from its corporate treasury, confirming that Musk's signal was backed by serious institutional conviction.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### #LaserEyes (2021-02-12)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-02-12-lasereyes

The #LaserEyes meme explodes on Twitter as Bitcoiners add laser eyes to their profile pictures, pledging not to remove them until Bitcoin hits $100,000. Everyone from Michael Saylor to members of Congress joins in. The meme would prove prophetic by late 2024.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Moscow time (2021-03-25)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-03-25-moscow-time

Moscow Time is a Bitcoin meme spawned by cybersecurity researcher Chris Vickery, during Twitter billionaire Jack Dorsey's testimony before the Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on misinformation.

Chris Vickery started the meme with his tweet asking what time zone Jack was testifying from as his "clock" said 1952. He clarified in a further  tweet that the clock must be set to current Moscow time, refusing to believe otherwise.

### Elon Dumps Bitcoin (2021-05-12)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-05-12-elon-dumps-bitcoin

Elon Musk announces that Tesla will no longer accept Bitcoin as payment for vehicles, citing concerns about the "rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining." The tweet sent Bitcoin's price tumbling more than 10% within hours, erasing over $100 billion in market capitalization. Just three months earlier, Tesla had purchased $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and begun accepting it for car purchases. The reversal infuriated the Bitcoin community, who pointed out that Bitcoin's energy mix was already cleaner than most industries. Musk's influence over BTC price became a recurring source of controversy.

Elon Musk's Tesla Bitcoin announcement

### Colonial Pipeline Ransom Recovered (2021-06-07)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-06-07-colonial-pipeline-ransom-recovered

The US Department of Justice recovers $2.3 million in Bitcoin paid as ransom to the DarkSide hacking group in the Colonial Pipeline attack. Initial media claims that "Bitcoin was hacked" were wrong — the FBI obtained the private key from a US-based server, not by breaking Bitcoin's cryptography.

Wikipedia: Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack

### Jack Dorsey's BLOCKCLOCK Moment (2021-06-08)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-06-08-jack-dorseys-blockclock-moment

Jack Dorsey, then CEO of Twitter and Square, testifies before the US House Committee on Financial Services with a Coinkite BLOCKCLOCK prominently displayed behind him, ticking the Bitcoin block height live on national television. The image goes viral instantly. Congress meets Bitcoin's heartbeat. The BLOCKCLOCK displays real-time Bitcoin data including block height, price, and Moscow Time (sats per dollar), and Dorsey's deliberate placement of it during a congressional hearing was a clear signal of his Bitcoin conviction to the world.

Disclosure: Coinkite Inc. is the maker of this product and the publisher of this site.

getblockclock.com

### Law declaring bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador passes (2021-06-09)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-06-09-law-declaring-bitcoin-legal-tender-in-el-salvador-passes

On this day in 2021, El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly voted 62-22 to pass the Bitcoin Law, making it the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. Proposed by President Nayib Bukele and announced days earlier at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, the law required all businesses in El Salvador to accept BTC as payment alongside the US dollar. The historic vote sent shockwaves through global finance and inspired other nations to consider Bitcoin adoption.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin in El Salvador

### McAfee Dies in Prison (2021-06-23)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-06-23-mcafee-dies-in-prison

John McAfee is found dead in his Barcelona prison cell, hours after a Spanish court approves his extradition to the United States on tax evasion charges. The antivirus pioneer and crypto provocateur had become one of Bitcoin's most colorful advocates, famous for his $1 million BTC price bet — "The Dickening" — which remained unfulfilled. His final tweet read: "I have nothing. Yet I regret nothing." He was 75 years old.

Wikipedia: John McAfee

### Mircea Popescu Drowns (2021-06-23)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-06-23-mircea-popescu-drowns

Mircea Popescu, the controversial Romanian Bitcoin maximalist and founder of the MPEx bitcoin securities exchange, drowns off the coast of Costinera, Costa Rica at the age of 41. Popescu was one of Bitcoin's earliest and most polarizing figures, known for his abrasive online persona and claims of holding an enormous Bitcoin fortune estimated at over $2 billion. His death raised immediate questions about what happened to his coins, as it remains unknown whether anyone else had access to his private keys. The incident became one of Bitcoin's most dramatic examples of the "lost coins" phenomenon.

CoinDesk: Mircea Popescu Found Dead

### Bitcoin Infinity Day (2021-08-21)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-08-21-bitcoin-infinity-day

Today is Bitcoin Infinity Day: ∞/21M on 8/21! The date 8/21 represents the hard cap of 21 million bitcoin -- the immutable supply limit coded into the protocol by Satoshi Nakamoto. While fiat currencies can be printed infinitely, Bitcoin's scarcity is absolute and enforced by every node on the network. The ratio of infinite demand to finite supply (∞/21M) captures why Bitcoiners see it as the hardest money ever created. Celebrated annually by the community as a reminder of what makes Bitcoin fundamentally different.

Bitcoin Wiki: Controlled supply (21 million cap)

### Bitcoin becomes legal tender in El Salvador (2021-09-07)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2021-09-07-bitcoin-becomes-legal-tender-in-el-salvador

On this day in 2021, bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador, 90 days after the publication of the law in the official gazette, making El Salvador the first country to enact bitcoin as legal tender through legislation.

Wikipedia: Bitcoin in El Salvador

### Bogdanoff Twins Die (2022-01-03)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-01-03-bogdanoff-twins-die

Igor Bogdanoff dies of COVID on January 3rd, just six days after his twin brother Grichka. The French TV presenters had become the faces of crypto's greatest meme: "He bought? Dump it." — depicting them as shadowy puppet masters manipulating cryptocurrency markets via cryptic phone calls. Crypto Twitter mourns with an avalanche of "pump it in heaven" tributes. The "Bogdanoff twins" meme remains one of the most recognizable in all of crypto culture.

CoinDesk: RIP Bogdanoffs

### Bitfinex Hackers Arrested (2022-02-08)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-02-08-bitfinex-hackers-arrested

The US Department of Justice announces the arrest of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan -- known online as "Razzlekhan," a self-described rapper and Forbes contributor -- for conspiring to launder 119,754 BTC stolen in the 2016 Bitfinex hack. At the time of seizure, the bitcoin was worth approximately $3.6 billion, the largest financial seizure in DOJ history. The couple's bumbling attempts to launder the funds through elaborate chains of transactions were unraveled by IRS-CI blockchain analysis. Morgan's cringeworthy rap videos went viral after the arrest, adding an absurd dimension to one of crypto's biggest heists.

DOJ: Bitfinex Hack Arrests

### Central African Republic Adopts Bitcoin (2022-04-27)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-04-27-central-african-republic-adopts-bitcoin

The Central African Republic becomes the second country in the world, after El Salvador, to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. The National Assembly unanimously passes the bill, making CAR the first African nation to embrace Bitcoin at the state level. The move surprises many given that the country has limited internet infrastructure, but signals growing interest in Bitcoin as an alternative to the CFA franc and traditional financial systems.

BBC: Central African Republic Adopts Bitcoin

### Lugano Plan B Forum (2022-10-28)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-10-28-lugano-plan-b-forum

The city of Lugano, Switzerland hosts its first Plan B Forum, embracing Bitcoin as de facto legal tender for city services including taxes and municipal fees. Lugano partners with Tether to create a $100 million fund to attract Bitcoin and blockchain businesses. The Swiss city becomes one of the most Bitcoin-friendly municipalities in Europe, accepting BTC for everything from parking tickets to business licenses.

Lugano Plan B

### Binance Almost Acquires FTX (2022-11-08)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2022-11-08-binance-almost-acquires-ftx

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) announces a non-binding agreement to acquire rival exchange FTX after a bank run drains its liquidity. Within 24 hours, Binance backs out after due diligence reveals an $8 billion hole in FTX's balance sheet. The aborted deal accelerates FTX's collapse -- the exchange files for bankruptcy three days later. CZ's initial tweet liquidating Binance's FTT holdings had triggered the bank run in the first place, making this one of the most consequential power moves in crypto history.

Wikipedia: FTX Collapse

### Zap NIP Day (2023-02-13)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2023-02-13-zap-nip-day

On this day the Bitcoin Lightning Network is wedded to the Nostr network. Damus developer William Cassarin's' Lightning Zaps NIP-57 is merged to the Nostr NIP repo. NIP-57 allows lightning invoice receipts, which enable display of LN payments on the Nostr network.

Read NIP-57 Lightning Zaps" here.
Try out Lightning Zaps on Nostr app Damus.

### Craig Wright Ruled Not Satoshi (2024-05-20)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2024-05-20-craig-wright-ruled-not-satoshi

UK High Court Justice James Mellor delivers a definitive ruling in the COPA v. Wright trial, finding that Craig Steven Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto and never was. The judge stated that Wright had "lied to the Court extensively and repeatedly" and forged documents on a "grand scale" to support his false claim. The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) had brought the case to stop Wright from using frivolous lawsuits to harass Bitcoin developers. The ruling ended years of legal harassment and put a judicial stamp on what the Bitcoin community had long known.

COPA v Wright Judgment

### The Bitcoin Election (2024-11-06)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2024-11-06-the-bitcoin-election

Bitcoin surges past $75,000 on election night as Donald Trump wins the 2024 US presidential election, having campaigned on explicitly pro-Bitcoin policies including a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, opposition to a CBDC, and a promise to make America "the crypto capital of the world." The first US election where Bitcoin was a meaningful campaign issue. Trump also pledged to pardon Ross Ulbricht and appoint Bitcoin-friendly regulators. The Bitcoin community mobilized politically like never before, with significant PAC spending influencing key Senate races.

Wikipedia: History of Bitcoin

### Ross Ulbricht Pardoned (2025-01-21)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2025-01-21-ross-ulbricht-pardoned

On this day in 2025, Ross Ulbricht received a full and unconditional pardon from President Donald J. Trump on his first day in office. Ross had spent over 11 years in federal prison after being sentenced to two life terms plus 40 years without parole for creating the Silk Road marketplace -- a punishment widely seen as grossly disproportionate for non-violent offenses. The Free Ross movement, one of the longest-running campaigns in the Bitcoin community, finally achieved its goal. Ross walked free after 3,955 days behind bars.

Read more about Ross here.

### US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (2025-03-07)
URL: https://bitcoin.holiday/2025-03-07-us-strategic-bitcoin-reserve

President Trump signs an executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for the United States, directing the government to hold seized Bitcoin as a strategic national asset rather than selling it. The first nation-state Bitcoin reserve policy by the world's largest economy.

Executive Order: Strategic Bitcoin Reserve