Bitcoin’s genesis block was mined 16 years ago

On January 3, 2009, the person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto launched the Bitcoin main network, mining the genesis block with 50 BTC.

Its hash contains the headline “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” from the British newspaper The Times.

Shortly before the launch, on October 31, 2008, the Bitcoin white paper was published.

The first transaction took place on January 12, 2009 — Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 BTC to Hal Finney. Three days earlier, version 0.1 of the Bitcoin software had been released.

Nakamoto’s identity and motives for creating Bitcoin remain a mystery that people in and beyond the crypto community still seek to unravel.

In November 2024, a hypothesis emerged that Satoshi had not disappeared but had become one of the largest bitcoin whales. The author suggests that the creator of the first cryptocurrency left the public arena and began anonymously mining digital gold, allegedly amassing a substantial fortune that was distributed across numerous wallets set up in 2010.

Programmer Peter Todd, whom an HBO documentary proclaimed — against his will — the creator of Bitcoin, spoke about the harm caused by attempts to expose Satoshi’s identity.

One likely reason for Bitcoin’s creation was the 2007–08 global financial crisis, accompanied by the collapse of major investment banks, a widespread decline in output, falling demand and commodity prices, rising unemployment and active state intervention in the economy.

In November 2021, the first cryptocurrency set a record high of $69,000. In November 2024, following Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, bitcoin surged toward $100,000, and on the night of December 4–5 the asset finally breached that psychological threshold. On December 17 the price peaked around $108,000.

At the time of writing, digital gold is trading above $96,000.

For what awaits Bitcoin and the crypto market in 2025, read ForkLog: