Bitcoin Price History 2009–2026: Price by Year, Charts & Historical Data
BTC/USDT — Binance History Since August 2017
Daily Binance BTC/USDT closes. Log scale makes percentage moves comparable; halvings are marked with dashed lines.
Bitcoin Price Records
Bitcoin Price by Year (2010–2026)
Approximate early exchange history through 2017; 2018 onward is calculated from verified Binance BTC/USDT daily OHLC.
| Year | Open | High | Low | Close | Return | Event |
|---|
Bitcoin Monthly Returns — Seasonality Heatmap (2013–2026)
Approximate public historical returns through 2017; verified Binance BTC/USDT daily open-to-close returns from 2018 onward. The current month is partial. Monthly figures can differ slightly from the yearly OHLC table because the pre-2018 public series uses different source boundaries.
What the seasonality shows
Read the median row together with the yearly cells: rankings change with the metric and sample. This is historical context, not a trading signal.
Extremes in the displayed dataset
| Best month | Nov 2013 · +449.0% |
| Best month (last 5y) | Feb 2024 · +43.6% |
| Worst month | Jun 2022 · −37.3% |
| Worst month (last 5y) | Jun 2022 · −37.3% |
| Longest losing streak | 6 months · Aug 2018–Jan 2019 |
Halving Cycles — Peak, Trough and Drawdown
Every cycle so far, measured halving to halving. Past cycles are context, not a template.
| Cycle | Price at halving | Cycle peak | Peak gain | Next trough | Drawdown | Halving → peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 → 2016 | $12 | $1,163 · Nov 2013 | +9,600% | $152 · Jan 2015 | −87% | 12 mo |
| 2016 → 2020 | $650 | $19,783 · Dec 2017 | +2,900% | $3,156 · Dec 2018 | −84% | 17 mo |
| 2020 → 2024 | $8,570 | $69,000 · Nov 2021 | +700% | $15,480 · Nov 2022 | −78% | 18 mo |
| 2024 → 2028 | $63,800 | $126,173 · Oct 2025* | +97.8%* | — | — | 18 mo* |
*Cycle in progress. Each cycle's peak gain has been smaller than the last — the "diminishing returns" pattern that long-term models weigh. See how it feeds the long-term prediction.
Bitcoin Price History Timeline — Year by Year
What actually moved the price each year, from the genesis block to today.
2009 Genesis no market price
Satoshi Nakamoto mines the genesis block on 3 January. Bitcoin has no exchange price; the first known valuation (October 2009, New Liberty Standard) works out to about $0.0008 based on electricity cost.
2010 First trades $0.003 → $0.30
Mt. Gox launches in July. On 22 May, Laszlo Hanyecz pays 10,000 BTC (~$41) for two pizzas — the first documented commercial transaction. Price ends the year around $0.30.
2011 First bubble $0.30 → $32 → $2
Media coverage and Silk Road demand push BTC to $32 in June — a 100× move in five months — before the first Mt. Gox hack triggers a 94% crash to about $2 by November. The template for every cycle since: parabolic run, sharp bust, higher low.
2012 First halving $5 → $13
Quiet recovery year. The first halving on 28 November cuts the block reward from 50 to 25 BTC. WordPress starts accepting Bitcoin.
2013 Cyprus and China $13 → $1,163
Two bubbles in one year: the Cyprus bank bail-in sends BTC to $260 in April; Chinese demand pushes it to $1,163 in November — Bitcoin's best year ever at roughly +5,500%. The People's Bank of China then bans banks from handling Bitcoin, and the top is in.
2014 Mt. Gox collapse $770 → $320
Mt. Gox, handling ~70% of trades, halts withdrawals in February and files for bankruptcy having lost 850,000 BTC. Price grinds down all year, −58%.
2015 The bottom $314 → $430
Cycle low of $152 in January, then a slow base. Coinbase raises $75M; the New York BitLicense arrives. Ethereum launches in July.
2016 Second halving $430 → $960
Halving on 9 July (25 → 12.5 BTC). Bitfinex hack in August (120,000 BTC) causes a brief 20% drop; the uptrend resumes and BTC more than doubles for the year.
2017 The ICO mania $1,000 → $19,783
Retail FOMO, the ICO boom and CME/CBOE futures launches drive a 20× year. Bitcoin passes $10,000 on 28 November and peaks at $19,783 on 17 December — the same week futures start trading. Bitcoin Cash forks off in August.
2018 Crypto winter $14,000 → $3,700
Worst calendar year on record, −73%. Regulatory crackdowns, ICO collapse and the Bitcoin Cash hash war in November take BTC to $3,156 in mid-December.
2019 Relief rally $3,700 → $7,200
Facebook's Libra announcement and renewed institutional interest lift BTC to $13,800 in June before it fades to $7,200 by year-end — still +94%.
2020 COVID crash and third halving $7,200 → $29,000
12–13 March: BTC falls by more than half as global markets seize up, reaching a Binance intraday low of $3,782. Third halving on 11 May (12.5 → 6.25 BTC). Then MicroStrategy, Square and PayPal enter; BTC breaks the 2017 high in December and closes near $29,000 (+300%).
2021 Institutional cycle $29,000 → $69,000
Tesla buys $1.5B; Coinbase lists on Nasdaq; BTC hits $64,800 in April. China bans mining in May and price halves. El Salvador adopts BTC as legal tender in September; the first US futures ETF launches in October and BTC prints $69,000 on 10 November. Closes the year at $46,300.
2022 Deleveraging $46,300 → $16,500
Fed hikes, Terra/LUNA collapse (May), Three Arrows and Celsius (June) and FTX bankruptcy (November) cascade through the industry. Cycle low $15,480 on 21 November; −64% for the year.
2023 Recovery $16,500 → $42,300
Banking stress in March (SVB) is bullish for BTC; BlackRock files for a spot ETF in June and the market front-runs approval. +155% for the year.
2024 Spot ETFs and fourth halving $42,300 → $93,500
US spot Bitcoin ETFs approved on 10 January and pull in tens of billions. New ATH of $73,800 in March — the first time BTC tops before a halving. Fourth halving on 20 April (6.25 → 3.125 BTC). Post-election rally takes BTC through $100,000 on 5 December.
2025 The $126K peak $93,500 → ~$88,000
ATH $109,000 in January, a spring correction to $74,500, then a summer run to $123,000 (July) and the all-time high of $126,173 on 6 October. Heavy Q4 distribution and ETF outflows drag price back below $90,000 by year-end.
2026 Year to date — → $86,088
Bitcoin has traded between — this year and is — below its all-time high. ETF flows, monetary policy and the next estimated halving remain key context. Where next: short-term forecast · long-term prediction.
Bitcoin Historical Data — Daily OHLC (last 30 days)
Verified Binance BTC/USDT daily candles. Download the complete available history using the CSV button above.
| Date | Open | High | Low | Close | Change |
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What if you had invested $1,000 in Bitcoin in 2016?
It would be worth about $112,000 today. Pick any date and amount in the What-If-I-Invested calculator.