A short history of cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency began with bitcoin, which was described in a paper published on October 31, 2008, and launched in January 2009. Since then it has grown from an experiment among programmers into a market held by large investment funds, through repeated booms and collapses.

How did it start?

A writer using the name Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin white paper during the 2008 financial crisis. It proposed electronic cash that needed no bank. The first block of the bitcoin ledger was created on January 3, 2009. The guide to who created bitcoin covers what is known about Nakamoto.

Early use was limited to hobbyists. On May 22, 2010, a programmer paid 10,000 bitcoin for two pizzas, often cited as the first purchase of goods. The first big failure came in February 2014, when Mt. Gox, once the largest bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy after losing customers' coins.

What changed with Ethereum?

Ethereum launched in July 2015. It could run programs called smart contracts, which made it simple to issue new tokens.

That led to the 2017 boom in initial coin offerings, or ICOs, in which projects sold tokens to the public to raise money. Prices peaked in December 2017 and fell through 2018. Regulators later treated many ICOs as unregistered securities sales.

What happened in the 2021 boom and the 2022 crash?

In 2020 and 2021, lending and trading apps known as DeFi grew quickly, and digital collectibles called NFTs drew wide attention. Prices reached new highs in November 2021.

The fall was severe. In May 2022 the stablecoin TerraUSD lost its dollar peg and collapsed with its sister token, Luna. Several crypto lenders failed soon after. In November 2022 the exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy. Its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was convicted of fraud in November 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024. See what happened to FTX.

In September 2022, Ethereum switched from mining to a less energy-intensive system called proof of stake.

What has happened since 2024?

Crypto has moved closer to mainstream finance and to Washington.

• January 10, 2024. The SEC approved the first US spot bitcoin ETFs, funds that hold bitcoin and trade on stock exchanges.
• March 6, 2025. A presidential executive order created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, made up of bitcoin the government had obtained through forfeiture.
• July 18, 2025. The GENIUS Act, the first federal law regulating payment stablecoins, was signed.
• September 15, 2026. The CLARITY Act, a broader bill on crypto market structure that the House passed in July 2025, failed a procedural vote in the Senate, 49 to 50.

As of October 2026, the SEC and the CFTC are writing crypto rules under their existing powers, and the wider legal framework remains unsettled.