15 years ago $BTC first reached $1

On February 9, 2011, the price of Bitcoin first reached $1 on the cryptocurrency exchange Mt.Gox. Over the past 15 years, the leading cryptocurrency has increased in value by tens of thousands of times — the current price is around $70,000, and back in October 2025, it reached a peak of $126,000.

It took Bitcoin about two years to reach parity with the US dollar. The first transaction was made in January 2009, when Bitcoin was not yet traded anywhere and had no price relative to other assets.

In 2010, a Japanese programmer named Jed McCaleb launched the Mt. Gox exchange, which played a key role in forming the market price of Bitcoin.

It was the largest and most influential cryptocurrency exchange of the early period. From 2010 to 2013, up to 70% of the world's trading volume passed through it.

The fate of Mt. Gox itself turned out to be dramatic; in 2014, it ceased operations, claiming the loss of around 850,000 Bitcoins. Its bankruptcy proceedings and compensation for the affected parties are still ongoing.