1980s-1990s:
Concept of digital cash, such as David Chaum's Digicash, emerge.
1998:
Wei Dai publishes "b-money" - a theoretical framework for digital currency.
2004:
Hal Finney introduces “Reusable Proof of Work” (RPOW).
31st October, 2008:
Satoshi Nakamoto publishes $BTC whitepaper.
2009:
Bitcoin was launched by Satoshi Nakamoto. Genesis block(First block of bitcoin) was also mined, resulting in 50 BTC reward.
22nd May, 2010:
Laszlo Hanyecz buys two pizzas for 10,000 BTC. Today the worth of that payment is around 880,000,000 USD.
2011:
Bitcoin reaches $1 for the first time. Meanwhile, altcoins like Litecoin and Namecoin were also launched.
2012:
First Halving Event, Block reward drops from 50 BTC to 25 BTC.
2013:
Bitcoin crosses $100 and $1000 for the first time.
2014:
$ETH was created by Vitalik Buterin
2015:
Ethereum goes live with smart contracts. Initial Coin Offering(ICO) era also begins.
2016:
Second Halving Event of BTC, Block reward decreased from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC. In the same year, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations(DAOs) also emerged.
2017:
BTC reaches $20,000. Ripple(XRP), BNB and Cardano(ADA) also emerge.
2018:
Crypto Winter results in Bitcoin crash to $3,000.
2019:
Facebook announces Libra/Diem project. DeFi experiments increase on Ethereum.
2020:
Third Halving Event of BTC, Block reward decreased from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. DeFi also booms on Ethereum. PayPal also announces crypto support for US users. BTC also created new All-Time High. Solana was also launched in 2020.
2021:
Bitcoin crosses $64,000. NFT(Digital Art, Collectibles) also explode. Tesla also invested in Bitcoin.
2022:
Crypto Market Crashes, Collapse of Luna stablecoin ecosystem.
2023:
Crypto recovers while regulatory emerges in some countries. Adoption in payment also increases. AI + Crypto projects start merging.
2024:
ETFs launched marking a huge landmark in institutional adoption. Fourth Halving Event, Block rewards decreases from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC
2025:
Bitcoin reaches 126,000 before crashing due to Trump Tariff announcement in October.