On January 3, 2009, the first block in the Bitcoin blockchain, known as the genesis block, was created by an individual or group under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. This block contained 50 BTC. The hash of the genesis block encrypted the headline of an article from the British publication The Times, indicating the time of the block's creation.

Before the launch of the Bitcoin network, on October 31, 2008, a white paper describing the principles of Bitcoin was published. The first transaction in the Bitcoin network occurred on January 12, 2009, when Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 BTC to programmer Hal Finney. Three days prior, the first version of the Bitcoin software, version 0.1, was released.

The identity of Bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, and his motives remain unknown and are the subject of speculation in the crypto community. It is speculated that one of the reasons for creating Bitcoin could have been the global financial crisis of 2007-2008.

In November 2021, Bitcoin reached its all-time high of $69,000. At the time of writing the article, the price of Bitcoin was around $45,000, with a market capitalization of $883 billion.