Today is the last day of 2020 – a year so many are willing to say goodbye and never look back. For Bitcoin, however, the cryptocurrency is close to the end of its most important year to date.
At the same time, the asset closes the last decade as the best performing asset since 2011, underscoring a decade of growth that is just beginning. Bitcoin has held its own against the rest of the financial world for the past decade.
From the early Bitcoin beginnings to the present day
The Bitcoin whitepaper was first distributed in 2008, and the Genesis block that started it all was dismantled in 2009. In 2010 the first known commercial transaction with BTC and two pizzas took place.
But it was in 2011 when the asset surged above $ 1 and was widely used as a currency – mostly for transactions on the dark web marketplace of the Silk Road.
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From then on, it continued to be used as such, but has adopted many other use cases as its market capitalization increased. Today, in 2020, institutions, billionaires, celebrities, and corporations are buying BTC to store value and hedge against inflation.
The full history of Bitcoin’s price action Source: BLX on TradingView.com
How cryptocurrency compares over the past decade
From the asset’s beginnings in 2011 as an emerging form of peer-to-peer e-cash to the current digital gold narrative, the price per BTC has soared to just under $ 30,000.
Data shows that the cryptocurrency has outperformed all other assets over the past decade, with a staggering 6 million percent increase. This equates to an annualized return of over 200%, with the Nasdaq 100 performing the next best with an annualized return of just 20%.
All assets compared over the past ten years Source: Charlie Bilello
If you look at it from the perspective that the asset has already grown from under $ 1 to $ 30,000 and is above 6,000,000%, the wrong impression is that it is too late to invest in Bitcoin. Because of the potential and promise of the cryptocurrency, it could ultimately hit prices in the hundreds of thousands to millions per coin.
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Some of the most brilliant investors living claim to be getting into Bitcoin right now, like investing early in Google or Apple. However, there are just as many naysayers, but often people don’t agree with what they can’t understand.
Others have compared Bitcoin to the internet, and so the technology – including email, websites, and more – was initially all demonized and thought it would never replace existing systems.
Is the same fate as the internet the most important year of the asset for Bitcoin and is it the first full decade after the proof-of-concept phase?
Featured image from deposit photos, charts from TradingView.com
