5 October 2023
On this day 14 years ago, the Bitcoin price was born.
As noted in a post on X today by Bitcoin Historian Pete Rizzo, October 5 marks the anniversary of the date on which NewLibertyStandard, a pseudonymous early Bitcoin user made public the first U.S. dollar price valuation for Bitcoin.
A home miner at the time, NewLibertyStandard notably used the price of electricity to calculate the exchange rate, factoring how much it cost for him to power his personal computer as he mined coins with little competition.
At the time, he reached the conclusion that 1,309 Bitcoin were worth $1, meaning that a single U.S. dollar could buy the Bitcoin produced by 26 blocks.
The calculation marked the first time that anyone had priced Bitcoin above zero. As noted by Rizzo, Satoshi Nakamoto never priced Bitcoin, nor, as far as we know, offered to buy or sell Bitcoin for dollars.
The date is notable as since then, Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency, has achieved a staggering milestone, with its price soaring by over 3.6 billion percent.
Fast forward to the present day, and Bitcoin has become a household name, a symbol of financial innovation, and a store of value. It has weathered countless ups and downs, regulatory challenges, and market cycles, emerging as a resilient and highly sought-after asset.
The exponential growth of Bitcoin’s price is a testament to its unique features and value propositions. Here are some key factors that have contributed to Bitcoin’s remarkable ascent, including its adoption by the market.
So, while NewLibertyStandard remained only a personal buyer and seller of Bitcoin, he remains one of its founding fathers, helping to create the conditions for later markets to flourish within a global Bitcoin economy.