Welcome to my on-chain analysis of Bitcoin!As most of you know, Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, also known as a cryptocurrency, that enables peer-to-peer transactions without the need for a central authority. Bitcoin is unique and there are a finite number of them: 21 million bitcoins.
The Bitcoin network went live on January 3rd, 2009 with the release of the first open-source Bitcoin client and the issuance of the first bitcoins. Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious and pseudonymous person or group of people who created Bitcoin, mined the first block of the chain, known as the genesis block.
Since then, the Bitcoin network has grown exponentially, with millions of dollars worth of bitcoins changing hands every day. Despite its relatively short history, Bitcoin has seen a great deal of price volatility, with the price of a single bitcoin going from less than $1 USD in 2010 to over $1000 USD in 2013.
In 2014, we saw the first major Bitcoin correction, with the price dropping from over $1000 USD to around $300 USD. This was followed by a period of stability in 2015, before the price began to rise again in 2016.
BTC all time price chart from coinmarketcap
2017 was an incredible year for Bitcoin, with the price reaching new all-time highs and mainstream adoption beginning to take hold. 2018 has been a more difficult year for Bitcoin, with the price falling from its all-time high of over $19000 USD in December of 2017 to around $6000 USD in December 2018.
In November 2021, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) hit 65,000 USD, marking a new record high. That price increase was related to the American debut of a Bitcoin ETF, but others in 2021 were brought on by developments concerning Tesla and Coinbase, respectively. For instance, the IPO of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States and Tesla's statement in Early 2020 that it had purchased the digital token for 1.5 billion dollars each stoked widespread interest.
By the end of 2022, though, the market had significantly changed, with Bitcoin values reaching about 15.7K on November 24, 2022, following the bankruptcy of another cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.
However, even though the price has been volatile, the underlying technology of Bitcoin has continued to grow and evolve. Bitcoin's value is expected to continue to rise in the future as more and more people adopt it as a form of investment and payment. As more businesses begin to accept it as payment, the demand for Bitcoin will continue to increase. This will likely lead to even more price increases, making Bitcoin an even more attractive investment regardless of its poor performance this year.
Bitcoin's future looks bright, and its price is expected to continue to rise in the years to come.
Sources consulted for this analysis include coinmarketcap.com,statisca.com and glassnode
