20 Interesting Facts About Bitcoin

Here are 20 interesting facts about Bitcoin that you might not have known.

1. The first Bitcoin transaction was made on January 21, 2009.
2. Only 21 million Bitcoins can ever be mined, with the process gradually becoming more difficult. The last Bitcoin is expected to be mined in the year 2140.
3. The creator of Bitcoin remains unknown. The name Satoshi Nakamoto is associated with its creation, but it is unclear whether this is an individual or a group of programmers. The creator remains anonymous.
4. The goal of Bitcoin is to decentralize financial transactions and remove them from the monopoly control of governments. In simple terms, it aims to create free money with easy and fast transfers. However, this hasn’t always worked out perfectly: sometimes technology is the issue, sometimes governments restrict the industry’s growth. Also, Bitcoin transactions are not always cheap.
5. More than half of all Bitcoins mined so far are owned by just 1,000 people.
6. Most Bitcoin wallets (~90%) hold less than 0.1 BTC in balance.
7. Only one-third of mined coins are actively circulating. The rest are inactive. Experts believe that most inactive Bitcoins have simply been lost or forgotten by their owners. Experts from Fortrader remind us that if a Bitcoin wallet password is lost, it cannot be recovered—this is how the system works.
8. For example, in 2017, a woman unsuccessfully tried to recover her Bitcoin wallet password. She even consulted magicians, healers, and hypnotists, but to no avail. These coins will be lost to the network forever.
9. The highest Bitcoin price recorded at the time of writing was $68,789.63. This occurred in November 2021. After that, the coin’s price experienced a significant drop.
10. The value of the cryptocurrency has grown gradually. Bitcoin became more expensive than an ounce of gold as far back as 2013.
11. Bitcoin showed its most dramatic price swing in April 2013, when it dropped by 80% in just one day. The decline in 2022 was also very strong.
12. The largest number of Bitcoin exchange transactions occur not in dollars, but in yuan.
13. There are currently over 39,000 Bitcoin ATMs worldwide, with most located in America, Canada, and Europe. Moscow also has a small network of these ATMs. Government agencies in many countries have long accepted Bitcoin as payment. Over the past five years, the number of Bitcoin ATMs has increased twelvefold.
14. The first purchase made with Bitcoin was for two pizzas. In 2010, a miner named Laszlo paid 10,000 Bitcoins for the meal. It’s easy to calculate, based on Bitcoin’s current price, how many pizzas he could buy today.
15. Another unfortunate incident: a resident of the UK accidentally threw away a hard drive containing a wallet with 7,500 Bitcoins. Such a loss is hard to recover from.
16. The most expensive transaction was a user who, by mistake, paid 80.99 BTC instead of 0.01 BTC. In 2013, this was worth $50,000.
17. The Bitcoin price is a constant source of debate. Some believe it is overvalued and predict a drop to $10,000, while others forecast a rise to $100,000. There are even scenarios predicting a crash or disaster related to Bitcoin.
18. Bitcoin’s market capitalization is currently higher than the GDP of some countries.
19. Thailand was the first country to actively regulate Bitcoin. It first banned Bitcoin, then allowed it. Now, many countries are searching for ways to make cryptocurrencies official and protect citizens from potential fraud.
20. Cryptocurrencies are actively taking market share from fiat currencies. Many stores and even government agencies happily accept Bitcoin and other coins as payment. However, most new cryptocurrencies never achieve popularity—they appear and disappear. Caution is advised.

Bitcoin’s era is just beginning, so we will continue to add interesting facts to this article. We would love to hear your news and stories about cryptocurrency in the comments below.