A Blast From The Past

The Genesis

Halloween day, 2008: The financial world is still reeling from the implications of the Great Financial Crisis. Lehman Brothers went belly up, the stock market was cut in half and the word ‘bailout’ began infiltrating media airwaves across the globe for the first time. Unbeknownst to 99.99% of the population, the future of money had forever changed. On this date, Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin whitepaper into the public domain. Within 2 months, the Bitcoin genesis block was mined, ushering in a new era of currency.

The Big Leagues (2020-Current)

Over the past 13 years, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been widely contested by governments, politicians, media pundits, economists, and speculators from all over the globe. This stems from its infamously volatile price action, misconceptions around perceived criminal activity usage, and a general misunderstanding of what this new technology is and what it aims to solve.

With that being said, the crypto ecosystem has come a long way since the inception of Bitcoin over a decade ago. Public consensus has shifted from it primarily being a tool for bad actors, to a now legitimate asset class with real-world utility. With the emergence of the innovations behind DeFi, NFTs, and smart contract scaling solutions, government and institutional interests have never been higher.

Major Events

Looking back on the previous three years, it almost seems surreal. So much has transpired in this market cycle that it’s nearly impossible to narrow down a digestible list of what took place. Below you will find some key events worth highlighting.

• March 2020: Covid-19 causes capitulation across all financial markets
• May 2020: The third BTC halving takes place, reducing the block reward from 12.5 down to 6.25
• June 2020: ‘DeFi Summer’ commences
• August 2020: Michael Saylor announces Microstrategy’s first purchase of BTC
• October 2020: PayPal allows users to access crypto on its platform
• Feb 2021: Tesla invests $1.5 billion into