Bitcoin Holidays

On this day in 2009, the Genesis Block was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, officially starting the Bitcoin blockchain.

On this day in 2019, to celebrate Bitcoin's 10th Birthday, Trace Mayer started an annual Proof-of-Keys Celebration. Participats declare monetary sovereignty by withdrawing their BTC into their own custody. Not your keys, not your bitcoin! You can read Trace Mayer's original tweet here.

On this day in 2009, the first transaction ever broadcast over the Bitcoin network was sent by Satoshi Nakamoto to Hal Finney. View the genesis transaction here.

On this day in 2021, the market cap of all BTC surpassed 1 trillion USD for the first time, ~8 years after surpassing 1 billion USD for the first time.

On this day in 2013, Mt. Gox, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, went offline due to insolvency, after losing 640,000 BTC.

On this day in 2018, eight years after buying pizza with the famous "Bitcoin Pizza" transaction, Laszlo Hanyecz returned to buy pizza over the Lightning Network.

On this day in 2017, 1 BTC surpassed the price of 1 ounce of gold for the first time.

On this day in 2013, the market cap of all BTC surpassed 1 billion USD for the first time.

Satoshi Nakamoto listed their birthday as April 5, 1975. Many have speculated about symbolic significance of this date, with some identifying April 5 as the date that FDR signed Executive Order 6102, and 1975 as the year that Americans were legally allowed to old gold again, after Nixon's 1971 ban.

On this day in 2013, the first-ever Bitcoin ATM was installed at a Vancouver coffee shop. It included a built-in palm scanner designed to prevent users from processing more than 3,000 CAD per day.

On this day in 2020, the third "Halving" cut the subsidy from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.

On this day in 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, paid Jeremy Sturdivant 10,000 BTC for two pizzas costing ~41 USD. The famous "Bitcoin Pizza" transaction was one of the earliest real-world BTC transactions and is celebrated as helping start the Bitcoin economy.

On this day in 2016, the second "Halving" cut the subsidy from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC.

On this day in 2017, members of the community scheduled activation of a User-Activated Soft Fork (UASF) in a modified version of the Bitcoin Core software. This modification represented an ultimatum to SegWit-reluctant miners: either signal for SegWit activation or your blocks will be ignored. This community effort seemingly called the miners "SegWit2X bluff" and resulted in SegWit activation on the network in short order. Read more here.

On this day in 2017, the Segregated Witness upgrade was locked in on the Bitcoin network by the UASF client.

8/21 is playfully celebrated as representing the meme "Everything there is divided by 21,000,000" (∞/21M).

On this day in 2017, at 1:57 UTC, SegWit activated on the Bitcoin mainnet in Block #481,824.

On this day in 2021, BTC became legal tender in El Salvador, 90 days after the publication of the law in the official gazette, making El Salvador the first country to enact BTC as legal tender through legistlation.

On this day in 2013, Ross Ulbricht was captured and imprisoned for his role in creating The Silk Road website. He was given two life sentences for non-violent crimes. Fighting for Ross's freedom is a cause supported by many Bitcoiners.

On this day in 2014, a bitcoin whale posted a 30,000 BTC sell wall, resulting in an epic skirmish between hodlers and the BearWhale. Over the course of six hours, the price stalled at 300 USD until all of the coins sold off and the BearWhale was defeated. You can watch the battle here.

On this day in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin white paper to the cryptography mailing list, marking its official introduction into the world. Satoshi introduced Bitcoin as an electronic cash system with several important properties: double-spending prevention, no trusted parties, anonymous participation, and Hashcash style Proof-of-Work. The Bitcoin Whitepaper can be viewed here.

On this day in 1976, Whitfield Diffie and Martin E. Hellman released their proposal for a breakthrough in cryptographic communication: the first implementation of public/private key pairs for secure communication over public channels. This cryptographic building block is one of the key underpinnings of the Bitcoin network. Read their 1976 paper titled "New Directions in Cryptography" here.

On this day in 2010, an unknown artist under the username "bitboy" offered the Bitcoin community its iconic logo for free on the Bicointalk forum. You can view the original post here.

On this day in 2014, an over-excited Reddit user accidentally omitted a word and unknowingly earned a bizarre place in Bitcoin culture and lore. Read the Reddit daily discussion on Bitcoin Markets here.

On this day in 2012, the first-ever "Halving" cut the subsidy from 50 BTC to 25 BTC.

On this day in 2010, Satoshi sent his final message on the BitcoinTalk forum. Then, he logged off, never to return.

On this day in 2013, a user on the bitcointalk.org declared I AM HODLING (!), rather than selling, despite the falling price. This "whisky"-facilitated post spawned one of Bitcoin's great memes.