Chronology from prehistory to today.
Prehistory (1980s–2008)
| Date |
Event |
| 1979 |
Ralph Merkle publishes his thesis with Merkle trees — the structural foundation of blockchain. |
| 1982 |
David Chaum publishes Blind signatures for untraceable payments — foundation for e-cash. |
| 1990 |
DigiCash (Chaum) — first e-cash based on blind signatures. Went bankrupt in 1998. |
| 1991 |
Stuart Haber + W. Scott Stornetta publish How to time-stamp a digital document — the blockchain structure (chain of hashes). Published annually in the NYT newspaper since 1995 with the day's hash. |
| 1997 |
Adam Back publishes Hashcash — anti-spam proof-of-work. Cited by Satoshi. |
| 1998 |
Wei Dai publishes the b-money concept — distributed anonymous currency. Cited by Satoshi. |
| 1998 |
Nick Szabo proposes Bit Gold — not implemented. Conceptual structure close to Bitcoin. |
| 2004 |
Hal Finney implements RPOW (Reusable Proof-of-Work) — non-blockchain but a related concept. |
Bitcoin era (2008–2014)
| Date |
Event |
| 2008-10-31 |
Satoshi Nakamoto publishes the whitepaper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System on the cypherpunk mailing list. |
| 2009-01-03 |
Genesis block of Bitcoin mined: 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e93.... The coinbase contains: "The Times 03Jan2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks". |
| 2009-01-12 |
First Bitcoin transaction: Satoshi → Hal Finney, 10 BTC. |
| 2010-05-22 |
Bitcoin Pizza Day: Laszlo Hanyecz pays 10,000 BTC for 2 pizzas in Jacksonville, FL. First documented commercial tx. |
| 2010-07-17 |
Mt. Gox launches as a Bitcoin exchange (originally a site for Magic: The Gathering cards). |
| 2010-12 |
Satoshi hands control to Gavin Andresen; last public message 2010-12-12. |
| 2011-04-23 |
Satoshi's last private communication to Mike Hearn; disappears. |
| 2011 |
Litecoin (LTC) — Charlie Lee. Scrypt PoW, 4× faster blocks. |
| 2011 |
Namecoin — first relevant fork; introduces the concept of merge mining. |
| 2012 |
Bitcoin halving #1 (from 50 → 25 BTC). |
| 2013-04 |
Bitcoin reaches US$ 100. |
| 2013-08 |
Mastercoin (later Omni Layer) — first ICO; tokens on top of Bitcoin. |
| 2013-11 |
Bitcoin reaches US$ 1,000. |
| 2014-02 |
Mt. Gox collapse — 850k BTC lost. |
| 2014-07 |
Ethereum crowdsale (Jul–Sep 2014) — 60M ETH sold for 31k BTC (US$ 18M). |
Ethereum + altcoins era (2015–2017)
| Date |
Event |
| 2015-07-30 |
Ethereum mainnet launch (Frontier release). Vitalik Buterin + Gavin Wood + cofounders (Joe Lubin, Charles Hoskinson — later Cardano, Anthony Di Iorio, Mihai Alisie, Amir Chetrit, Jeffrey Wilcke). |
| 2015 |
Tether (USDT) launched on Bitcoin Omni Layer (later multi-chain). First major stablecoin. |
| 2016-04-30 |
The DAO crowdsale — raises US$ 150M in ETH. |
| 2016-06-17 |
DAO hack — attacker drains US$ 60M via a reentrancy bug. |
| 2016-07-20 |
Ethereum hard fork reverts the DAO hack. Ethereum Classic (ETC) keeps the original chain (immutable purist). |
| 2017 |
ICO boom: Status, Bancor, EOS (\(4B raised), Tezos, Filecoin, Tron. ~US\) 6B in ICOs in 2017. |
| 2017-07 |
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard fork — bigger blocks (8MB), led by Roger Ver, Jihan Wu. |
| 2017-08 |
SegWit activated on Bitcoin (BIP 141). |
| 2017-12 |
Bitcoin reaches US$ 19,700. ETH reaches US$ 750. |
Crypto winter + DeFi summer (2018–2020)
| Date |
Event |
| 2018-01 |
Coincheck hack — US$ 530M in NEM. |
| 2018-Q1 |
Crypto winter begins; the market falls 80%. |
| 2018-09 |
Bitcoin Lightning Network mainnet. |
| 2018-11 |
Bitcoin Cash hard fork — BCH vs Bitcoin SV (Craig Wright). |
| 2018 |
Augur, 0x, Maker (DAI), Compound v1, dYdX launch. |
| 2019-01 |
Ethereum Constantinople hard fork. |
| 2019-04 |
Bitfinex / Tether reveal that USDT reserves are not 100% USD. |
| 2019-06 |
Facebook Libra (later Diem) announced — abandoned in 2022. |
| 2019-09 |
Uniswap v1 launched by Hayden Adams — constant-product AMM. |
| 2020-03-12 |
"Black Thursday" — COVID crash; ETH falls 40% in 24h; MakerDAO suffers liquidations from a gas spike. |
| 2020-05 |
Bitcoin halving #3 (12.5 → 6.25 BTC). |
| 2020-06 |
Compound launches the COMP token — kicks off liquidity mining. DeFi Summer begins. |
| 2020-07 |
YAM Finance — fork of YFI; catastrophic bug in the rebase. |
| 2020-09 |
SushiSwap — vampire attack against Uniswap. |
| 2020-09 |
Uniswap v2 + UNI token airdrop. |
| 2020-10 |
DeFi TVL reaches US$ 10B. |
| 2020-11 |
Aave v2. Yearn (YFI). |
| 2020-12 |
Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain activated — first step toward Proof-of-Stake. |
Multi-chain era + NFT boom (2021)
| Date |
Event |
| 2021-02 |
Bitcoin reaches US$ 50,000 (Tesla buys US$1.5B in BTC). |
| 2021-03 |
Beeple NFT sold for US$ 69M at Christie's. |
| 2021-04 |
Coinbase IPO (Direct Listing NASDAQ:COIN). |
| 2021-05 |
China bans crypto mining — Bitcoin hashrate drops 50%, recovers in 6 months. |
| 2021-05 |
Bitcoin mining migration to the US + Kazakhstan + Russia. |
| 2021-05 |
Terra (LUNA, UST) gains traction. |
| 2021-06 |
El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as legal tender (law June 21, in force September 7). |
| 2021-08 |
Ethereum London (EIP-1559) — fee burn begins. |
| 2021-08 |
Poly Network hack — US$ 611M. The attacker returns the funds. |
| 2021-09 |
NFT mainstream: BAYC US$ 200k+ floor. |
| 2021-10 |
Bitcoin futures ETF (ProShares BITO) approved in the US. |
| 2021-11 |
Bitcoin ATH US$ 69,044 (Nov 10). ETH US$ 4,866 (Nov 10). |
| 2021-11 |
Solana adoption explosion. Avalanche, Fantom, BSC booms. |
| 2021-11 |
Bitcoin Taproot activated (BIP 340341342) — Schnorr + Taproot scripts. |
| 2021-12 |
Wormhole popular bridge to Solana. |
Crypto winter + collapses (2022)
| Date |
Event |
| 2022-02 |
Wormhole hack — US$ 320M (cross-chain bridge bug). |
| 2022-03 |
Ronin Bridge hack — US$ 625M (Axie Infinity). N. Korean Lazarus group. |
| 2022-04 |
Beanstalk Farms governance attack — US$ 182M. |
| 2022-05-09 |
Terra Luna collapse: UST de-pegs; LUNA falls 99.99% in 1 week; US$ 60B evaporated. |
| 2022-06 |
Three Arrows Capital (3AC) bankruptcy — defaulted on US$ 3.5B. |
| 2022-06 |
Celsius Network halts withdrawals. Bankruptcy July 2022. |
| 2022-07 |
Voyager Digital bankruptcy. |
| 2022-08 |
Tornado Cash sanctioned by OFAC — smart contract code banned (legal debate). |
| 2022-09-15 |
The Merge — Ethereum migrates to Proof-of-Stake. ETH supply -90% emission. |
| 2022-10 |
Mango Markets exploit — US$ 117M (Avi Eisenberg, convicted). |
| 2022-11-08 |
FTX collapse — Sam Bankman-Fried. US$ 8B+ in customer funds missing. |
| 2022-11 |
Genesis, BlockFi filings/halts. Contagion. |
| 2022-12 |
Bitcoin US\( 16k. ETH US\) 1.2k. Sentiment: rock bottom. |
Recovery + ETFs + restaking (2023)
| Date |
Event |
| 2023-01 |
Ordinals (Bitcoin NFTs / inscriptions) launched. Controversial. |
| 2023-02 |
Sandwiching everywhere; MEV maturity. |
| 2023-03 |
USDC depeg briefly to US$0.87 (SVB collapse exposure). |
| 2023-04 |
Ethereum Shapella upgrade — staking withdrawals enabled. |
| 2023-06 |
SEC vs Binance, Coinbase — major lawsuits. |
| 2023-07 |
Worldcoin launch — biometrics controversy. |
| 2023-07 |
EigenLayer mainnet — the restaking thesis is born. |
| 2023-08 |
PayPal launches PYUSD stablecoin. |
| 2023-09 |
Mt. Gox creditors finally receive distribution. |
| 2023-10 |
Friend.tech — SocialFi spike + crash. |
| 2023-12 |
Bitcoin Inscriptions/BRC-20 boom. |
| 2023-12 |
MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) enters partial force in the EU. |
Spot ETFs + new Bitcoin ATH (2024)
| Date |
Event |
| 2024-01-10 |
SEC approves Spot Bitcoin ETF — BlackRock IBIT, Fidelity FBTC, etc. Massive inflows. |
| 2024-03-13 |
Ethereum Dencun upgrade — EIP-4844 proto-danksharding (blobs) — L2 fees 10× lower. |
| 2024-03-14 |
Bitcoin ATH US$ 73,737. |
| 2024-04-19 |
Bitcoin halving #4 (6.25 → 3.125 BTC). |
| 2024-05-23 |
SEC approves Spot Ethereum ETF (trading begins in July). |
| 2024-07 |
Mt. Gox begins distributing the remaining 142k BTC. |
| 2024-08 |
NIST PQC standards finalized — ML-KEM, ML-DSA, SLH-DSA. Implications for PQC migration of blockchains. |
| 2024-09 |
EigenLayer mainnet complete + restaking modular thesis (AVS - Actively Validated Services). |
| 2024-10 |
Polymarket boom during the US elections. |
| 2024-11-05 |
Trump elected; crypto industry optimism massive. |
| 2024-12-05 |
Bitcoin reaches US$ 100,000. |
| 2024-12 |
Hyperliquid TGE, top perp DEX. |
Pro-crypto US era + maturation (2025–present)
| Date |
Event |
| 2025-01 |
Trump takes office. Pro-crypto cabinet picks. |
| 2025-01 |
Trump memecoin ($TRUMP) launched on Solana — ethical controversy + 10× gain. |
| 2025-01 |
SEC under Paul Atkins (Trump appointee) — drops major crypto cases (Coinbase, Binance, Ripple). |
| 2025-02 |
Bybit hack — US$ 1.5B in ETH, biggest exchange hack ever. N. Korean. |
| 2025-03 |
NIST selects HQC as a second PQC KEM. |
| 2025-03 |
GENIUS Act introduced in the US Senate — stablecoin framework. |
| 2025-04 |
Stripe acquires Bridge — stablecoin infrastructure US$ 1.1B. |
| 2025-05 |
GENIUS Act signed into law — first US federal framework for stablecoins. |
| 2025-06 |
Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Executive Order — US Treasury holds confiscated BTC. |
| 2025-07 |
Solana spot ETF approved. |
| 2025-Q3 |
Tokenized RWA TVL reaches US$ 50B (BlackRock BUIDL, Ondo OUSG, Centrifuge). |
| 2025-09 |
MiCA Phase 2 completes EU rollout. |
| 2025-12 |
Bitcoin around US$ 130k. |
| 2026-01 |
Brazil Drex (CBDC) phased rollout. |
| 2026-02 |
Eclipse, MegaETH — high-perf L2s mainnet. |
| 2026-03 |
Ethereum Pectra upgrade — EIP-7702 (smart EOA), EIP-7251 (max effective balance increase). |
| 2026-Q2 |
Bitcoin ETF AUM > US$ 200B. |
Pending milestones (2026–2030+ expected)
- PQC migration Bitcoin: BIP draft post-quantum signing schemes (Westerbaan/Valsorda 2024 proposal).
- Ethereum Verge / Purge / Splurge — Vitalik's roadmap (Verkle trees, history expiry, EOF).
- Solana Firedancer validator client (Jump Trading) — high performance.
- Stablecoin GENIUS full rollout — bank-issued stablecoins.
- Brazil's crypto Legal Framework consolidated (Lei 14.4782022 + BCBCVM regulation still under construction).
- Spot alt ETFs — XRP, ADA expected post-Solana.
- MiCA Phase 3 — Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs) full enforcement.
- PQC Bitcoin/Ethereum hard fork estimated 2028–2032.
Cross-reference
- Detail of each chain:
04-l1-bitcoin.md, 05-l1-ethereum.md, 06-l1-alt.md.
- DeFi mechanics:
09-defi.md.
- Detailed hacks and collapses:
14-incidents.md.
- Regulation by jurisdiction:
13-regulation.md.
- Crypto primitives:
../cryptography/10-criptomoeda.md.