I noticed an interesting story about Bitcoin. When the cryptocurrency's price recently approached $100,000, many started googling how much BTC could have been bought at the very beginning. And here’s what turned out — the history of Bitcoin's price in 2009 looks just crazy from an investor’s perspective.

So, Satoshi Nakamoto presented the Bitcoin technical documentation in 2008, and the network itself launched in January 2009. But trading only started to develop closer to the end of the year, when the first exchange, The New Liberty Standard, appeared. The first real transactions with BTC occurred on October 5, 2009. People on the Bitcoin Talk forum recorded that they were asking 1309 bitcoins for 1 dollar — meaning one BTC was worth about $0.00764. Wild numbers, if you think about it.

Next, Bitcoin's price in 2009 fluctuated but remained in the cent range. If someone bought just 10 BTC at the start of trading and held them until today, at the current price of $79.12K, they would have about $791,000 in profit. Just like that.

But the story doesn’t end in 2009. In 2010, BTC was only $0.30 at the end of the year, and by the end of 2011, it rose to $4.25. 2012 saw an increase from $4.25 to $13.51 — a 217% growth in a year. And 2013 was just crazy: Bitcoin soared from $13.51 to $751, a 5457% increase. In November of that year, there was an attempt to break $1163.

2014 was a harsh correction — the price dropped 57%, from $751 to $320. But in 2015, it recovered by 34%, to $430.

Then 2016 saw a 124% increase (from $430 to $963), and 2017 was outright insane — +1370%, up to $14,156, although the peak was close to $20,000 in December. But 2018 crushed the market by 73%, down to $3,742. Then 2019 recovered to $7,193, and 2020 skyrocketed by 302% to $28,949.

In 2021, there was +60% (to $46,306), with a local peak near $69,000 in November. 2022 was painful — down 64%, to $16,547. But 2023 returned +161%, to $43,196.

Now it’s interesting: if you only count from the beginning of 2024 (when BTC was at $43,196), then the current dip to $79.12K still means about 83% growth over the year. Someone who bought 10 bitcoins at the start of this year could now earn around $360,000 upon selling.

If you look at the full history since 2009 — Bitcoin’s price in 2009 was literally negligible, and now it’s just astronomical sums. Early investors who didn’t sell at the peak are still in huge profit. That’s the math of cryptocurrencies.