Still remember that insane 2017 bitcoin run? Watching BTC go from $900 to $20,000 in a single year was absolutely wild. I was thinking about that price action recently and realized how much that December 2017 peak shaped the entire crypto narrative we're still living in today.

The whole thing felt surreal at the time. Early in the year, bitcoin was still trading under four figures. Then somewhere around mid-year, something shifted. The momentum just kept building. By fall, every mainstream media outlet was covering it. Your relatives were asking you about crypto. Randos at parties suddenly had opinions on blockchain.

That December sprint to $20K was the final push of the cycle. People were FOMO-ing in hard. Everyone thought they'd missed the boat at $10K, so they bought at $15K instead. Then at $18K. Then at $20K. It was peak euphoria.

What's interesting looking back is how that single year set expectations for an entire generation of traders. People who entered near the top in December thought that kind of return was normal. Spoiler: it wasn't. The hangover lasted years.

Fast forward to now and bitcoin has moved way beyond those 2017 levels, but that December 2017 spike still lives rent-free in everyone's head. It's the benchmark people measure everything against. First time seeing this kind of price discovery was the real education though—learned more about market psychology in that year than most people do in a decade of trading.

Anyone else remember exactly where they were when bitcoin hit that $20K mark? That moment defined a lot of people's relationship with crypto.