The History of Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin's Long, Strange Trip to Best-Performing Asset of the Decade

In 2021, a single Bitcoin is worth about $55,000. According to CNBC, if you had invested $100 in Bitcoin in its beginning over a decade ago, you would have been able to buy a thousand Bitcoins. At time of writing, those would be now worth over $55 million. Long before Bitcoin blew up, though, it was simply a theoretical concept in an academic paper, published by an anonymous person using a pseudonym. Read on for a brief history of Bitcoin, from its origins in the 1970s to the influence of the 2008 financial crisis, to the recent massive expansion of cryptocurrency and the non-fungible token craze taking over the internet world today. It's a tale of mystery, mistrust, risk, and reward (plus: a multi-million dollar pizza).