Bitcoin’s price history is the most argued-about chart in modern finance and, approached as a record rather than an argument, it is simply a dataset: fifteen-plus years of highs, collapses and recoveries, each with a date. This page is the reference table, the major drawdowns, and the handful of patterns the record actually supports, kept current and sourced. The interpretive companion is The Bitcoin Cycle, Explained; the supply schedule behind the rhythm is in Bitcoin Halving Dates.
Prices are in US dollars, rounded, from exchange records of the day; early-era figures are approximate because early markets were thin and fragmented.
The milestone table
| Date | Approx. price | Event |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2009 | no market | Genesis block; bitcoin has no price |
| May 2010 | ~$0.004 equiv. | The 10,000 BTC pizzas: first recorded goods purchase |
| Feb 2011 | $1 | Dollar parity |
| Jun 2011 | ~$31 → ~$2 | First mania and first great crash (~-93%) |
| Nov 2013 | ~$1,150 | Cycle 1 peak |
| Jan 2015 | ~$170-200 | Cycle 1 trough (~-85%); Mt. Gox aftermath |
| Dec 2017 | ~$19,700 | Cycle 2 peak; ICO mania era |
| Dec 2018 | ~$3,200 | Cycle 2 trough (~-84%) |
| Mar 2020 | ~$3,900 intraday | COVID crash: ~-50% in two days |
| Nov 2021 | ~$69,000 | Cycle 3 peak |
| Nov 2022 | ~$15,500 | Cycle 3 trough (~-77%); FTX collapse |
| Jan 2024 | ~$46,000 | US spot ETFs launch |
| Mar 2024 | ~$73,800 | New ATH before a halving, a first |
| Apr 20, 2024 | ~$64,000 | Fourth halving |
| Dec 2024 | ~$100,000 | Six figures crossed |
| 2025 | ~$116,000 area | Cycle 4 peak to date |
| Oct 15, 2026 | $82,344.81 | ~-29% from the high; drawdown ongoing |
The drawdown ledger
The crashes are the half of the record that matters most for anyone deciding what owning this asset is like. Every major decline of 45 percent or more:
| Drawdown | Peak → trough | Depth | Time to reclaim prior high |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | ~$31 → ~$2 | ~-93% | ~20 months |
| 2013 (April) | ~$260 → ~$50 | ~-80% | ~7 months |
| 2013-2015 | ~$1,150 → ~$170 | ~-85% | ~3 years |
| 2017-2018 | ~$19,700 → ~$3,200 | ~-84% | ~3 years |
| Mar 2020 | ~$10,500 → ~$3,900 | ~-63% peak-to-trough window | ~2 months |
| 2021-2022 | ~$69,000 → ~$15,500 | ~-77% | ~28 months |
| 2025-2026 | ~$116,000 → open | -29% as of Oct 15, 2026 | open |
The pattern that table supports, stated carefully: every previous drawdown, including three of more than 80 percent, was eventually followed by a recovery to new highs, and each recovery took months to years of the kind of patience most market participants do not have. The pattern it does not support: any guarantee about the open row. Past recoveries are a record, not a promise, and this site’s no-prediction rule applies to its own tables first.
What the record actually shows
Shrinking amplitude. Each cycle’s peak multiple has fallen, roughly 95x, 30x, 8x, under 2x halving-to-peak, and through cycle three each trough was shallower, 85, 84, 77 percent, consistent with a maturing, more institutionally held asset. Cycle four’s 29 percent drawdown to date fits the sequence so far, with the emphasis on to date.
Violence in both directions is the norm. Half the long-run return arrived in a handful of explosive months, and 30-to-50 percent corrections have occurred inside bull markets repeatedly. The asset’s volatility, declining across years but still a multiple of equities’, is the admission price, which is the context behind the approach in Dollar Cost Averaging Bitcoin.
Each era had a different marginal buyer. Hobbyists to 2013, retail waves in 2017, corporates and funds in 2020-21, ETF and advisor flows since 2024, documented in Bitcoin ETF Flows. The record is one price series produced by four different markets, the deepest reason extrapolation keeps failing, and the macro overlay examined in Bitcoin Correlation adds the liquidity-cycle confound to the same caution.
Survival through obituaries. The declared-dead count sits in the hundreds; the network’s uptime and issuance schedule ran through every one of them, per Common Bitcoin Myths. Price history and protocol history are different series, and only the second one has been smooth.
On the radar
Keep the two tables; they settle most arguments faster than commentary does. The open row is the only one anyone can trade, and the record’s honest counsel on it is double-edged: declines this size have always recovered so far, and sitting through the recovery has always been harder than the backtest implies. Current reading, $82,344.81 on October 15, 2026, 29 percent below the high, cycle four’s character still being written. This page updates as the row closes; the date on every figure is the point.