A Look At Bitcoin's Crazy Decade

Bitcoin ended the 2010s just above the $7,000 per coin mark, which is far removed from it's all-time high of nearly $20,000 but also up a whopping 9,000,000 percent from its roots in July of 2010, according to Bloomberg.

Bitcoin's first transaction consisted of 10,000 coins in exchange for two pizzas back in 2010 when the digital coin had a value close to zero. Since then the price of a bitcoin has risen from eight cents to $7,230.58 which translates to a return of exactly 9,038,125 percent.

See Also: Boredom Is The Enemy? A Look At Bitcoin Since Peaking At $20,000

Why It's Important

The narrative over bitcoin's purpose in society has also shifted over the past 10 years, Bloomberg's Eric Lam said Tuesday. At the very beginning, bitcoin was supposed to either "replace the U.S. dollar" or become the "next future medium of exchange."

Today, bitcoin is viewed as a form of "digital gold" that will rise in value and isn't meant to perform day-to-day transactions, he said. There are other digital currencies that are specifically designed for that purpose.

Over the years bitcoin has picked up a lot of skepticism and regulatory scrutiny which makes its path forward unclear, Lam said. While it's unlikely investors will see another 9 million percent return, "crazier things have happened" over the past 10 years.