Origins
Going Mainstream
- 2019 June 18: Facebook unveiled its cryptocurrency, called Libra - digital money designed to make it easy to send payments around the world, between countries, and over the internet.
- 2020 Feb 27: Based on failure to comply with Securities and Exchange Commission regulations requiring full disclosure from people promoting financial products, action movie star Steven Seagal agreed to a settlement of a $300,000 fine and being barred from promoting financial products for three years.
- 2020 Fall:
 Bitcoin got a boost from PayPal when the payment platform said that it would soon allow sales using the Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash cryptocurrencies.
- 2020 December: Bitcoin's value quadrupled in 2020 and first surpassed $20,000.
- 2021 Sun Jan 3: Cryptocurrency Bitcoin broke through the $30,000 barrier and jumped to a record high of more than $34,800 on the 12th anniversary of the cryptocurrency network's creation.
- 2021 April: Cryptocurrency Bitcoin reached a record high above $64,800.
- 2021 April 14: Shares of cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase [est. 2012] surged on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on their first day as a publicly traded company, rising from $381 to as high as $429.54 within minutes to reach a valuation of nearly $100 billion; the stock later eased back a bit, but remained far above its reference price of $250. The event was widely seen as a watershed moment in the mainstream acceptance of digital currency.
- 2021 April 18: Bitcoin prices plunged over the weekend, falling as much as 19.5 percent from last week's record high, then dropped as low as $52,148.98 early Sunday before climbing back above $55,700. Other cryptocurrencies, including Ether and Dogecoin, also fell sharply. Ether, the second biggest digital currency by market value, fell by as much as 18 percent on Sunday after it, too, reached record highs last week. The weekend's slump followed an unverified report via Twitter that the Treasury Department was preparing to crack down on money laundering using cryptocurrency.
- 2021 May 3: The cryptocurrency frenzy continued as Ether, the cryptocoin linked to the Ethereum blockchain, jumped to a record high before pulling back sharply; Ether surpassed $3,000 for the first time, then rose as high as $3,457.64 on the Bitstamp Exchange before falling by about 6 percent to $3,244. The cryptocurrency was still up by about 340 percent in 2021 thanks to a boost coming from enthusiasm for bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies have skyrocketed as investors, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, buy it, and it gains acceptance as a form of payment. The frenzy has also driven up joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin by 9,000 percent this year.
- 2021 Wed May 19: Bitcoin's price plunged by as much as 30 percent as its selloff picked up speed; the leading cryptocurrency went on a tear earlier in the year, peaking at $64,829 in mid-April as it gained acceptance as an investment and more companies started accepting it as a form of payment; it fell as low as $30,202 before closing at $38,802, a 10 percent drop on the day.
- 2021 Sunday May 23: The Bitcoin selloff resumed, with the volatile cryptocurrency dropping by 13 percent; Ether, the cryptocurrency linked to the ethereum blockchain network, fell by 17 percent. Bitcoin came under renewed pressure during the prior week after Tesla CEO and longtime cryptocurrency booster Elon Musk posted a series of tweets in which he said that the electric-car company was reversing plans to accept Bitcoin as payment.
- 2021 November: Bitcoin record high of nearly $69,000.
- 2021 Year-End: Per a May 2022 F.T.C. report, investors lost more than $1 billion in crypto scams during 2021, almost sixty times more than in 2018; the most popular category of scam was fake investments, while romance scams came in at number 2.
The Crash of 2 0 2 2
- 2022 Sat Jan 22: A dramatic sell-off in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies outpaced a marked retreat in the U.S. stock market, as the Federal Reserve’s pivot away from emergency support spooked investors who piled into highflying but risky assets during the pandemic.
The price of bitcoin fell from its November highs of nearly $70,000 to now around $35,000; Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, fell around 9 percent in just 24 hours; since the start of the year, it has fallen around 23 percent. Meanwhile, Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, fared even worse, dropping around 15 percent over 24 hours and roughly 35 percent since the new year. The sell-off accelerated a two-month slide in the global cryptocurrency market that has vaporized $1.4 trillion in value: after reaching a high of roughly $3 trillion in early November, the total value of digital assets sat just above $1.6 trillion early Saturday afternoon.
- 2022 Wed Jan 26: The plunge of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital currencies wiped out $1 trillion in value since November, but gained early ahead of the Federal Reserve's statement at the end of its two-day policy meeting; the market gained for two straight days after plummeting over the weekend; the value of cryptocurrencies dropped sharply in the last two months, raising fears among some digital-currency investors of a coming 'Crypto Winter' (which finally appeared in June). The plunge in value of digital currencies occured as investors brace for interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve and distance themselves from risky assets.
- 2022 March: President Biden signed an executive order that called for more research into what a new regulatory framework for the crypto industry should look like.
- 2022 April: Miami, Florida Mayor Francis Suarez has waged an all-out campaign to attract crypto companies during the pandemic, with palm trees and low taxes forming the backbone of his sales pitch. Venture capital funding of Miami-area crypto companies exploded from $6 million in 2020 to $745 million in 2021. Crypto firms in San Francisco raised $7.4 billion last year, and New York firms raised $4.7 billion; Miami is fifth in the U.S. for venture capital investment in crypto startups.
- 2022 May 7-8: Bitcoin continued to fall over the weekend, and is now almost 50% below its all-time high.
- 2022 Tue May 10: Bitcoin fell below $30,000 for the first time since mid-2021 before rebounding by as much as 5.4 percent to $31,904; the world's biggest cryptocurrency has been falling since a rally peak in November; Bitcoin is now down nearly 55 percent from its November high, and 40 percent of people who have invested in the digital currency are now underwater.
- 2022 Friday May 13: Bitcoin bounced back above $30,000 despite continuing market problems that have panicked cryptocurrency investors.
- 2022 May: The crash of the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD and its partner token Luna; the stablecoin was promised to be a 'safe and happy' way to make a 20% yield (the S.E.C. is looking into this claim), as long as the coin stayed pegged to the dollar; but it didn’t and it crashed, wiping out about $40 billion of value from the crypto market.
- 2022 May: Terra blockchain was temporarily halted after the collapse of the stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and Luna which fell to $ZERO, an event that wiped out almost $45 billion in market capitalisation within a week; the stablecoin was promised to be a 'safe and happy' way to make a 20% yield (the S.E.C. is looking into this claim), as long as the coin stayed pegged to the dollar. But that didn’t happen and TerraUSD and Luna crashed in May, wiping out about $40 billion of value from the crypto market.
- 2022 May: Steadfast Do Kwon, co-founder & CEO of Terraform Labs, launched Luna 2.0, which crashed by more than 70% in its first week.
- 2022 June: Events are being labeled 'The Crypto Winter'.
- 2022 June 3: New York’s state Senate passed a bill that bans new permits across the state for bitcoin mining facilities that use carbon-based power, because New York lawmakers are worried that revving up dormant fossil fuel plants could put the state off track to meet its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050. After China cracked down on bitcoin mining (the mechanism for creating new bitcoin) last year, the U.S. laid out the red carpet and now accounts for 38% of the world’s miners, up from 16.8% in April 2021. Upstate New York in particular - with its plentiful hydroelectric power and numerous vacant industrial facilities - has been a popular destination, but cryptominers are increasingly decamping to more crypto-friendly states, like Georgia and Texas, as New York bears down.
- 2022 June 7: U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand [Dem NY] and Cynthia Lummis [GOP WY] - two senators who recently suggested that workers look to bitcoin as a retirement savings vehicle - introduced the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, a highly anticipated bill meant to create a regulatory framework for digital assetsthe bill is seen as 'pro-cryptocurrency', since it classifies most digital assets as commodities instead of as securities; this distinction puts the majority of crypto under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (C.F.T.C.) instead of the S.E.C. Though the bill is seen as favorable to the crypto industry, it does introduce more oversight to stablecoins and altcoins. The bill was not voted on.
- 2022 Sunday June 12: Bitcoin is down more than half of its value from an all-time high of over $68,000, ethereum is down even further, and the overall crash accounts for about $1 trillion of lost value.
- 2022 June 13: Crypto is suffering: Bitcoin dropped a further 15 percent to its lowest price since 2020, Ethereum is down 16 percent, and some crypto banks have frozen withdrawals to slow the massive rush on digital assets.
- 2022 Tuesday June 14: Bitcoin prices dropped below $21,000 before rebounding modestly as a cryptocurrency selloff intensified. Just after 5 a.m. ET the world's largest cryptocurrency was trading at $22,531.22, down 7 percent, Global cryptocurrency market capitalization fell below $1 trillion on Monday for the first time since 2021 after the market lost $200 billion since Saturday. The latest losses came after crypto lender Celsius briefly blocked customers from making withdrawals from its platform due to 'extreme market conditions'.
- 2022 Tuesday June 14: Coinbase employees, or 18% of its workforce, are being laid off via a message in their personal email inboxes - because Coinbase blocked workers from their corporate email accounts before telling them the news. In announcing the layoffs, CEO Brian Armstrong wrote that “we grew too quickly” since the start of 2021, and that now it’s time to “manage expenses” and “increase efficiency.”
- 2022 Saturday June 18: The price of Bitcoin dropped below $20,000 for the first time since Nov. 2020 and dropped below $18,000 before recovering Sunday morning to around $19,500. Bitcoin has lost more than 70 percent of its value since it peaked in Nov. 2021.
- 2022 June: In the last two weeks, Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire CEO of F.T.X., has provided a $250 million revolving line of credit to lending platform BlockFi and a $200 million credit line of cash and stablecoins (plus other goodies) to Voyager Digital, an exchange whose stock has plunged ~90% this year.
- 2022 June: Bitcoin fell below $17,000.
- 2022 July 1: Crypto brokerage Voyager Digital said that it is temporarily suspending all trades, deposits, and withdrawals on its platform due to current market conditions. Crypto lender Vauld, backed by Coinbase and Peter Thiel, also paused withdrawals, trading, and deposits.
- 2022 Thu July 14: Cryptocurrency loan company Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a month after suspending withdrawals; the company said that it will continue suspending withdrawals and argued that the bankruptcy filing will give it 'the best opportunity to stabilize the business, consummate a comprehensive restructuring transaction that maximizes value for all stakeholders, and emerge from Chapter 11 positioned for success in the cryptocurrency industry'. Celsius also revealed that it has a $1.2 billion shortfall, which CEO Alex Mashinsky blamed on 'poor' investments and other 'unanticipated' losses.
- 2022 Aug 1: The S.E.C. charged 11 people for allegedly grifting retail investors out of more than $300 million in a classic Ponzi scheme, but with a blockchain twist. The individuals are accused of creating and promoting Forsage, which purported to be a 'decentralized smart contract platform' that allowed investors to make money by getting others to join.
- 2022 Sept 16: The Biden administration announced a regulatory framework for the crypto industry, following up on an executive order in March calling for more research on what that should look like; the new framework focuses on cracking down on illicit activity and making crypto investing safer overall - specifically regarding stablecoins, which haven’t lived up to their name; the new framework also lays out the 'significant benefits' of creating a digital U.S. currency.
- 2022 Sept 19: South Korean prosecutors requested that Interpol issue a red notice against Terra and Luna founder Do Kwon, alleging the disgraced crypto mogul isn’t cooperating with investigators. Accused of fraud and under investigation by the SEC, Kwon was believed to be in Singapore, though police there say he is not in the city-state. Kwon defended himself against charges that he’s on the run from investigators, writing on Twitter last weekend that “I am not ‘on the run’ or anything similar”. In response, prosecutors issued a statement that Kwon was “obviously on the run”: Kwon’s whereabouts remain unknown. The May collapse of Kwon’s crypto company wiped out $40 billion of investors’ cash and sparked a broader crypto market crash, resulting in losses of about $500 billion; that collapse sparked investigations into Kwon and his company Terraform Labs, ultimately leading South Korea to issue an arrest warrant last week for him and five others connected to the company.
- 2022 Monday Oct 3: The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that reality TV star Kim Kardashian will pay $1.26 million to settle charges that she recommended that her 330 million Instagram followers buy Ethereum Max crypto security tokens without revealing she was paid for the to pitch; the penalty includes a $1 million fine and the forfeiture of $250,000, plus interest, that Kardashian was paid to make the post. The penalty is based on regulations requiring full disclosure from people promoting financial products; as part of the settlement, Kardashian is barred from promoting financial products for three years.
- 2022 Oct 11: The U.S. Treasury Department fined the cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex $24 million for violating sanctions on Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, and Russian-controlled Crimea in Ukraine, the largest such penalty to date against a crypto company.
- 2022 November: Nonfiction superstar author Michael Lewis, who is famous for writing "The Big Short" and "Moneyball", has reportedly been embedded with the bankrupt crypto exchange’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for six months and will pen a book telling the inside story; news of Lewis’s next book was revealed by a C.A.A. agent in an email to potential buyers of the movie rights; according to the email, the author plans to focus on the rivalry between S.B.F. and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, suggesting that they are 'the Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader of crypto'.
- 2022 early November: Cryptocurrency lender Genesis Global Trading [est. 2013] froze withdrawals amid the collapse of crypto exchange F.T.X., leaving 340,000 customers unable to access $900 million in assets.
- 2022 Wed Nov 9: Crypto exchange Binance's decision to drop plans to acquire rival F.T.X. also dragged down tech stocks, and sent Bitcoin's price to a two-year low. Popular F.T.X. CEO Sam Bankman-Fried lost 94% of his wealth in a single day, and Bloomberg said that the 30-year-old crypto entrepreneur may find himself removed from their billionaires list within days.
- 2022 Nov 10: New Jersey crypto bank BlockFi halted withdrawals.
- 2022 Fri Nov 11: F.T.X. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried resigned; John J. Ray III was appointed F.T.X.’s new CEO.
- 2022 Mon Nov 14: The F.T.X. crypto exchange's collapse and bankruptcy caused further damage: Bitcoin dropped to $16,500 and is now down 65 percent in 2022; analysts say that it could drop below $10,000. Ether has fallen more than 20 percent this year and was trading around $1,230. F.T.X. said over the weekend that it was investigating a potential hack after more than $370 million worth of crypto funds cannot be found.
- 2022 mid-November: The F.T.X. crypto exchange implosion sent shock waves through the industry; cryptocurrency Bitcoin plummeted to a two-year low of $15,480, substantially down from its peak of just under $69,000 in November 2021.
- 2022 Thu Nov 17: Veteran bankruptcy pro John J. Ray III, the newly appointed CEO of F.T.X., said that the collapsed crypto exchange was the worst corporate failure he’s ever witnessed. (And he oversaw the liquidation of Enron.)
- 2022 Mon Nov 28: Crypto bank BlockFi filed for bankruptcy.
- 2022 early December: After the meteor-killing-the-dinosaurs level collapse of crypto exchange F.T.X., a number of celebrities who had acted as ambassadors for the company were named as defendants in class-action suits in Florida state court and elsewhere; comedian & "Seinfeld" creator Larry David, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and his ex-wife model Gisele Bundchen, baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz, Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, and basketball stars Shaquille O’Neal & Stephen Curry were among those named in the suits.
- 2022 Sat Dec 10: A number of high-profile celebrities were named in a class-action lawsuit against N.F.T. brand Yuga Labs, the parent company of N.F.T. series Bored Ape Yacht Club, claiming that the company conspired with these celebrities to defraud potential cryptocurrency investors; the class-action lawsuit names 37 defendants, including Kevin Hart, Jimmy Fallon, Serena Williams, Madonna, Justin Bieber, Gwenyth Paltrow, Snoop Dogg, among others. The plaintiffs seek at least $5 million in damages.
- 2022 Mon Dec 12: Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested former F.T.X. CEO Sam Bankman-Fried at his apartment complex in Nassau, Bahamas at the request of the U.S. Government; S.B.F. will appear in Bahamian court Tuesday. The New York Times reported that the charges against S.B.F. included wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering; S.B.F. has denied accusations that he defrauded F.T.X.'s customers.
- 2022 Tue Dec 13: The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the collapse of F.T.X. without Sam Bankman-Fried because he was in custody in the Bahamas;
Cong. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [Dem; NY-14] interrogated acting F.T.X. CEO John J. Ray III, who scapegoated the company's founder for all of its criminal conduct, describing the brazen crypto scam as 'plain, old fashion embezzlement' carried out by 'a small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals'.
- 2022 Tue Dec 13: The Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled a civil complaint against Sam Bankman-Fried and F.T.X. calling the company 'a house of cards [built] on a foundation of deception'.
- 2022 Sun Dec 18: New York prosecutors accepted a plea deal with Caroline Ellison, the 28-year-old former CEO of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, who co-founded F.T.X. with Sam Bankman-Fried, on wire, securities, and commodities fraud charges 'related to their roles in the fraud that contributed to F.T.X.'s collapse'. Ellison attempted to minimize her punishment in exchange for her full cooperation with S.B.F.’s prosecutors. Ellison admitted that she and S.B.F. worked together to mislead F.T.X. lenders about how much Alameda Research was borrowing from the exchange, per unsealed court transcripts; she also said that she’s sorry. The estimated amount that now-bankrupt F.T.X. owes to creditors is $8 billion, while it loaned as much as $10 billion to Alameda, per the New York Times.
- 2022 Mon Dec 19: Crypto exchange Binance agreed to acquire bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital’s assets for $1.02 billion, even as questions about the exchange’s own finances remain.
- 2022 Mon Dec 19: Insurers have started withholding coverage from cryptocurrency companies with exposure to bankrupt crypto exchange F.T.X. Specialists in the Lloyd's of London and Bermuda insurance markets are demanding more transparency about crypto firms' ties to F.T.X.; the insurers' efforts to protect themselves from fallout from F.T.X.'s implosion is leaving digital currency traders and exchanges without insurance for losses from hacks, theft, and lawsuits. The lack of cryptocurrency market regulation, along with the volatility of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is adding to insurers' longstanding reluctance to issue policies protecting crypto assets, and directors & officers of crypto firms.
- 2022 Wed Dec 21: Publicly-traded bitcoin mining company Core Scientific filed for bankruptcy due to falling crypto prices and soaring energy costs.
- 2022 Wed Dec 21: Bahamian authorities handed F.T.X. co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried over to U.S. authorities to face charges related to the collapse of the cryptocurrency platform; S.B.F. is accused of diverting money from F.T.X. to cover losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
- 2022 Thu Dec 22: Following his extradition from the Bahamas, F.T.X. crypto conman Sam Bankman-Fried appeared in a federal courtroom in Manhattan to answer the charges against him: two counts of wire fraud and six counts of conspiracy; the judge released him on $250 million bail, secured by his parents' home in Palo Alto, California, where he will be confined with an ankle monitor through his trial.
- 2022 Fri Dec 23: Reuters reported that F.T.X. recruited dozens of Nigerian students, desperate for jobs of any kind, to promote cryptocurrency to their peers; some got paid on commission, others worked for free. Now the F.T.X. marketers are subject to arrest and threats of violence from people that they lured into Bankman-Fried's Ponzi scheme, which one of the Nigerian student workers calls 'a very well-planned robbery'.
the year 2 0 2 3
- The cryptocurrency trading industry is still reeling from the November collapse of F.T.X., once the world's second biggest crypto exchange.
- 2023 Tue Jan 3: Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed the indictment charging S.B.F. with eight criminal counts including wire fraud, money laundering, and violating campaign finance laws. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan set bail for S.B.F. at $250 million (secured by his parents' home) and ordered him to wear an ankle monitor and stay at his parents' home in Palo Alto, California. The trial date was set for October 2nd.
- 2023 Wed Jan 4: The New York State Department of Financial Services announced that cryptocurrency trading exchange Coinbase agreed to pay regulators a $50 million fine after an investigation indicated that Coinbase allowed customers to open accounts with insufficient background checks; under the settlement, Coinbase also will have to pump $50 million into its compliance program, which wiil help block criminals, including drug traffickers and child pornography sellers, from establishing accounts.
- 2023 Thu Jan 5: Cryptocurrency lender Genesis said that it was laying off 30 percent of its workers; the layoffs left the company with 145 employees. The company also was considering filing for bankruptcy protection after suffering big losses from loans to now-defunct trading firm Alameda Research and crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, both of which filed for bankruptcy last year.
- 2023 Thu Jan 5: After crypto-focused bank Silvergate Capital revealed damage to its finances by the F.T.X. implosion, it suffered $8.1 billion in customer withdrawals requiring the bank to sell assets at huge losses to meet those obligations.
- 2023 Tue Jan 10: Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase said that it will lay off 20 percent of its workers as crypto markets sink; the company said in an internal memo that it was slashing 950 jobs, after letting go of 1,100 employees in June of last year.
- 2023 Thu Jan 12: The Securities and Exchange Commission charged cryptocurrency lender Genesis Global Trading, Inc. [est. 2013] and cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Trust [ann. 6/2013, launched 10/2015], which is run by Tyler & Cameron Winklevoss, with selling unregistered securities. The allegations are related to the Gemini Earn program, which Gemini and Genesis used to raise billions of dollars' worth of crypto assets from hundreds of thousands of investors, without registering the program. The companies pushed Gemini Earn as a way for customers to get annual returns as high as 7.4 percent on their crypto holdings, with a promise they could cash out at any time.
- 2023 Jan: The Gemini Earn program was shut down, following Genesis Global Trading suspending withdrawals in November 2022.
- 2023 Jan 3: Former F.T.X. CEO S.B.F. pled not guilty to eight criminal counts including wire fraud, money laundering, and violating campaign finance laws.
- 2023 Sat Jan 14: Cryptocurrency Bitcoin gained for the 11th straight day, topping $20,000 for the first time in more than two months.
- 2023 Mon Jan 16: Cryptocurrencies rebounded after getting pummeled by losses for the better part of last year, prompting speculation that the so-called 'crypto winter' - the digital asset world's equivalent of a bear market in stocks - is over. Bitcoin, the world's most popular cryptocurrency, is up 25% over the past month, hovering above $20,000 for the first time since November. Ethereum, the number 2 cryptocurrency, is up more than 30% over the past month, trading above $1,500.
- 2023 Jan 18: The U.S. arrested the founder of crypto exchange Bitzlato (a Russian national who ran the Hong Kong-based company), claiming that the site was used to launder $700 million.
- 2023 Jan ??: The federal government revealed in a new court filing that it has seized more than $600 million in assets from Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of collapsed crypto exchange F.T.X.; according to prosecutors, the seizures included a wide swath of cash in various banks, as well as millions of shares from the financial services company Robinhood. The most recent acquisition came this past week, when the government seized more than $94 million that S.B.F. held in a single bank.
- 2023 Fri Jan 27: U.S. prosecutors asked a federal judge to tighten the bail restrictions for Sam Bankman-Fried in a letter alleging that S.B.F. had attempted to contact former employees of F.T.X. and its holding company Alameda through email and the encrypted messaging app Signal; prosecutors alleged that this may have amounted to witness tampering, and asked the judge to order S.B.F. not to contact any former employees of F.T.X. or use any encrypted messages.
- 2023 Feb: A new report by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said that a record $3.8 billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from various services last year. The increase in crypto heists, from $3.3 billion in 2021, came as the overall market for cryptocurrencies suffered significant declines. Some of the biggest thefts were driven by North Korean-linked hackers; U.S. officials worry that Pyongyang will use money stolen from crypto hacks to fund its illicit nuclear and ballistic weapons programs. North Korean hackers have stolen the equivalent of billions of dollars in recent years by raiding cryptocurrency exchanges, according to the United Nations.
- 2023 Feb 9: U.S. cracks down on crypto staking; in a first-of-its-kind settlement with the S.E.C., the crypto exchange Kraken will stop offering crypto staking services in the U.S. The regulatory crackdown sent a chill across the crypto industry, since staking (crypto’s version of a high-yield savings account, as CoinDesk explains it) is a growing source of revenue for crypto platforms. Shares of Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., dropped the most since July on the news.
- 2023 Feb 16:
- The Securities & Exchange Commission sued the fugitive developer behind two failed cryptocurrencies; the civil fraud suit filed in a Manhattan federal court accuses Do Kwon, founder of failed cryptocurrencies TerraUSD and Luna, and his company of misleading U.S. investors. The S.E.C. said Kwon and Singapore-based Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd. downplayed the risk of TerraUSD and misled investors about the way Luna was used in South Korea. Prosecutors in South Korea have obtained an arrest warrant and a 'red notice' from global law-enforcement agency Interpol, effectively launching a global search for Kwon, who 'appears to be in hiding', according to The Wall Street Journal. The S.E.C. said in its complaint that the scheme resulted in the loss of $40 billion in market value.
- High-profile promoter former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce agreed to pay $1.4 million (without admitting any wrongdoing) over his actions in pushing EthereumMax - the same token that got Kim Kardashian in trouble with the S.E.C.
- Despite the fallout from FTX’s collapse and a flurry of crackdowns by regulators, Bitcoin has been on a nice run lately: Bitcoin value topped $25,000 to hit an eight-month high.
- 2023 Feb 23: A revised indictment filed by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams added four conspiracy charges to the litany facing F.T.X. founder 'crypto conman' Sam Bankman-Fried and adds detail to the allegations that he ran a massive straw donor campaign finance scheme. The new charges include securities fraud and conspiracy fraud counts; prosecutors were continuing to build their case against Bankman-Fried, whom they accuse of cheating thousands of investors out of billions of dollars' worth of digital assets. The new charges increased the possible prison sentence Bankman-Fried could get if convicted from 115 years to 155 years.
- 2023 Feb 23: The $FJB cryptocurrency, which stands for 'F*ck Joe Biden', has lost 95 percent of its value since it was acquired thirteen months ago by Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Boris Epshteyn; the two despicable MAGA hucksters announced last week that they were cutting ties with the project, and an investigation by A.B.C. News shows that promised donations to charity were never made.
- 2023 Feb 28: Former FTX exec Nishad Singh became the third member of Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle to plead guilty over the crypto exchange’s collapse.
- 2023 early June: S.E.C. Chair Gary Gensler dramatically escalated his 'war on crypto', and prices took a big hit: four of the 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies fell by at least 15%, per CoinMarketCap.
- 2023 Aug 29: Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, reached a high of roughly $28,000; the crypto asset is up some 65% this year, though it remains far off its late-2021 record above $68,000.
- 2023 Oct 2: Date set for New York City trial of S.B.F. on eight criminal charges.
the year 2 0 2 4
- 2024 January: Bitcoin was trading north of $45,000 in the run-up to the SEC's decision.
- 2024 Jan 10: The Securities and Exchange Commission officially approved spot Bitcoin ETFs for the first time; tThe 11 exchange-traded funds will let old-school investors and bitcoin enthusiasts alike access the world’s biggest cryptocurrency without having to actually trade crypto; this integrates bitcoin into the traditional financial system: big players like Fidelity, Ark Investments, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, and BlackRock were among the first applicants approved by the SEC.
- 2024 Monday Jan 22: Bitcoin fell below $40,000 for the first time since the Jan. 11 launch of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) allowing individual investors an easy way to buy into the digital currency. Bitcoin fell nearly 4% to $39,938, its lowest level since December 4. Ether, the #2 cryptocurrency, fell 6.4% to $2,328.30. Bitcoin surged as investors increasingly expected the S.E.C. to approve Bitcoin ETFs, rising about 70% since August. Some analysts said enthusiasm for the cryptocurrency waned as traditional stocks rose to record highs on Monday, driven by semiconductor makers and other technology companies.
- 2024 Tuesday Feb 16: The price of Bitcoin, the world's largest digital currency, rose above $50,000 for the first time in an ongoing rally fueled by cryptocurrency's increasing acceptance by major companies as a form of payment. retreated below the $50,000 level later in the day, only to surge again early Wednesday to surpass $51,000 for the first time. Bitcoin has doubled in two months. The recent surge came after Tesla, Mastercard, and other big companies expressed confidence in Bitcoin. Tesla last week disclosed that it had bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and planned to start accepting it as payment. Mastercard also said that it would start dealing with some cryptocurrencies.
- 2024 Feb 28: Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued in court that he should only serve between 5 and 6˝ years in prison for fraud at F.T.X. - a far cry from the 100 years that probation officers have suggested.
- 2024 March 5: Bitcoin set a new record, briefly jumping past $69K before falling back down to ~$62K.
- 2024 March: Bitcoin hit a record high of over $73,750, thanks to the spot Bitcoin E.T.F. approval.
- 2024 March: Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire CEO of F.T.X. was sentenced to 25 years in prison for orchestrating the F.T.X. crypto scam.
- 2024 April 5: Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon was found guilty of fraud by a New York jury in a civil lawsuit brought by the S.E.C.; the disgraced crypto entrepreneur did not attend the trial, as he’s being detained in Montenegro, where a court is weighing extradition requests from the U.S. and Korea.
- 2024 May 23: The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission approved spot Ethereum ETFs in another big win for crypto, following the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier this year.
- 2024 Sept 24: Caroline Ellison, Sam Bankman-Fried’s close colleague and on-and-off girlfriend, and the star witness in the government’s case against him, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for her part in the F.T.X. fraud. She was also ordered to forfeit $11 billion, although it's highly unlikely she'll be able to pay it. (S.B.F. was sentenced in March to 25 years in prison for orchestrating the crypto scam.)
- 2024 Nov 8: Bitcoin topped $77,000 for a new record.
- 2024 Nov 10: Bitcoin hit a new record above $80,000. The world's largest cryptocurrency is up 80% this year, dwarfing the S&P 500's still-electric 25.7% gain in 2024.
- 2024 Nov 12: While all cryptocurrencies popped after Election Day, Elon Musk’s preferred token, dogecoin, stands out with a ~157% gain.
- 2024 Nov 13: The price of Bitcoin hit an all-time high of more than $93,000.
- 2024 November: Bitcoin has jumped about 130% this year.
- 2024 Dec 13: The Fartcoin memecoin topped a market cap of $700 million, making it worth more than a bunch of publicly-traded U.S. firms. The digital token, based on the Solana blockchain, jumped ~200% in the past week amid a resurgence of interest in memecoins since the election.
- 2024 December: There is about $3.68 trillion tied up in cryptocurrencies today.
the year 2 0 2 5
- 2025 Jan 23: President Trump issued Executive Order 14178: Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology, which includes hiring of a Special Adviser for AI and Crypto
- 2025 Feb: Crypto exchange Bybit said that hackers stole $1.4 billion in the largest crypto theft ever.
- 2025 early May: Bitcoin’s price jumped nearly 50% from its recent low of ~$75,000 to an all-time high of nearly $112,000
since the beginning of April.
- 2025 May: Bitcoin Conference 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
- 2025 May 9: The U.S. Senate voted not to proceed on a GOP-led bill to regulate cryptocurrency after every Democrat and three Republicans opposed it.
- 2025 May 22: The president hosted a 'gala' dinner for the 220 top purchasers of his branded souvenir crypto coins at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia mounting an unprecedented effort to use his elected office for personal enrichment. Attendees included former NBA star Lamar Odom and flashy Chinese billionaire Justin Sun.
The 'winning' buyers gathered for an "intimate," black-tie optional dinner with the wannabe dictator. Headlines included "Trump Invited Traders With Nazi-Linked Tokens to Private Meme Coin Dinner" and "Invitees held tokens with names like swasticoin", per a government watchdog.
- 2025 July 14: Bitcoin reached $122,571 in early trading – the first time that the cryptocurrency has crossed the $120,000 level.
- 2025 July 18: President Trump signed the GENIUS Act bill into law, setting up a framework for regulating stablecoins - digital currency pegged to traditional assets - that are linked to the U.S. dollar. It’s a big win for the crypto industry, and Trump said that it was a “giant step to cement American dominance of global finance and crypto technology”. The law could help push stablecoins into the mainstream, and major companies like Walmart and Amazon have been said to be considering launching their own.
- 2025 Dec 1: Amid a wider crypto (and overall market) selloff, Bitcoin plunged, briefly dipping below $85,000 before regaining some ground to $86,660.39 and end its worst day since March. With markets volatile, the digital currency is down more than 30% since its record high in October.
|
