The year isn't quite over yet, but it already looks set to be one of the worst on record for Bitcoin. Bitcoin only underperformed in 2018 compared to 2022.

Bitcoin born out of mistrust

On January 3, 2023, Bitcoin will celebrate its 14th birthday, so Bitcoin's history is not that long. The original protocol for Bitcoin was created in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, believed to be a pseudonym for an unknown developer or group of developers.

Click here for information about how to earn money without investing your own money

Nakamoto launched the network in early 2009 and started mining Bitcoin. The pseudonymous developer(s) created Bitcoin in response to the great financial crisis of 2007-2009, the main argument being a distrust of all facets of the traditional banking system.

Bitcoin from 10 cents to 60,000 euros

Given the ups and downs of the Bitcoin price over the past few years, it's hard to believe that early investors could trade Bitcoin for less than $0.10. Since then, the price has experienced enormous growth, with a lot of ups and downs. The highest ever up was achieved in 2021, when Bitcoin was worth almost 60,000 euros.

Bitcoin has had 3 negative years

The history of Bitcoin has 3 years in which the crypto was/is clearly in a bear market. Only in 2014, 2018, and now is Bitcoin worth less at the end of the year than at the beginning of the year.

• 2011: +1.473%
• 2012 +186%
• 2013 +5.507%
• 2014 -58%
• 2015 +35%
• 2016 +125%
• 2017 +1.331%
• 2018 -73%
• 2019 +95%
• 2020 +301%
• 2021 +90%
• 2022 -65%

Click here for information about how to earn money without investing your own money

In 2018, Bitcoin fell from 15,240 euros to 3,431 euros. To put these numbers in context, that starting value in 2018 of 15,240 euros was considered incredibly high and was cause for celebration.

Bitcoin knows the turbulent 2022

At the moment, the Bitcoin price is 15,627 euros and there is a grave mood on the market. A lot of negative things have happened in the markets this year.

It was Russia's invasion of Ukraine territory that kick-started the crypto bear market in 2022. Subsequently, Terra Luna collapsed and in November the market wavered due to the fall of FTX. Interest rates also went up, making it more expensive to borrow money to play with.

Later this week we will release a much more extensive annual overview in which we will review the most important moments of 2022.

What happened to Bitcoin in 2018?

2018 also had its moments. In January, the crypto world was rocked by Bitconnect. Bitconnect allowed users to exchange Bitcoin for Bitconnect Coin (BCC) and earn interest. The website promised a return of one percent per day.

But if something is too good to be true, it often is. The platform was a pyramid scheme. This is a system in which paid returns are financed from the deposits of new customers. Bitconnect went bankrupt and the corresponding cryptocurrency dropped to 0.

Click here for information about how to earn money without investing your own money

In the same year, crypto exchange Binance had to deal with a hack of their trading bots and the trustees of the bankrupt Mt.Gox sold 40,000 Bitcoins. In the summer, two more exchanges were hacked.

In a way, this is similar to what happened in 2022, with a lot of hacks and exchanges, and scams falling over. But we have not yet named the main difference. In 2018, Bitcoin Cash suffered a hard fork from which BSV was born. Many 'normal' Bitcoins were sold to pay for the war between these two coins.

But as the overview shows, after the fall in 2018, an increase of 95% followed in 2019. Fingers crossed for a good 2023!