Buying $100 worth of Bitcoin in 2009—when the price was roughly $ 0.00099 $ 0 . 0 0 0 9 9 to $ 0.003 $ 0 . 0 0 3 per coin—would have netted you tens of thousands, if not over 100,000 BTC. Today, that investment would be worth billions of dollars, potentially making you one of the wealthiest people in the world, assuming you held through extreme volatility.
If you had invested $100 in Bitcoin 10 years ago, you would have about $20,000 today, as the leading cryptocurrency has grown by nearly 20,000% (as of Dec. 22).
If you spent $100 on Bitcoin in 2010, you would have over $33 million and could clearly live a lavish retirement, assuming you never sold the digital asset.
15 Years Ago (2009): For those who invested at Bitcoin's inception, a $1,000 investment in 2009 would be worth an astounding $68.3 billion, given that Bitcoin traded at around $0.00099 in October 2009, translating to about 1,309.03 BTC per dollar.
In other words, the price was about one-tenth of one cent. While Bitcoin was officially launched on January 3, 2009, it's tough to find any standard pricing before mid-2010. That's because there weren't exchanges in the same way that there are today.
Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer and early Bitcoin miner, famously traded 10,000 Bitcoin for two Papa John's pizzas on May 22, 2010, marking the first documented commercial transaction for physical goods with cryptocurrency, a day now celebrated as "Bitcoin Pizza Day". At the time, the Bitcoins were worth only about $41, but the value of those coins would later grow to be worth hundreds of millions, even over a billion dollars, making it one of history's most expensive pizzas.
Despite extreme volatility, Bitcoin's price has skyrocketed 1,060% in the past five years as I write this. This monster gain would've turned a $10,000 initial capital outlay in October 2020 to a whopping $115,700 on Oct. 6.
Bitcoin's price finally broke through the US$1 mark in 2011, and moved as high as US$29.60 that year. However, in 2012 Bitcoin pulled back and remained relatively muted. Bitcoin's price saw its first significant growth in earnest in 2013, the year it broke through both US$100 and US$1,000.
If you bought $100 of Bitcoin in 2012, it would now be worth over $1.5 Million. You literally turned $100 into 1.5 million dollar. But if you SAVED your $100 in the bank in 2012, it would be worth only below $72 today due to inflation.
At that time, a single bitcoin cost about $0.08 — that is, with just $10, you could have bought 125 BTC. A small amount, almost symbolic. Something you would spend today on a snack or in a mobile app.
Once Nakamoto released Bitcoin's software in January 2009, there were only two ways to obtain bitcoin — by mining it yourself or arranging a peer-to-peer (P2P) trade via a forum like Bitcointalk, which Nakamoto founded to host Bitcoin-related discussions.
Thus, if you had invested $100 in Bitcoin in 2010, you could have obtained around 142,857 BTC. At a current price of around $45,500 per Bitcoin, that investment would now be worth approximately $6.5 billion. This hypothetical scenario underscores the extraordinary opportunity presented during Bitcoin's nascent stage.
August 22, 2008, BTC Price: $0 – Satoshi Nakamoto begins an email exchange with Wei Dai, the creator of b-money, pictured below.
The first notable retail transaction involving physical goods was paid on May 22, 2010, by exchanging 10,000 mined BTC for two pizzas delivered from a Papa John's in Jacksonville, Florida.
If you invested $100, you'd have been able to buy about 1,000 bitcoins. At its all-time high Thursday, those 1,000 bitcoins would've been worth more than $48 million, not accounting for compounding and assuming you bought and held the asset the entire time.
Debuting in January 2009, Bitcoin's price broke the $1 milestone for the first time in February 2011. Fast-forward to 2025, when Bitcoin soared to a few record highs, even breaking $124,000 in August.