Bitcoin Decade: The Journey of Digital Currency from Temptation to Madness

Ten years may be just a tiny moment in the long river of history, but in the world of digital currency, these ten years are a turbulent and magnificent journey. From the moment Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin white paper in 2009, Bitcoin was destined to set off a revolution in the financial market. It has gradually evolved from the initial "temptation" to the current "madness", and has experienced countless alternations of faith and panic in the process. This article will explore the journey of Bitcoin in the past ten years and analyze the economic logic and social impact behind it.

First, let's review the origin of Bitcoin. On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first Bitcoin block. This historic moment marked the birth of decentralized currency. The design concept of Bitcoin is to remove intermediaries and directly realize transactions between individuals. This concept was particularly attractive in the financial environment at the time. Many people saw the freedom and independence brought by Bitcoin as a rebellion against the traditional financial system. At that time, the global economy was in a downturn after the 2008 financial crisis. The credibility of traditional banks was hit hard, and many people began to doubt the existing monetary system. In this context, Bitcoin, with its characteristics of "decentralization" and "anonymity", has attracted more and more attention.

However, as Bitcoin gradually became popular, the technology and concepts behind it began to be questioned. The price of Bitcoin broke through $1,000 for the first time in 2013, which immediately triggered a crazy investment boom. Many speculators flocked to this market, hoping to achieve rapid growth in wealth. The price of Bitcoin almost doubled tenfold in just a few months. This extreme volatility made people full of fantasies and expectations about its future. At the same time, many people suffered huge losses due to blindly following the trend. The "temptation" of Bitcoin was infinitely magnified at this moment, and many people began to regard it as "digital gold."

However, as the price continued to rise, the market bubble continued to expand. In 2014, the famous Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox went bankrupt and hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins were stolen, shocking the entire market. People began to doubt the security and legitimacy of Bitcoin. The collapse of faith and the spread of panic intertwined, and many investors began to sell their Bitcoins, causing the market to fall into a slump.

Despite this, Bitcoin did not die. In 2015, with the rise of emerging digital currencies such as Ethereum, Bitcoin ushered in spring again. Ethereum's smart contract function opened up a new direction for the application of blockchain technology, attracting more attention from developers and investors. As the first and most well-known digital currency, Bitcoin's market position remains unbreakable. At this time, more and more people began to pay attention to blockchain technology itself, believing that the decentralized concept behind it will change the future financial landscape.

In 2017, the price of Bitcoin exploded again, soaring from $1,000 to nearly $20,000 in just a few months. This wave of growth attracted countless novice investors to join, and the market was full of various propaganda and hype about Bitcoin. Many people became more and more convinced of Bitcoin, believing that it would become the mainstream currency in the future. However, the madness of the market also comes with great risks, and many investors suffered painful lessons after buying at high prices. In 2018, the price of Bitcoin experienced a sharp correction, and the market fell into panic again, and many people began to doubt the future of Bitcoin.

In this decade of journey, Bitcoin's belief and fear have alternated, and investors' mentality has been constantly changing. From the initial belief in "decentralized currency" to the subsequent bubble burst and market crash, investors' psychological tolerance has been challenged again and again. More and more people realize that Bitcoin is not an easy way to get rich, but an investment game full of risks and challenges.

However, despite numerous ups and downs, Bitcoin continues to evolve. In 2020, the outbreak of the global epidemic led central banks to adopt loose monetary policies, and market liquidity increased significantly. Against this backdrop, Bitcoin once again became a safe haven for investors, and its price continued to rise, even breaking through its historical high. More and more institutional investors began to pay attention to Bitcoin, believing that its potential as a digital asset cannot be ignored. At this time, the image of Bitcoin gradually changed from a "speculative tool" to "digital gold", and more and more people began to regard it as part of their asset allocation.

In the past decade of development, Bitcoin has not only changed investors' views on wealth, but also profoundly affected the global financial system. More and more companies have begun to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment, and even some countries have begun to consider including it in the ranks of legal tender. All of this confirms the potential and value of Bitcoin. Although the future is still full of uncertainty, Bitcoin has become a global phenomenon that cannot be ignored.

After a decade of ups and downs, the story of Bitcoin is not over. Although its price fluctuations are still violent, more and more people are beginning to look at this digital currency rationally. In this era of information explosion, investors need to have stronger judgment and risk awareness to remain invincible in this trend of digital currency.

Bitcoin's ten-year journey is an exploration full of temptation and madness. In this process, investors' faith and panic alternated, and market fluctuations and changes affected people's decisions all the time. How will Bitcoin develop in the future? Can it truly realize the ideal of "decentralized currency"? These questions are still unresolved, but what is certain is that the story of Bitcoin will continue to be written and become a classic case for future generations to explore the intersection of finance and technology. The future of digital currency is worth everyone's deep thought and expectation.

The four most famous international exchanges:

Binance INTL	OKX INTL	Gate.io INTL	Huobi INTL
China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL

Note: The above exchange logo is the official website registration link, and the text is the APP download link.

From madness to panic. On January 10, investor Zhu Wei described his change of heart in investing in Bitcoin to reporters. Zhu Wei is just one of the tens of millions of investors in the ten years since Bitcoin became popular. Bitcoin was born in 2008, and investors began to recognize and trade Bitcoin in early 2009. Since then, the price has risen from less than one cent to a peak of $19,666 on December 17, 2017, equivalent to nearly 140,000 yuan, which is appalling.
The Bitcoin market at that time reminded many people of the early 1630s, when a tulip root in the Netherlands was sold for up to 6,700 Dutch guilders, enough to buy a mansion by the Amsterdam canal. History is always surprisingly similar. It takes a long time for a speculative product to rise, but it may only take a moment to fall, and it cannot "break free" from the fate of "bubble bursting". At the beginning of 2019, the price of a Bitcoin was less than $4,000, which was more than 80% lower than the peak.
Ten years have passed, like the curtain falling and the sea calming down. Whether it is the "panic" that Bitcoin has fallen from the altar, or the "belief" in the future value of Bitcoin, or the expectation that Bitcoin investment will return to rationality, each market participant has truly experienced the ups and downs, warmth and sorrow of the Bitcoin market in the past ten years.
At the beginning of 2018, Zhu Wei was still working at a well-known Internet company in Xi'erqi, Beijing. At that time, he still carried a backpack to work every day, busy but fulfilled. However, the rising price of Bitcoin in 2017 made him excited and eager to make a move. Moreover, "during my work, I kept hearing about investors in the cryptocurrency circle getting rich, and I felt the torrent of wealth coming in the cryptocurrency circle." Zhu Wei said. In January 2018, Zhu Wei bought Bitcoin at a price of more than $16,000 per coin - he did not want to miss this "tide of wealth". However, he did not know that the price of Bitcoin had also "turned" downward from $19,666 per coin.
Because of work reasons, Zhu Wei often had to communicate with cryptocurrency practitioners as early as the fourth quarter of 2017, and felt the salary gap between himself and cryptocurrency practitioners. So, in the spring of 2018, he invested in Bitcoin while also joining the cryptocurrency circle, joined a large domestic company, and his salary tripled. However, the good times did not last long. At that time, the price of Bitcoin continued to fall to $12,000 per coin. Zhu Wei not only lost a lot of money investing in Bitcoin, but also, after really investing in the cryptocurrency circle, he saw the other side of the gorgeous "veil" of the cryptocurrency circle - although he had a high salary, he did not have the superiority of ordinary people, but felt deeply terrified.
After joining the cryptocurrency industry, Zhu Wei discovered that there were a lot of different people working in the cryptocurrency industry, and many people wanted to get rich overnight. Moreover, although the company made a lot of money during the cryptocurrency bull market in 2017, as the prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency began to fall in 2018, the company's operations and management began to become increasingly chaotic. More importantly, many tokens in the cryptocurrency industry are using the concept of "blockchain technology" to sell virtual currency under the guise of blockchain.
Looking back on September 4, 2017, the People's Bank of China and seven other ministries and commissions defined that "the financing entities raised so-called 'virtual currencies' such as Bitcoin and Ethereum from investors through the illegal issuance and circulation of tokens, which is essentially an act of illegal public financing without approval, and is suspected of illegal issuance of token tickets, illegal issuance of securities, illegal fundraising, financial fraud, pyramid schemes and other illegal and criminal activities." Because of policy reasons, Zhu Wei is also worried that the company may be at risk of bankruptcy and closure at any time, and even worried that the company will face legal sanctions.
In September 2018, the price of Bitcoin was reported at $7,000 per coin, and Zhu Wei had lost more than 50% of the Bitcoin he bought at the beginning of the year. In September, although he still missed the high salary in the cryptocurrency circle, he left the cryptocurrency circle and rejoined an Internet financial company because he did not agree with this industry. On January 10, 2019, the Bitcoin that Zhu Wei bought in early 2018 has now fallen by nearly 75%. It only took him one year to go from "crazy" to "panic" for his investment in Bitcoin. Zhu Wei said: "I hope it will rise a little more so that I can sell it at a less loss."
Zhang Feng, an institutional investor in the cryptocurrency circle who also experienced the Bitcoin crash in 2018, is not as pessimistic as Zhu Wei. Zhang Feng prefers to analyze an investment product from the perspective of the capital market. He feels that Bitcoin is experiencing a bear market in 2018 and 2019, a cycle, and it is not the beginning of the bursting of the "bubble".
Zhang Feng started trading Bitcoin in 2013, when the price of one Bitcoin was only a few hundred dollars. In Zhang Feng's eyes, the price of Bitcoin reached a high point at the end of 2013, then began to fall throughout the year in 2014, went sideways in 2015, rebounded in 2016, and then had a big bull outbreak in 2017, and then fell again in 2018. He expects that there will be a bottom shock throughout the year in 2019, and there will be an upward correction in 2020. He is still full of confidence and is not affected by the decline in Bitcoin prices at all.
He recalled that although the price of Bitcoin fell by more than 80% in 2018, most other altcoins fell by more than 90%, and some even disappeared. But he invested in a currency in August 2017, subscribing to each coin at a price of 0.5 yuan when it was issued. By December, the coin was listed, and he made dozens of times the money. His idea is that if he doesn't make 30 times the money this year, he will be embarrassed to say that he invested in the cryptocurrency circle. Although he lost money overall in 2018, Zhang Feng still insists that the upward economic cycle of Bitcoin will come again.
Because he believes that Bitcoin is based on blockchain technology, and the theory of distributed accounting has application value, and will have more applications in the future in the financial, gaming, information technology and other industries. In 2019, Zhang Feng still wants to make a profit in this market by investing in Bitcoin or other digital currencies. For him, it is destined to be "insomniac".
"After Bitcoin has experienced this round of 'bear market', investors will be more rational." This is what Xiao Lei, a senior digital currency analyst, thinks. As a witness to the rise and fall of Bitcoin for ten years, Xiao Lei feels that lessons are always hard-won. First, in 2019, investors will not blindly invest like they did in 2017; second, many investors will realize that it is more important to make rational or diversified investments. No matter which investment model is used, excess profits cannot be sustained; the premise of investing to obtain profits is to withdraw before the "bubble" bursts, which is considered "fishing", but many investors find it difficult to predict.
Because there are a large number of people born after 1990 in the Bitcoin investment market. Xiao Lei believes that this bull-bear market transition has great educational significance for investors. Many young people experience such a "bubble" when they are young, which is helpful for their future investment. Before 2018, many tokens were "branded" with blockchain technology. In early 2019, the blockchain technology supervision policy was officially introduced.
On January 11, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued the "Regulations on the Administration of Blockchain Information Services" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"). The "Regulations" clearly state that blockchain information service providers shall not use blockchain information services to engage in activities prohibited by laws and administrative regulations or to produce, copy, publish, or disseminate information content prohibited by laws and administrative regulations; for blockchain information service users who violate laws, administrative regulations and service agreements, disposal measures shall be taken in accordance with the law and the contract. It will come into effect on February 15, 2019.
The relevant person in charge of the Cyberspace Administration of China pointed out that the management of blockchain information services requires the participation of multiple parties such as government departments, relevant enterprises, professional institutions, and the public, and the improvement of social evaluation, credit publicity and other means to continuously promote the self-discipline and public supervision of the blockchain industry. The relevant regulatory policies for blockchain technology have been officially issued. For investors in the currency circle, it seems that they are facing strict supervision again in China. The issuance of tokens in the name of blockchain technology may not be as easy as before, and the investment in digital currencies such as Bitcoin will be more rational and standardized.
In Xiao Lei's opinion, since the price of Bitcoin has fallen by more than 80%, the current round of speculation in the Bitcoin investment market has definitely burst. However, it cannot be asserted that "Bitcoin has failed". Because its original value is zero, and now that it has fallen to this level, the Bitcoin market still has a market value of tens of billions of US dollars.
Is Bitcoin still worth investing in 2019? Xiao Lei thinks that the daily transaction volume of Bitcoin is several hundred billion RMB, which is still a relatively large number. Therefore, from the perspective of transaction volume, Bitcoin is still a relatively liquid asset, which means that many professional institutions are still willing to hold or trade it. In the future, it may be difficult for its price to recover the previous 80% drop, but from the perspective of transaction value, it will continue for a long time.
Ten years have passed, and Bitcoin investors have experienced the transition from temptation to madness, from faith to panic. They have also entered and exited the market with joy, anger, sorrow and happiness. The K-line chart of Bitcoin prices is still jumping red and green on the screens...