UPDATE ON THE BITCOIN

 I get a bit into bitcoin today to reflect how volatile it can be.

• Yesterday, President Donald Trump threatened new 100% tariffs on China.

• 
  The U.S. stock market tumbled, with the Dow Jones Industrial dropping 879 points, or 1.9%.  The broader S&P dropped 2.71%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 3.56%.
• Gold rose 1.5%.  Read my posting of yesterday on how just this commodity could trigger a collapse of the USA and World.

• 
  In particular, cryptocurrencies Bitcoin (almost a 10% decline), Ether (14.2%) and Solana (20%) led the sinking, bringing total liquidations to $14.28 billion, the largest in crypto history.  One of Trump's executive order to allow digital assets to be included in 401(k) plans led to Bitcoin soaring to a record high of $124,000 last week.  
• 
  When to capitalize (b)itcoin?  When referring to the protocol, technology or network.  But lowercase bitcoin is used as a unit of currency.  I'm hopelessly confused.

• 
  The first recorded Bitcoin exchange was in late 2009 for $0.00099/bitcoin.
• By late 2009, the first recorded exchange of Bitcoin for dollars was $5.02.
• Something to do with pizza, but on 22May2010, 10,000 Bitcoins were worth $40.
• June 2011:  $26/bitcoin.
• February 2013:  $22/bitcoin.

• 
  September 2013:  the Chinese government banned the Bitcoin, featuring a risk of money laundering.  Still banned today.
• 4December2013:  Alan Greenspan referred to the Bitcoin as a bubble.
• January 2014, Las Vegas casino D Las Vegas and Golden Gate began accepting the Bitcoin.

• 
  13March2014:  Warren Buffett called bitcoin a mirage.
• 23April2014:  Documentary film, The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin released.  Rotten Tomatoes scores of 67/84/

• 
  2014:  Johnny Barrett released Ode to Satoshi.  Read my 2021 posting on Where is Satoshi.  It's about Satoshi Nakamoto, who authored the first paper on the subject.  Turns out that, maybe, there is no one by that name.  Might be a group of people.

• 
  December 2014:  Microsoft began to accept bitcoin to buy Xbox games and Windows software.
• February 2015:  The number of merchants accepting bitcoin exceeded 100,000.

• 
  January 2016:  The network rate exceeded 1 exahash/sec.  Click on that to find out more.
• March 2016:  Japan accepts the bitcoin as real money.

• 
  December 2016:  Ledger first issue of a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
• 25January2018:  George Soros referred to bitcoin as a bubble.
• Early 2019:  Bitcoin just below $4000/bitcoin.
• July 2019:  $12,000/bitcoin.

• 
  19January2021:   Elon Musk got involved, causing the price to briefly jump in an hour from $5,000/b to $37,299/b.    By February, up to $44/141/b.  Then in May, Tesla suspended Bitcoin payments due to environmental concerns, dropping the price from $58,000 to $46,000 in one day.  A low of $42,185 was reached on May 17

• 
  1June2021:  El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced plans to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, the first country to do so.
• 12April2022:  Read my posting on The Crypto Revolution.

• 
  2023:  Non-fungible tokens (NFT) went live on Bitcoin.
• October 2024:  Bitcoin at 60,607.
• 11November2024:  Bitcoin accounted for 55.2% of the the cryptocurrency market.

• 
  4December2024:  Bitcoin at $103,332. 
• 13August2025:  Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $125,725.
• Today?  110,942. 

• You got to wonder if insiders are taking advantage of these White House strategies.