From $5 to $83,000 – The Digital Gold Rush Continues

Bitcoin has come a long way since trading at just $5.34 on Saint Patrick’s Day in 2012. Now, in 2025, the world’s largest digital currency has reached $83,223 on this holiday, marking a staggering 1,558,000% increase in just 13 years. With institutional adoption surging and supply remaining fixed, Bitcoin’s long-term trajectory appears stronger than ever.

A Look at Bitcoin’s Explosive Growth

Bitcoin’s price movements in the early years was anything but predictable. In just one year, from 2012 to 2013, BTC skyrocketed 780%, reaching $47. The next year, it surged again to $630, a 1,240% increase from 2013.

However, Bitcoin’s price swings have been sharp. By 2015, it had retraced to $290, but by 2017, it climbed to $1,180, and in just one more year, it hit $8,321—a 605% increase. Even after a pullback to $4,047 in 2019, the next five years saw Bitcoin go from $5,002 in 2020 to $83,223 in 2025.

2012 $5.34

2013: $47

2014: $630

2015: $290

2016: $417

2017: $1,180

2018: $8,321

2019: $4,047

2020: $5,002

2021: $56,825

2022: $41,140

2023: $26,876

2024: $68,845

2025: $83,223

Why Bitcoin’s Price Keeps Rising

Despite its volatility, Bitcoin’s long-term trajectory remains upward, driven by increasing demand and fixed supply. Unlike fiat currencies, which governments can print indefinitely, Bitcoin’s supply is capped at 21 million coins. As more individuals, institutions, and even governments adopt Bitcoin, scarcity drives prices higher.

Several major factors are contributing to Bitcoin’s growing adoption in the last year:

The U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve – United States Senator Cynthia Lummis and Congressman Nick Begich both introduced legislation to green light the U.S. to purchase 1,000,000 BTC for their strategic reserves, further solidifying its legitimacy and causing other countries potential FOMO in.

Corporate Adoption – Companies like Strategy, Metaplanet, and Rumble continue adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets, treating it as a strategic reserve asset.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs – The approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs in the U.S. has opened the floodgates for institutional investment, allowing hedge funds, pension funds, and retail investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin through regulated financial products.These ETFs have collectively purchased over 1 million BTC.

Halving – On April 19th, 2024, Bitcoin underwent its fourth halving event, where the block reward for those mining Bitcoin was cut in half from 6.25 BTC per block to 3.125 BTC per block. This decrease in the amount of daily new bitcoin issued on the market historically leads to an increase in the price of BTC. Bitcoin halvings occur roughly every 210,000 blocks (approximately every four years).

What’s Next?

With demand skyrocketing and supply shrinking due to upcoming Bitcoin halvings, Bitcoin seems poised to continue its historic rise in price. If history is any indicator, the best time to buy Bitcoin was years ago—the second-best time might be today.

Strategy (MSTR) marginally added to its massive bitcoin (BTC) holdings, selling a modest amount of its preferred stock (STRK) to fund the acquisition.

The company last week purchased 130 bitcoin for roughly $10.7 million, or an average price of $82,981 each, according to a Monday morning filing. The so-called “BTC yield” is 6.9% year-to-date, according to Strategy.

Company holdings are now 499,226 bitcoin acquired for a total of $33.1 billion, or an average cost of $66,360 per token.

This latest purchase was funded by the sale of 123,000 shares of STRK, which generated about $10.7 million of net proceeds. Strategy last week announced a mammoth $21 billion at-the-market offering of that preferred stock.

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

Cryptocurrency prices rose modestly during the weekend as investors embraced a risk-on sentiment following Friday’s surge in the US stock market. 

Bitcoin (BTC) held steady above $84,000, while the market cap of all coins rose to over $2.8 trillion. 

The crypto market will have two main catalysts this week: President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions. A sign of Trump easing his stand on tariffs and a more dovish Fed will be bullish for cryptocurrencies and other risky assets. 

The top cryptocurrencies to watch this week will be Binance Coin (BNB), Cronos (CRO), and ZetaChain (ZETA).

BNB

BNB price will be in the spotlight this week as the developers activate the Pascal hard fork on March 20.  This is one of the three upgrades scheduled for the year’s first half. It is set to introduce newer features, including more Ethereum compatibility, native smart contract wallets, and more security. 

The other two upgrades will improve BNB Chain’s speed and security. This is happening as the BSC Chain becomes one of the best alternatives to Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL). Ethereum has higher fees and is slow, while the Solana network is highly associated with meme coins. 

Cronos 

A key Cronos vote will conclude on March 17. This crucial vote seeks to determine the creation of the Cronos Strategic Reserve. It aims to do that by undoing a 70 billion token burn that happened in 2021. 

If the vote passes, Cronos will create 70 billion tokens and use them to create a reserve that will be used to support the ecosystem. Critics argue that creating these new tokens will dilute existing investors by adding to the supply.

Voting data shows that 45.8% of users have voted in support of the proposal, while 44.4% have rejected it. 9.27% have abstained. If the vote ends like this, the proposal will be rejected as the turnout is less than the quorum. 

ZetaChain

ZetaChain is another top cryptocurrency to watch after its price crashed to a record low of $0.2070. It has dropped by over 92% from its all-time high, bringing its market cap to $151 million. 

One reason for the ZETA price crash is that the total value locked in its ecosystem has crashed to $13 million from its all-time high of near $20 million. 

The other reason is that Zetachain is highly dilutive as it has a circulating supply of 731 million against a total supply of 2.1 billion.

The network will unlock tokens worth over $6.6 million, representing 4.29% of the float this week. Cryptocurrencies are often highly volatile when there is a major unlock.