Bitcoin’s penetration into the mainstream was gradual: as of mid-2010, one bitcoin was priced at less than $0.1 on the few exchanges already in existence. As of the time of writing, it’s worth around $33,000. Thanks to a heady combination of fate and circumstance, 2011 was the year that everything changed for the cryptocurrency.
“One important milestone in Bitcoin’s history was WikiLeaks,” says Klara Jaya Brekke of Durham University. In November 2010, when the whistleblowing venture built by Julian Assange was blacklisted and rendered unable to raise funds through conventional payment platforms, Bitcointalk forum users started discussing whether they should advise Assange to accept Bitcoin donations. Bitcoin’s mythical and still anonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto strongly opposed the idea, wary of “the heat” that the association with WikiLeaks would bring upon Bitcoin.