The mainstream media has officially run out of ink to write Bitcoin’s epitaph. This has happened for the first time since the days when Satoshi Nakamoto, the elusive creator of the flagship cryptocurrency, was still active on BitcoinTalk.
According to the data provided by Cypherpunk Holdings CTO Jameson Lopp, the number of "Bitcoin Obituaries" collapsed to just zero in 2025.
In his latest social media post, Lopp shared a bar chart tracking the "death" of the crypto king over the last 15 years.
The visual data shows the "death narrative" peaking in 2017. Despite the massive rally that pushed BTC into the mainstream, there were roughly 125 distinct declarations of Bitcoin's demise. This was likely due to the frenzied ICO boom and the violent crash from the $20,000 all-time high. Unsurprisingly, the media skepticism carried into the 2018 "Crypto Winter." Over 90 obituaries were published back then as prices cratered.
There was a smaller resurgence of skepticism in 2021 with just under 50 obituaries.
Surprisingly enough, the critics were noticeably quieter compared to the previous cycles. Despite the collapse of FTX and the macro headwinds of 2022, experts did not bother writing more obituaries. By 2024, the count had dwindled to single digits.
Prominent obituaries
The first obituary was published by The Underground Economist all the way back in December 2010. Back then, Bitcoin was still trading at less than $1. The author argued that Bitcoin would constantly experience deflation due to its fixed supply, meaning that it would never actually take off as a viable currency. To be fair, they were not completely wrong.
Forbes famously became the very first mainstream outlet to publish a Bitcoin obituary all the way back in June 2011. This was written in the immediate aftermath of the first major Mt. Gox hack. Author Tim Worstall argued that Bitcoin was effectively finished since it was difficult to trade it. Later that summer, Gizmodo Australia published an article about how the original cryptocurrency was dying.
Perhaps the most famous early obituary was published by Wired in November 2011. It was a long-form deep dive that chronicled the "death" of Bitcoin after its crash from the $30 highs of mid-2011 down to $2. The tone was definitive: the experiment was over.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
