Pete Rizzo, a prominent Bitcoin historian, has noted that it has been exactly 13 years since The Economist, one of the most famous business media outlets, wrote off the cryptocurrency in its infamous article.
The article, which was published on Oct. 21, 2011, claimed that Bitcoin was "in trouble" after it plummeted below $3 from its peak of $33.
The very first Bitcoin bubble emerged back in June 2011 mostly because of Gawker, a now-defunct American pop culture website. The cryptocurrency attracted a lot of attention after Gawker published an article about the infamous Silk Road dark web marketplace. Around the same, some of the first cryptocurrency exchanges went live, which made it much easier for the average Joe to buy Bitcoin.
However, those who were eager to jump on the Bitcoin train were then caught off guard by a precipitous price crash. In December 2011, it then crashed to just a little over $2, delivering a big blow to the early adopters of the original cryptocurrency.
Gamza KhanzadaevThe article published by The Economist said that the reason behind the Bitcoin crash was unclear. At the same time, it described the very first Bitcoin frenzy as a "speculative bubble."
Needless to say, the article has not aged well. Bitcoin ended up becoming the best-performing asset of the 10s while also laying for foundation for a new asset class that has grown into a multi-trillion-dollar industry.
At press time, Bitcoin is trading at $67,121, according to CoinGecko data. Earlier this year, the cryptocurrency peaked at nearly $74,000.
Alex DovbnyaRizzo has estimated that Bitcoin is up roughly 3,000,000% since the article was published 13 years ago.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin