So, You Want to Be a Crypto Millionaire? Here’s How to Lose It All. And Win Bigger.

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From its earliest trading price of one cent to its current price of over $100,000, Bitcoin has seen a 10,200,000,000 percent increase in value since inception. That’s huge, but it wasn’t straightforward. Here’s the rocky road it took for Bitcoin to get to 100k.

Bitcoin’s Historic Ups and Downs

On average, Bitcoin’s crash depth averaged about 78 percent. But that’s only the average. While Bitcoin has seen 54 percent drops, it has also seen up to a 93 percent decline in price. However, even with these wild dips, Bitcoin’s overall post-recovery has had a multiple of 20 times to 30 times. Here is the timeline of Bitcoin’s biggest crashes and recoveries.

• 2009, Bitcoin launches

• June 2011, the First Bitcoin Crash, from $31 to $2, having gained 9,800 percent to that point and crashed by 93 percent due to the First Bubble burst

• April 2013, after a climb, the price dropped from $266 to $50, wiping out the previous gain of 5,800 percent by 80 percent

• December 2013, Bitcoin had its $1,000 breakthrough, skyrocketing to $1,156, representing a 5,000 percent gain after media hype

• February 2014, the price plummeted to $170, losing 80 percent of its value due to Mt. Gox’s collapse and scandal, as recalled by Investopedia

• December 2017, the price propelled to $19,783, a 1,900 percent increase, after the ICO Mania peak

• December 2018, $3,200, Bitcoin experienced an 84 percent drop in price during the Crypto Winter and Bubble Burst

• April 2021, the price shot to $64,863, a 1,000 percent rise, during an institutional bull run

• June 2022, the price dropped to $15,500, a 75 percent decline, due to FTX scandal and DeFi collapse

• March 2024, the price rose to $73,750, an increase of 150 percent, after SEC approval

• December 2024, the price increased to $106,500, a 60 percent gain, after election results enthusiasm

• January 2025, Bitcoin’s price rose to $109,406, a 10 percent gain, after the presidential inauguration

• March 2025, the price sank to $92,000, a fifteen percent drop after a policy letdown

• July 2025, the price climbed to $122,000, a 20 percent increase during an institutional rebound

• Since October 2025, Bitcoin’s price has ranged between $95,000 and $126,000

What It Means

There is a story about an Erik Finman, the boy who spent $1,000 of his birthday gift money on Bitcoin and became a millionaire. He bought his coins at about $12 each in 2011. By 2017, Erik was technically a Bitcoin millionaire. Between when he bought those coins and 2017, Bitcoin had been through multiple crashes, many of which were over 50 percent declines. At one point, Bitcoin saw a 93 percent drop in the price. Throughout all of that, Erik Finman held his coins. What do his story and the multiple crashes tell the next hopeful crypto millionaire?

The story of any crypto investor is complete with extremely high highs and depressingly low lows. They’re ripe with emotional strife, indecision and the urge to sell when the charts go red. But those stories are ones of triumph and overcoming in the face of doubt for those who held on. And that brings me to HODL, or “Holding on for Dear Life.” Subscribe for the follow up article about the origin of “HODL” and how to do it successfully to become a successful crypto investor.

The Takeaway

Crypto investing isn’t for the fainthearted, as Bitcoin’s journey to the top proves. Between 2011 and now, Bitcoin has crashed numerous times. In one instance, it lost 93 percent of its value. Those crashes caused panic sells, but the successful crypto investor held on. Putting a face to the story, Erik Finman is a textbook example of what happens when a crypto investor holds on through the storm of crashes. Subscribe for the follow-up article on the history of “HODLing” and how to do it successfully.

FOLLOW the author Jermaine Reed, MFA on X @Jermaine Reed, MFA for his controversial but real hot takes.