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2017The mania

Bitcoin rose from about $1,000 to nearly $20,000, drew in a wave of retail investors, spawned a boom in initial coin offerings and finally gained regulated futures markets. It was also the year of the first major forks.

Year-end price (approx.)

~$14,000

Block reward

12.5 BTC

Peak

~$19,700

What happened

1. Mar 10

   The SEC rejects the first proposed Bitcoin ETF, from the Winklevoss twins.

2. Aug 1

   Bitcoin Cash splits from Bitcoin over the block-size question.

3. Aug 24

   Segregated Witness (SegWit) activates, fixing transaction malleability and enabling later upgrades such as the Lightning Network.

4. Sep 4

   China bans initial coin offerings and soon orders domestic exchanges to close.

5. Nov 28

   Bitcoin passes $10,000 for the first time.

6. Dec 10–17

   Cboe and then CME launch Bitcoin futures. The price peaks near $19,700 around December 17.

Why it mattered

2017 introduced Bitcoin to the mass market, and the sharp reversal that followed became a textbook example of a speculative bubble.

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