Crypto Industry Timeline · 2009-2026
Major events crypto card users should understand. Each entry links to related company profiles.
- 2024-06 Launch / Listing
Circle (CRCL) lists on NYSE
USDC issuer Circle completes its IPO, becoming the first pure-play stablecoin issuer to go public. Market cap ~$8B. The listing brings the "compliant vs offshore stablecoin" debate to public markets.
- 2024-04 Launch / Listing
BlackRock IBIT spot Bitcoin ETF launches
US SEC approves the first 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs. iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) sees $4.7B day-one inflows. Traditional institutional capital channels open, crypto enters the "compliant investable" era.
- 2024-02 Security Incident
Wormhole $325M exploit + Jump Trading bailout
A Wormhole bridge contract vulnerability led to 120K wETH theft (~$325M). Jump Trading replenished the funds within hours so users took no loss — the canonical "institutional backer guaranteed" cross-chain bridge case.
- 2023-03 Collapse / Bankruptcy
Crypto banking collapse: Silvergate / Signature / SVB
Silvergate voluntarily liquidates, Signature Bank is taken into FDIC receivership, and Silicon Valley Bank collapses on a bank run. USDC briefly de-pegs to $0.87 (Circle held $3.3B in SVB). Crypto finance loses its main rails to traditional banks.
- 2023-01 Collapse / Bankruptcy
Genesis Trading files for bankruptcy
DCG-subsidiary Genesis Capital files Chapter 11 due to 3AC default + FTX exposure — the tail of the crypto lending crisis. ~$3.5B liabilities; Gemini Earn users hit hardest.
- 2022-11 Collapse / Bankruptcy
FTX + Alameda collapse
Crypto's largest scandal. After CoinDesk publishes the Alameda balance sheet, an FTX run leads to bankruptcy on Nov 11. ~$8B in customer-fund misappropriation. Sam Bankman-Fried is later sentenced to 25 years. The domino effect drags BlockFi / Voyager / Genesis into insolvency.
- 2022-07 Collapse / Bankruptcy
Celsius / Voyager / 3AC simultaneous bankruptcies
The three largest crypto lenders collapse within weeks: 3AC liquidates early July, Voyager files in early July, Celsius files end of July. Root cause: leverage + Terra contagion. Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky later charged with fraud.
- 2022-05 Collapse / Bankruptcy
Terra LUNA / UST collapse
UST algorithmic stablecoin loses its 1:1 peg in early May; within 5 days LUNA falls from $80+ to $0.0001, vaporizing $40B+ in market cap. Founder Do Kwon later charged. The market rules algorithmic stablecoins dead — the trigger of the 2022 crypto winter.
- 2022-08 Regulation / Compliance
OFAC sanctions Tornado Cash
The US Treasury OFAC sanctions Tornado Cash smart contract addresses, setting a precedent for "sanctioning code." Developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev are later indicted. The canonical case for the privacy-vs-compliance debate.
- 2022-02 Security Incident
Wormhole $320M exploit (first)
Wormhole bridge's first major hack: 120K wETH lost. Jump Trading bails out users in hours, establishing the "institutional implicit backstop" pattern that pushes later bridges (LayerZero, Axelar) toward zero-TVL designs.
- 2021-11 Milestone
BTC all-time high $69k
BTC hits $69,044 on Nov 10, marking the top of the 2021 bull market. OpenSea NFT monthly volume tops $5B; Web3 narrative goes mainstream. Also the reference point for the subsequent bear.
- 2021-04 Launch / Listing
Coinbase direct lists on NASDAQ
Coinbase lists directly on NASDAQ (COIN) at an opening market cap of ~$86B. The first listed crypto exchange opens a compliant capital channel for traditional finance.
- 2020-09 Milestone
DeFi Summer + Uniswap V2 explosion
Compound launches the COMP governance token and yield farming. The Uniswap V2 + SushiSwap fork wars. Yearn YFI "fair launch." DeFi TVL grows from $1B to $11B in 3 months. The "DeFi 1.0" infra layer is born.
- 2019-09 Regulation / Compliance
Eve of China's 9·24 crackdown
China's PBoC and 10 ministries jointly classify virtual-currency trading as illegal financial activity. Chinese-origin exchanges (Binance / OKX / Huobi) begin overseas relocation. The Chinese crypto ecosystem fully "offshores."
- 2019-04 Regulation / Compliance
Tether reserve disclosure controversy
NYAG investigates Tether + Bitfinex over inaccurate reserve disclosures. Settled in 2021 for $42.5M. The pivot point that takes Tether from "fully opaque" to "quarterly attestation."
- 2014-02 Security Incident
Mt.Gox hack + bankruptcy
Then-world's-largest Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox loses 850K BTC (~$450M at the time), files for bankruptcy Feb 2014. Ten years later (July 2024) creditor distributions begin — BTC up several-hundred-fold. Crypto's earliest major lesson.
- 2014-01 Launch / Listing
Tether launches
Bitfinex-team-incubated Tether issues the first USDT on the Omni protocol, starting the stablecoin era. USDT later becomes the largest stablecoin by circulation (~$118B in 2026) and the de facto crypto payment rail.
- 2009-01 Milestone
Bitcoin genesis block
On Jan 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mines the Bitcoin genesis block (block 0), embedding the London Times headline "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." The starting point of the crypto world.