When Bitcoin first started in 2009, it didn't have much value. But things started to change in 2010 when its price rose from $0 to $0.39. However, there were a lot of ups and downs in those early days.

In early 2011, Bitcoin reached the same value as the US dollar, and by February of that year, it hit $1. Throughout that year, its price continued to rise, reaching $10 and then $30. The reason for this volatility was that there weren't many bitcoins available, and there weren't many places to exchange them.

But then, in mid-2011, there were some hacks and thefts that made people lose confidence in Bitcoin. Its price dropped from around $30 to $2. It took more than a year for it to reach $10 again.

In 2012, Bitcoin slowly rose to $12, but there were still big jumps between $7 and $15. Then, in 2013, Bitcoin had a huge surge in price, going from $12 to over $1,100. This was because more people were talking about it in the media, and it was being used on the dark web.

However, by the end of 2013, its price dropped to around $700 because China banned financial institutions from using Bitcoin. This pattern of big rises and crashes will continue to affect Bitcoin's price in the future.

2014-2016 bear market In 2014, the biggest Bitcoin exchange at the time, Mt.Gox, collapsed after being hacked. This caused Bitcoin's price to drop from around $850 to below $350.

For the next two years, Bitcoin's price stayed between $200 and $300. This was a more stable period compared to the previous volatility. The lack of regulation and interest from big institutions kept the price from changing too much.

2017 - Bull Market and Mainstream Mania In 2017, Bitcoin became more well-known and its price skyrocketed to nearly $20,000. There were a few reasons for this:

More people were calling Bitcoin "digital gold" in the media and investment reports. Countries facing currency crises, like Venezuela and Zimbabwe, started using Bitcoin more. There was talk of creating a Bitcoin ETF (Exchange Traded Fund), which got investors excited. Bitcoin futures trading started on major exchanges, which made it seem more legitimate. Big institutions, like billionaire Michael Novogratz, invested a lot of money in Bitcoin. But by January 2018, Bitcoin's price dropped more than 60% from its peak because of regulations and other factors that cooled down the hype around it.

2018-2020 – Crypto Winter After the big rally in 2017, Bitcoin went into a bear market for most of 2018. Its price stayed between $3,000 and $6,000.

During this time, there were more regulations and hacks, which caused the price to drop. But there were also some positive developments:

The Lightning Network was launched, which made Bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper. Big institutions, like Fidelity and US Bancorp, started investing in Bitcoin. Bitcoin futures were added to exchanges like Bakkt and Nasdaq. Some countries, like Japan, recognized Bitcoin as legal tender. These developments helped Bitcoin recover to the $10,000 to $11,000 range by mid-2019. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 showed that Bitcoin could be a good investment during an economic crisis.

2021-2022 – Twin Peaks and Recession Risk In 2021, Bitcoin reached two new all-time highs, but it couldn't break the first one by much. This surprised investors who were expecting Bitcoin to reach $100,000 or more.

In 2022, Bitcoin's price started to drop as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to fight inflation. The collapse of some cryptocurrency businesses, like FTX, made things worse. Eventually, Bitcoin hit a low of $15,800 in November 2022.

How will Bitcoin perform in 2023? Bitcoin is trying to recover from the tough year it had in 2022. The Federal Reserve is still raising interest rates, and the SEC is cracking down on the crypto industry, which makes it harder for Bitcoin to bounce back.

Despite these challenges, many institutions are considering using Bitcoin for electronic transfers. This could drive up the price. Right now, Bitcoin is correcting after a short-term uptrend in 2023. We don't know yet if it will go back into a bear market or continue going up in the long term.

Short-Term Bitcoin Price Prediction 2023 In the short term, there are three possibilities for Bitcoin's price until the end of 2023. The bullish scenario suggests that Bitcoin could reach new all-time highs. The bearish scenario predicts a further correction with a target price of $16,000 per Bitcoin. And there's also the possibility that Bitcoin will stay in a sideways phase for several months.

Given Bitcoin's past performance, a price prediction of $137,000 to $45,000 in 2023 is not out of the question.