On Jan. 12, 2009, a groundbreaking milestone occurred that would forever change the landscape of digital finance. Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator(s), performed the first peer-to-peer (P2P) transaction on the Bitcoin network.
This historic moment at block 170 saw Satoshi transfer 10 BTC to computer scientist Hal Finney, making him the recipient of the Bitcoin first transaction. As was common in the early days, the transaction cost 0 BTC.
16 years ago today, the first P2P transaction occurred when Satoshi Nakamoto transferred 10 $BTC to computer scientist Hal Finney.
This historic transaction established Hal Finney as the first-ever recipient on the #Bitcoin blockchain. pic.twitter.com/AAYnaXxqNG
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) January 12, 2025
This first transaction came three days after the first open-source Bitcoin client was released online. On Jan. 9, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto released version 0.1 of the Bitcoin software. Finney was one of the first Bitcoin users, installing the software and participating in talks that would improve Bitcoin.
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On Jan. 10, 2009, Finney made history with the first-ever Bitcoin-related tweet: “running Bitcoin.”
The Genesis Block, also known as Block 0, was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto on Jan. 3, 2009. Similar to subsequent Bitcoin blocks, it rewarded 50 BTC, but this can never be spent.
16 years on
Finney received 10 BTC from Satoshi, which would have been worth zero dollars in 2009. Depending on market conditions, the same amount of Bitcoin today may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sixteen years later, Bitcoin has evolved into a global financial phenomenon with a current market valuation of about $1.84 trillion.
At the time of writing, BTC was down 1.45% in the last 24 hours to $92,560 after setting all-time highs of $108,268 on Dec. 17.
As regards the Bitcoin price, on the macroeconomic front, this week will give investors a clearer picture of the state of the economy following a blowout jobs report last week that sent equities falling. The stronger-than-expected nonfarm payroll report raised concerns that the Federal Reserve might proceed with caution moving forward, which casts doubt on further interest rate decreases.
