Bitcoin 2020 Review: The Year the Institutions Arrived

This will be remembered as the year when Bitcoin crossed the chasm into the institutional investment sphere and became a bonafide macroeconomic asset. Eleven years after the first Bitcoin block was mined, the long-fabled institutions have finally arrived.

However, while 2020 was an extremely successful year for Bitcoin, with Bitcoin breaching new all-time highs off the strength of institutional interest, it was by no means a stable ride up. This year was a historically volatile one, to say the least. And not just for Bitcoin, but also for the world.

It's clear now that the coronavirus pandemic has changed the world forever. Not only has it displaced many people around the world, with many countries still under restrictions nine months after this all began. But, the coronavirus also accelerated long-term trends in money, finance, geopolitics, and governance in a matter of months.

Through crisis, the world has found many flaws in the way our global economy works today, as well as embraced the advancements of technology that are in many ways keeping our global economy running in the face of physical limitations.

Cryptocurrencies and other related decentralized technologies have benefitted from this accelerationism as well. The bull case for Bitcoin has become strikingly apparent amidst historic monetary and fiscal stimulus from governments around the world. With the current macroeconomic backdrop and secular tailwinds of digitization and demographics, investors now see the writing on the wall. Bitcoin as a fixed supply digital asset is not only here to stay, but just getting started.

In this review we go month by month from January to December to highlight Bitcoin’s biggest moments throughout its historic year. 2020 was a rollercoaster, with many peaks and valleys for Bitcoin, so strap in as we begin in January.