The first cryptocurrency coin, Bitcoin, was launched on January 3, 2009.

It was created by a pseudonymous person or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto. On that date, the Genesis Block (Block 0) of the Bitcoin blockchain was mined, officially starting the Bitcoin network.

Key milestones:

• Whitepaper published: October 31, 2008
  Title: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

• Genesis block mined: January 3, 2009

• Bitcoin version 0.1 released: January 9, 2009

Bitcoin laid the foundation for all other cryptocurrencies that followed.