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2020 The third halving and the institutions

A pandemic crash, a third halving and a wave of corporate and fintech adoption turned 2020 into the year institutions arrived. Bitcoin ended it at a new all-time high above $29,000.

Year-end price (approx.)

~$29,000

Block reward

12.5 → 6.25 BTC

Third halving

May 11, 2020

What happened

1. Mar 12

   “Black Thursday”: Bitcoin falls roughly 40% in a day, briefly dropping below $4,000 on some exchanges, in a global sell-off triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. May 11

   The third halving at block 630,000 cuts the reward from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.

3. Aug 11

   MicroStrategy announces its first Bitcoin purchase (about 21,500 BTC), starting the corporate-treasury trend.

4. Oct 21

   PayPal announces that US customers will be able to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency.

5. Dec 16

   Bitcoin surpasses its 2017 record of nearly $20,000 for the first time.

Why it mattered

For the first time, large public companies and payment networks were buying and enabling Bitcoin rather than merely discussing it.

Price by month

Bitcoin price on the first day of each month, in US dollars, with the change from the previous month.

• Jan$7,200−3%
• Feb$9,393+30%
• Mar$8,562−9%
• Apr$6,607−23%
• May$8,865+34%
• Jun$10,167+15%
• Jul$9,228−9%
• Aug$11,760+27%
• Sep$11,970+2%
• Oct$10,619−11%
• Nov$13,737+29%
• Dec$18,803+37%

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