Bitcoin in 2012

In January 2012, bitcoin was featured as the main subject within a fictionalized trial on the CBS legal drama The Good Wife in the third-season episode "Bitcoin for Dummies". The host of CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer, played himself in a courtroom scene where he testifies that he doesn't consider bitcoin a true currency, saying "There's no central bank to regulate it; it's digital and functions completely peer to peer".
  • March 1st About 50000 BTC are stolen after a security upgrade in Linode; it is the biggest bitcoin theft ever.
  • June 3rd The biggest block in the chain, # 181919 is created. It includes 1,322 transactions.
  • September 15th-16th Bitcoin conference in London.
  • September 27th Bitcoin Foundation organization was launched to "accelerate the global growth of bitcoin through standardization, protection, and promotion of the open source protocol". The founders were Gavin Andresen, Jon Matonis, Patrick Murck, Charlie Shrem, and Peter Vessenes.
  • October BitPay reported having over 1,000 merchants accepting bitcoin under its payment processing service.
  • November WordPress had started accepting bitcoins.
  • November 28th Block # 210,000 becomes the first block to yield a 25 BTC reward (all previous existing block rewards had been 50 BTC).
  • December 6th The France-based exchange Bitcoin-Central becomes the first exchange to operate within the framework of European regulations.

Bitcoin in 2013

  • January 22nd BitPay surpasses 10,000 transactions
  • February The bitcoin-based payment processor Coinbase reported selling US $1 million worth of bitcoins in a single month at over $22 per bitcoin. The Internet Archive announced that it was ready to accept donations as bitcoins and that it intends to give employees the option to receive portions of their salaries in bitcoin currency.
  • February 19th The 8th version of Bitcoin Client appears.
  • February 28th Bitcoin exchange rate surpasses 31.91 USD for the first time for the last 601 days.
  • March In March the bitcoin transaction log called the blockchain temporarily split into two independent chains with differing rules on how transactions were accepted. For six hours two bitcoin networks operated at the same time, each with its own version of the transaction history. The core developers called for a temporary halt to transactions, sparking a sharp sell-off. The Mt. Gox exchange briefly halted bitcoin deposits and the exchange rate briefly dipped by 23% to $37 as the event occurred in the US, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) established regulatory guidelines for "decentralized virtual currencies" such as bitcoin, classifying American "bitcoin miners" who sell their generated bitcoins as Money Service Businesses (or MSBs), that may be subject to registration and other legal obligations. resulting in the bitcoin exchange rate dropping from $266 to $76 before returning to $160 within six hours. Bitcoin gained greater recognition when services such as OkCupid and Foodler began accepting it for payment.
  • March 28th Bitcoin capitalization surpasses 1 billion USD.
  • April 1st Exchange rate of Bitcoin reaches 100 USD to 1 BTC.
  • May WebMoney announces creation of a new type of cash-box intended for operations with bitcoins.
  • May 15th the US authorities seized accounts associated with Mt. Gox after discovering that it had not registered as a money transmitter with FinCEN in the US.
  • May 17th It was reported that BitInstant processed approximately 30 percent of the money going into and out of bitcoin, and in April alone facilitated 30,000 transactions.
  • June 23rd It was reported that the US Drug Enforcement Administration listed 11.02 bitcoins as a seized asset in a United States Department of Justice seizure notice pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 881. It is the first time a government agency has claimed to have seized bitcoin.
  • July A historical project began in Kenya linking bitcoin with M-Pesa, a popular mobile payments system, in an experiment designed to spur innovative payments in Africa. During the same month the Foreign Exchange Administration and Policy Department in Thailand stated that bitcoin lacks any legal framework and would therefore be illegal, which effectively banned trading on bitcoin exchanges in the country. According to Vitalik Buterin, a writer for Bitcoin Magazine, "bitcoin's fate in Thailand may give the electronic currency more credibility in some circles", but he was concerned it didn't bode well for bitcoin in China.
  • August 6th Federal Judge Amos Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas of the Fifth Circuit ruled that bitcoins are "a currency or a form of money" (specifically securities as defined by Federal Securities Laws), and as such were subject to the court's jurisdiction, and Germany's Finance Ministry subsumed bitcoins under the term "unit of account" – a financial instrument – though not as e-money or a functional currency, a classification nonetheless having legal and tax implications.
  • October the FBI seized roughly 26,000 BTC from website Silk Road during the arrest of alleged owner Ross William Ulbricht.
  • October 29th Robocoin and Bitcoiniacs launched the world's first Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, allowing clients to sell or purchase bitcoin currency at a downtown coffee shop. Chinese internet giant Baidu had allowed clients of website security services to pay with bitcoins.
  • November The first time in the history, Bitcoin costs over 1000 USD after BTC is supported by American game creator Zynga.
  • November The University of Nicosia announced that it would be accepting bitcoin as payment for tuition fees, with the university's chief financial officer calling it the "gold of tomorrow". During the November 2013, the China-based bitcoin exchange BTC China overtook the Japan-based Mt. Gox and the Europe-based Bitstamp to become the largest bitcoin trading exchange by trade volume.
  • December Overstock.com announced plans to accept Bitcoin in the second half of 2014.
  • December 5th the People's Bank of China prohibited Chinese financial institutions from using bitcoins. After the announcement, the Bitcoin value dropped, and Baidu no longer accepted bitcoins for certain services. Buying real-world goods with any virtual currency has been illegal in China since at least 2009.
  • December 9th 100 USD are stolen from bitcoin wallets.
  • December China banned the use of cryptocurrency in the country. One of the largest exchanges in the world BTC China was closed. Behind China, Norway did not recognize bitcoins.