Here’s what you need to know:

We found the total amount of bitcoin that’s been transferred since 2009, and it’s pretty huge. The OG cryptocurrency was originally launched in 2008 with the release of its whitepaper, penned by Satoshi Nakamoto. Over the last decade, Bitcoin has grown in leaps and bounds with the crypto asset industry growing alongside it, and it’s now surpassed more than $7 trillion dollars worth of transactions. We’ll be taking a look at the growth of Bitcoin transactions over time, and how more transactions fuel growth and mass adoption in the industry.

What is Bitcoin?

With a current market cap of $154 billion USD, Bitcoin is the biggest cryptocurrency on the market. Bitcoin was founded by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, with the first Bitcoin transaction taking place in January 2009. This was the start of a revolution. Now, over $7 trillion worth of BTC has been transferred since 2009, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

At its peak in December 2017, Bitcoin had about 1 million active addresses. With that many active addresses, the number of transactions skyrocketed for the cryptocurrency. While this may have peaked in 2017, Bitcoin has continued to grow as a blockchain – and has now surpassed more than $7 trillion dollars worth of transactions. That’s huge.

Fuelling growth and mass adoption

While we found the total amount of Bitcoin that’s been transferred since 2009, it’s important to recognize that we’re technically still in the early adoption phase and things will continue to grow and evolve. The cryptocurrency industry is only 11 years old, and has yet to hit the mainstream. While there are other factors that drive mass adoption (such as increasing acceptance from mainstream entities like governments and banks), the overall success of the blockchain also has a huge influence.

There are 21 million BTC in total, with the current circulating supply sitting at around 18 million. As we head towards the cap on supply, it’s likely that more and more people will begin to adopt the cryptocurrency. With such a huge number of transactions, droves of financial institutions and world leaders are sitting up and taking notice of the potential of the cryptocurrency – further fuelling mass adoption.

With a bull market heading our way in the near future (likely linked to the Bitcoin halving event due in May 2020), it’s likely that more of the mainstream will flood to adopt the cryptocurrency; and mass adoption is good for everyone.

As demand for the cryptocurrency climbs, it only makes sense that the rest of the industry will thrive too. Mass adoption of Bitcoin could lead to mass adoption of altcoins, and the total market cap of the industry will skyrocket.

What next?

Now that we’ve found the total amount of Bitcoin that’s been transferred since 2009, we can see exactly how successful this cryptocurrency actually is (in case it wasn’t already clear). Such an immense amount of transactions drives growth and mass adoption. As the mainstream sees the success of the cryptocurrency, and the potential uses of its blockchain technology, it’s likely that mass adoption will begin. With mass adoption we can expect huge growth, not just for Bitcoin but for the crypto asset industry as a whole. Now, that’s some pretty exciting stuff.

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