If You Bought Bitcoin 30 Years Ago at Today’s Price, Here’s What You’d Have Now
Written by
John Csiszar
Edited by
Rebekah Evans
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Investors love to look back and think about “what could have been.” In prior decades, Microsoft and Apple were often on the minds of daydreamers, who wondered just how rich they would be now if they invested back when those companies first went public. In recent years, bitcoin has dominated much of that headspace, thanks to its incredible returns and breathtaking volatility. But even though it may feel as if bitcoin has been around forever, it only had a verifiable trading price starting in 2010, a scant 15 years ago.
So, if you’re wondering what would have happened if you bought bitcoin 30 years ago, you’re out of luck, as the cryptocurrency didn’t even exist three decades ago. But there are a number of ways you can look back at bitcoin’s ups and downs and see where you potentially would have stood today.
Also here is where ChatGPT said bitcoin is headed in 2026.
If You Bought Bitcoin 30 Years Ago at Today’s Price
Currently, bitcoin trades right around $91,000 per coin. If you could somehow have bought it 30 years ago at today’s price, it would mean you paid $91,000 per coin and have nothing by way of profits.
A more interesting way to look at the “30-year-ago” scenario might be to imagine you paid $91,000 per Bitcoin and then earned the average annual return on the crypto since then. As bitcoin is so volatile and has posted such huge long-term gains, even experts dispute what the “average annual return” on bitcoin has been. But many estimates run between 75% and 125% annually.
Splitting the difference and assuming a 100% average annual return, this means your $91,000 investment would have grown to an unfathomable $97.7 trillion over the last 30 years, according to Calculator.net.
Why the Fascination With Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a popular asset to speculate about because it’s in the news seemingly every day. Here are a few of the reasons why it’s a big draw.
- Bitcoin returns have been spectacular. No other asset, even big tech names like Nvidia or Microsoft, have come close to matching bitcoin’s return since its inception.
- Investors always bemoan the fact that they missed out on something great. It’s almost impossible to identify “the next big thing” before it strikes it big and bitcoin was no exception. Even to this day, many big-name investors feel like the asset should be worthless. Yet, the fact remains that bitcoin’s performance has been staggering. It’s just human nature to look back at and dream about how much money you could have made if you bought an asset right before it exploded in price.
- Bitcoin has a hard cap of 21 million coins. Those who are bullish on the cryptocurrency suggest that this will eventually make bitcoin a scarce asset. Speculators wonder if getting in even at $91,000 will still prove to be “early” in the long run.
As all of these factors will likely remain in play over the coming years, it’s likely that bitcoin will continue to make headlines.
How Volatile Has Bitcoin Been Historically?
If you want to get a feel for how volatile bitcoin has been over the years, just check out this list of annual returns for the crypto, according to SlickCharts.com.
- 2025: -1.34 (YTD)
- 2024: 121.05
- 2023: 155.42
- 2022: -64.27
- 2021: 59.67
- 2020: 303.16
- 2019: 92.20
- 2018: -73.56
- 2017: 1,368.90
- 2016: 123.83
- 2015: 34.47
- 2014: -29.99
According to Curvo, over the last 14-plus years, the standard deviation of bitcoin has been roughly 150%. That’s simply extraordinary. In layman’s terms, that means the price of bitcoin, currently about $91,000, could range anywhere between $0 and $227,500 over the coming year and still fall within its expected standard deviation range. The S&P 500, by way of contrast, had a standard deviation of about 14.5% over the same time period. Considering many investors consider the stock market to be “too volatile,” bitcoin, with a standard deviation 10x as large, is simply uninvestable for the risk-averse.
Is Bitcoin a Good Investment, Overall?
You couldn’t have bought bitcoin 30 years ago at any price because the cryptocurrency didn’t exist back in 1995. But out of those who did invest at bitcoin’s inception, many investors may have profited handsomely, while some also no doubt lost a significant amount of their investment during the crypto’s ups and downs. One thing is for sure: investing in bitcoin has been extremely volatile. While it can be fun to speculate, be sure that you only allocate enough money to bitcoin to match your tolerance for risk.
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