The mainstream media has formally run out of ink to put in writing Bitcoin’s epitaph. This has occurred for the primary time because the days when Satoshi Nakamoto, the elusive creator of the flagship cryptocurrency, was nonetheless energetic on BitcoinTalk.
In response to the information supplied by Cypherpunk Holdings CTO Jameson Lopp, the variety of “Bitcoin Obituaries” collapsed to simply zero in 2025.
In his newest social media submit, Lopp shared a bar chart monitoring the “demise” of the crypto king during the last 15 years.
The visible knowledge exhibits the “demise narrative” peaking in 2017. Regardless of the large rally that pushed BTC into the mainstream, there have been roughly 125 distinct declarations of Bitcoin’s demise. This was seemingly as a result of frenzied ICO growth and the violent crash from the $20,000 all-time excessive. Unsurprisingly, the media skepticism carried into the 2018 “Crypto Winter.” Over 90 obituaries have been printed again then as costs cratered.
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There was a smaller resurgence of skepticism in 2021 with slightly below 50 obituaries.
Surprisingly sufficient, the critics have been noticeably quieter in comparison with the earlier cycles. Regardless of the collapse of FTX and the macro headwinds of 2022, specialists didn’t hassle writing extra obituaries. By 2024, the depend had dwindled to single digits.
Distinguished obituaries
The primary obituary was printed by The Underground Economist all the way in which again in December 2010. Again then, Bitcoin was nonetheless buying and selling at lower than $1. The writer argued that Bitcoin would continuously expertise deflation resulting from its mounted provide, that means that it might by no means truly take off as a viable foreign money. To be truthful, they weren’t fully flawed.
Forbes famously turned the very first mainstream outlet to publish a Bitcoin obituary all the way in which again in June 2011. This was written within the fast aftermath of the primary main Mt. Gox hack. Creator Tim Worstall argued that Bitcoin was successfully completed because it was troublesome to commerce it. Later that summer time, Gizmodo Australia printed an article about how the unique cryptocurrency was dying.
Maybe essentially the most well-known early obituary was printed by Wired in November 2011. It was a long-form deep dive that chronicled the “demise” of Bitcoin after its crash from the $30 highs of mid-2011 right down to $2. The tone was definitive: the experiment was over.