Pirateat40 Ponzi Collapses

First major Bitcoin Ponzi scheme defrauds investors of ~7,000 BTC.

BTC Price

$11

Importance

70/100

Trendon Shavers' Bitcoin Savings & Trust collapsed, becoming the first high-profile Bitcoin Ponzi scheme and a cautionary tale for yield chasers.

What else happened around this time?

The Bitcoin Foundation held its first member board election.

Block reward drops from 50 BTC to 25 BTC at block 210,000.

Purpose-built ASIC miners replace GPUs and FPGAs.