2014 · 4 recorded events
What happened in crypto in 2014? All 4 events on this timeline, including Ethereum Runs a 42-Day Public Token Sale — each dated, categorised and sourced.
This archive records four events for 2014, from Mt. Gox Collapses with 850,000 BTC Missing on 28 February to Microsoft Begins Accepting Bitcoin on 11 December. Network launches accounts for the largest share of the year with two entries, ahead of hacks and exploits. The same year also brought Ethereum Runs a 42-Day Public Token Sale. Each entry below carries its exact date, a short factual summary and a link to the source it was checked against.
By category, 2014 breaks down into two network launches, one hack or exploit and one adoption or institutional entry. Two of those entries carry a disclosed dollar figure: $450 million stolen and $18 million raised. These are different kinds of number and are not added together.
Network Launches
Hacks & Exploits
Adoption & Institutions
Every entry gives the date it happened, its category, a factual summary, and links to the original source and to the same entry in the full timeline.
After halting withdrawals on 7 February citing transaction malleability, Mt. Gox went dark and filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo, disclosing the loss of about 850,000 BTC worth roughly $450 million. Around 200,000 coins were later recovered; creditor repayments were still being distributed a decade later.
Between 22 July and 2 September 2014, Ethereum sold ether for bitcoin, raising 31,591 BTC — about $18.4 million — and distributing roughly 60 million ETH. It was the first large blockchain crowdsale and the direct template for the ICO wave three years later.
Launched as Realcoin in July 2014 and renamed Tether that November, USDT issued dollar-pegged tokens on Bitcoin's Omni layer. It gave traders a way to hold dollars without a bank and grew into the industry's dominant settlement asset — while its reserve disclosures drew scrutiny for years.
Microsoft let US customers top up their accounts with bitcoin through BitPay for Xbox, Windows and Office content. Coming after Dell and Overstock, it was the highest-profile merchant integration of the era and the peak of the "bitcoin as payment rail" narrative before fees and volatility eroded it.
This archive keeps a page for every year from 2008 to 2026. The sparser pre-Bitcoin entries from 1979 onward live in the full timeline.
