A $100 Bitcoin investment in January 2013 at $13 per BTC would have bought about 7.69 BTC. See what it would be worth today.
In January 2013, Bitcoin was beginning to attract attention beyond its original cypherpunk community. At $13 per coin, a $100 investment would have purchased approximately 7.69 BTC.
At today's price of $70,000, those coins would be worth approximately $538,000. What started as the cost of a nice dinner would have grown into enough to buy a house outright in most US cities.
2013 was a year of two bubbles. Bitcoin surged from $13 to $266 in April before crashing 75%. It then rallied again to over $1,100 by November before the Mt. Gox collapse triggered a brutal two-year bear market that took Bitcoin back below $200.
Key milestones: - April 2013: Cyprus banking crisis drives Bitcoin to $266 as people seek alternatives to traditional banks - November 2013: Bitcoin reaches $1,100 on Chinese exchange volume - February 2014: Mt. Gox, handling 70% of all Bitcoin transactions, collapses after losing 850,000 BTC - 2015-2016: Slow recovery as Bitcoin builds infrastructure — new exchanges, wallets, and the beginnings of institutional interest - 2017: The ICO boom and retail mania push Bitcoin to $19,700
Cyprus Banking Crisis (March 2013): The Cypriot government proposed seizing up to 10% of bank deposits to fund a bailout. Bitcoin surged as people looked for censorship-resistant alternatives, proving its narrative as "digital gold" for the first time.
Mt. Gox Collapse (February 2014): The dominant Bitcoin exchange filed for bankruptcy after revealing that 850,000 BTC had been stolen. Bitcoin's price fell 60% and took two years to recover. This event shattered trust in centralized exchanges but ultimately led to better custody solutions.
The 2013-2015 bear market tested every holder's conviction. Bitcoin dropped from $1,100 to $150 — an 87% decline. Anyone who sold during this period missed the subsequent 130x rally to $19,700.
Instead of investing $100 all at once in January 2013, consider what dollar-cost averaging would have looked like. Investing $8.33 per month ($100 per year) from January 2013 would have accumulated Bitcoin at an average cost well below $500 — because most of 2014-2015 offered prices under $400.
The advantage of DCA in this period: If you bought the lump sum at $13, you had great results. But if you had waited and tried to time the market — perhaps buying at $266 in April or $1,100 in November — you would have entered at much worse prices. DCA removes the risk of buying at the worst possible moment.
Try the DCA Calculator on Bitcoin Horizon to simulate your own DCA strategy across any time period.
See how dollar-cost averaging into Bitcoin would have performed over any time period.
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Bitcoin started January 2013 at approximately $13 per coin. By the end of that year, it had surged to over $1,100 — a nearly 8,500% increase in a single year driven by growing media attention and the Cyprus banking crisis.
At $13 per BTC, $100 would have purchased approximately 7.69 Bitcoin. At $70,000 per BTC today, that investment would be worth roughly $538,000 — turning a modest $100 into over half a million dollars.
January 2013 was an exceptional entry point. Despite the fact that Bitcoin had already risen from $0.10 to $13 (a 13,000% gain), it still had another 538,000% of upside ahead. This illustrates that "it's too late to buy" has been wrong at every point in Bitcoin's history so far.
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