It's a big moment for Bitcoin, today is its tenth birthday.
Love or hate it the cryptocurrency has taken the financial world by storm over the past ten years.
Emerging from the financial crash in 2008 it sold itself as the people’s currency, free from governments, central banks and regulation. Like its founder Satoshi Nakamoto is was mysterious and felt like a mini revolution.
In reality it was more likely to be mined by geeks in their bedrooms and used by drug dealers and money launderers but it has slowly become mainstream.
On May 22, 2010 a computer developer bought two Papa John’s pizzas using the currency and now it is used to everything buy from property to art to football clubs.
Even renowned businessmen like JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein have been forced to take it seriously having initially denounced it as a scam.
Yet the major issue holding the cryptocurrency back remains its wild price fluctuations.
In 2017 the cryptocurrency increased in value from around $1,000 per coin to almost $20,000 per coin in a matter of months.
So excited had people become that numerous major banks opened trading desks and also announced projects involving crypto, which helped fuel the rapidly expanding bubble in bitcoin's price.
But since then its price has come crashing back to earth - its currently stands at just $6300 per coin - as regulators announced plans to crack down on the cryptocurrency.
This week the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority said customers could be banned from buying bitcoin futures contracts for difference after the City watchdog warned risks were too high for armchair punters.
“The FCA has made clear that in its view cryptoassets have no intrinsic value and investors should therefore be prepared to lose all the value they have put in,” it said in a statement.
The jury may still be out for some on Bitcoin but let’s hope the next ten years are as exciting as the first!
