From Mt. Gox to Mainstream Adoption: Bitcoin's 15-Year Journey to Financial Independence

[Crypto World] From its small experiment in 2009 to today, Bitcoin has experienced many thrilling moments along the way. The spectacular collapse of Mt. Gox exchange in 2014 serves as a vivid warning—thousands of users’ assets evaporated overnight. This turmoil revealed a harsh truth to the entire industry: storing coins on centralized platforms is essentially handing over your life savings to others. It was also at that time that concepts like self-custody and cold wallets truly entered the public eye.

In the days that followed, infrastructure gradually became more reliable. The 2017 bull run marked a turning point—Bitcoin was no longer a niche toy for tech enthusiasts but gradually entered the mainstream financial sphere. Institutional investors began to pay attention, media hype increased, and regulators could no longer stay on the sidelines. Interestingly, no matter how noisy the environment became, the two core principles of Bitcoin—openness and transparency, and financial independence—never wavered. These are its foundation and the reasons it can still stand firm despite the multiple pressures from traditional finance, regulatory policies, and macroeconomic factors.