This year, the Fourth of July marks the 249th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Bitcoin BTC/USD, an asset whose ideas are rooted in financial sovereignty, has evolved significantly over the last few Independence Days.

What happened: Between 2020 and 2021, the apex cryptocurrency's value soared by an impressive 286%. Then came the brutal bear market of 2022, which triggered a 42% decline in Bitcoin’s price.

Since then, the leading coin has been trending only upward. After recovering by 52% in 2023, Bitcoin surged to nearly $57,000 by last year's Independence Day.

The last quarter of 2024 and the first half of 2025 saw a record-breaking run, with Bitcoin peaking at $111,970. While it has fallen from its highs, its value today is 92% higher than the same time last year.

From the data below, the compounded annual growth rate for Bitcoin is approximately 64%.

See Also: Bitcoin Gets ‘Bigger’ The More Money Central Banks Print, Says Popular Crypto Analyst: ‘It’s A Beautiful Thing’

Bitcoin’s libertarian ideals, which advocated decentralization and freedom from centralized institutions, attracted many early investors. Tech billionaire and Palantir Technologies co-founder Peter Thiel once revealed that Bitcoin’s vision as a cypherpunk, crypto-anarchist freedom tool drew him to the asset.

Nothing better embodies Bitcoin’s revolutionary concepts than the Bitcoin Whitepaper, authored by Satoshi Nakamoto. The first sentence in the whitepaper reads: “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”

However, truth be told. Bitcoin, as it exists today, is drastically different. It has become increasingly mainstream, with Wall Street financial behemoths pouring millions into its funds daily, and having a say on its price.

Price Action:  At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $109,418.54, up 2.18% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Photo Courtesy: Yuganov Konstantin on Shutterstock.com

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