Part of our Bitcoin Mining Pool by Year series: 2009-2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015
Bitcoin continued to build a pace, albeit for a couple of shady reasons, and with the advent of large-scale bitcoin exchanges such as Mt. Gox, the price began to rapidly increase. The first wave of price increases hit $219 on 10th April 2013, which rapidly fell off. However, continued media coverage, general instability, and then massive increases in price drove bitcoin to a peak of $1145 (similar to the price of an ounce of gold), which then dropped and rebounded to $730 by the end of the year. The first ASIC miners hit the market during 2013, although it would be the following year before they took off massively.
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