After the first big crash in 2011 (after reaching the ridiculous peak of $32), the death of bitcoin was declared and many people sold their bitcoins in the following months at a loss somewhere around $2-5. Since I saw the whole thing as a donation, I never bothered to sell mine.

I was never really involved in the Bitcoin community back then but I knew about it from a forum I used to frequent and would read articles about it from time to time. I remember watching the price spike to $32 and then crash to $3 and I felt relieved because I had considered buying a couple coins (even going so far as to making an account at Mt. Gox) but I was too lazy to actually go through with it. I remember reading threads here where people were crying over their lost wealth. The atmosphere of the forums just after the 2011 crash was really bleak and hopeless and many people thought the project had failed. Once Wired published an article called "The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin", I thought the whole thing was dead so I lost interest. Never would I have imagined that I'd be back here in three years, buying up fractions of a bitcoin at $500 per coin.