![Crypto Terms Glossary: What is Bitcoin Genesis Block? Crypto Terms Glossary: What is Bitcoin Genesis Block?](/img/174/140/what-is-bitcoin-genesis-block-sm.webp)
The first block mined on the Bitcoin blockchain, called the genesis block, was mined on January 3, 2009 by Satoshi Nakomoto, the creator of Bitcoin. Satoshi also encoded a message in the genesis block that read, "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." This is a reference to the global financial crisis of 2007–2009. It is hypothesized that Bitcoin was created to avoid the exploitation of the global banking system.