Crypto Eras, Year by Year: a Timeline with the Wen Cat
Historical post This post records events as they were reported at the time. Facts are checked against sources; nothing here is a forecast.
Every almanac needs a calendar. This one is a timeline of crypto's eras — from Bitcoin's first block to stablecoins on Solana — with the Wen cat placed where it really belongs. The original post mixed history with price talk and a few wishful entries; we kept the history, checked the dates and moved the hopes into a clearly marked corner. As its own author wrote: the future hasn't arrived yet; after the events, we will record history.
The timeline
| Year | Era | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 2008–2009 | Genesis | Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper (2008) and Bitcoin's first block (January 3, 2009). |
| 2010 | First real use | Two pizzas bought for 10,000 BTC (May 22, 2010); mining moves from CPUs to graphics cards. |
| 2011 | Altcoins | The first alternative coins appear, such as Namecoin and Litecoin. |
| 2015 | Smart contracts | Ethereum launches (July 30, 2015): programmable money. |
| 2016 | The first DAO | "The DAO" shows both the promise and the risk of code-run organisations. |
| 2017 | ICO boom | Token sales everywhere; crypto slang like "wen moon?" spreads. |
| 2020 | DeFi summer | Lending, swaps and yield farming grow on public blockchains. |
| 2021 | NFTs | Digital collectibles and art reach the mainstream. |
| 2022 | Crash and rebuild | Major collapses; Ethereum moves to proof of stake (the Merge); Bonk is airdropped to Solana users at Christmas. |
| 2024 | Memecoins and ETFs | U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs (January); WEN airdrop (January 26) and $JUP (January 31); the cat season with MEW. |
| 2025 | Rules and rails | The U.S. GENIUS Act for stablecoins (July); Solana ETFs in Hong Kong and New York (October); stablecoins on Solana from Western Union and Jupiter. |
| 2026 | Tools | JupUSD goes live (January); Wen Open Lab publishes free models (October). |
We corrected two lines of the original: DAOs began in 2016, not 2022, and 2023 was not the start of "AI integrations" as a crypto era — it was a year of rebuilding.
Where the word "wen" comes from
In crypto slang, "wen" is a playful misspelling of "when" — as in the endless questions "wen moon?" and "wen lambo?". It captures the impatience of a market that always wants the future now. The original post added a lovely bit of wordplay from Chinese, where similar-sounding syllables mean 问 (wèn, "to ask"), 文 (wén, "writing, culture") and 温 (wēn, "warm"). Ask, culture, warmth — not a bad motto for a community coin wordplay.
Cats themselves have a far older history with people than any coin: from the guardians of Egyptian granaries (see Wen and the cats of ancient Egypt) to the cats that pull the goddess Freyja's chariot in Norse myth.
Wen's place in the story
Wen sits at a crossroads of three eras. From the NFT era it took its form: a poem minted as an NFT and fractionalized into one trillion tokens. From the memecoin era it took its culture: a cat, jokes, art, a community. And from the infrastructure era it took its lasting contribution: the Wen New Standard on Token-2022 and a public stress test that prepared Solana for much larger launches.
Hopes, clearly marked
The original described 2025 onward as "the Wen era" of an "energy coin" — a third model beside stablecoins and memecoins opinion. It is a community dream, and we keep it as one. We removed what was not history: price levels, a hypothetical comparison with another coin's record, claims of exchange listings, and partnerships we could not confirm (the trust chain lists them as unverified).
What the eras teach
- Every era leaves tools behind. Bitcoin left a secure ledger, Ethereum smart contracts, DeFi open finance — and Wen left an open NFT standard.
- Hype ends, infrastructure stays. ICO tokens vanished; the standards and rails built in those years are still in use.
- History is written afterwards. That is why this almanac records events with sources and keeps forecasts out.
Video
Official sources and the Wen community
- wenwencoin.com — official Wen site with the contract
- wenwencoin.com/brand — brand kit; see also our Wen Media archive
- docs.wenwencoin.com — documentation
- x.com/wenwencoin — official X account
- youtube.com/@wen-coin and TikTok — community video
- Pinterest — community art, also on our Pinterest page
- iq.wiki/wiki/wen — the wiki entry, reviewed in our IQ.wiki post
- All open Wen sources and links in one place
Check before you trust: the WEN contract
The one and only WEN mint on Solana is WENWENvqqNya429ubCdR81ZmD69brwQaaBYY6p3LCpk. Compare it character by character with the Solana Explorer and the official site wenwencoin.com. A short video shows how: find the ID contract. Names, tickers and logos can be copied; the address cannot.
Every claim on this site carries a status in our trust chain.
Keep exploring
- Wen, Bitcoin and Solana — invented or discovered?
- The launch-day stress test — January 26, 2024 in numbers
- ❓ What do you know about Wen? — ten questions, with a knowledge card for every miss
- ★ Wen Open Lab — free, tested models built on WNS and Token-2022
- About the Wen token — the poem, the airdrop and the cat
- Token-2022 and WNS — the technology under the meme
Disclaimer. This is an educational almanac entry, not financial advice. It describes events and ideas; it does not recommend buying, selling or holding any token. Where a detail could not be confirmed, it is marked in the text and listed in our trust chain.
Wen Media
Wen cat, Wen meme and the golden Wen coin: a few picks from the community archive. Open all of Wen Media.
This page is the current, maintained version of this piece. It was first published on wen-crypto.com and has been rewritten, checked and expanded for the Wen almanac. Original page: wen-crypto.com.