On June 20, 2017, Bitcoin’s Unicode symbol ₿ became officially usable worldwide with the release of Unicode 10.0.0, which introduced 8,518 new characters, totaling 136,690. The symbol was proposed by hardware hacker Ken Shirriff in October 2015 after extensive discussions within the Bitcoin community dating back to 2010. It is described as a capital 'B' with two vertical lines through it, marking it as the first new currency symbol added to Unicode in 24 years, following the Korean won (₩). Prior to the official recognition, Bitcoin was represented by various symbols, and there was debate within the community about how to accurately depict it. Support for the symbol's proposal included prominent Bitcoin advocates and organizations. The symbol had already appeared in publications like Wikipedia and Wired before its formal adoption, showcasing the community's push for an official designation for Bitcoin's unique representation.

Source 🔗