What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin (BTC) is the original cryptocurrency. Introduced in a 2008 white paper by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto and launched in January 2009, it was the first system to solve the double-spending problem for digital money without relying on a central authority. Transactions are recorded on a public, append-only ledger - the blockchain - maintained by a global network of nodes that follow a consensus rule called Proof-of-Work.
Today Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and is widely considered the benchmark digital asset. It is traded on every major exchange, held by public companies on their balance sheets, and serves as the settlement asset behind much of the broader crypto market.
How does Bitcoin work?
Bitcoin transactions are broadcast to a peer-to-peer network and bundled into blocks roughly every ten minutes. Miners compete to solve a cryptographic puzzle - a process that burns energy and secures the ledger - and the winner proposes the next block, collecting the block reward plus transaction fees.
The protocol issues new BTC on a schedule that halves roughly every four years. This disinflationary curve caps the total supply at 21 million coins and is enforced by every node on the network. Because anyone can run a node and verify the rules themselves, no single party can print more Bitcoin, censor transactions, or reverse the ledger unilaterally.
What is Bitcoin used for?
Bitcoin is most commonly used as a store of value - a bearer digital asset with a fixed supply and no custodian risk when self-held. It is also used for payments and remittances, particularly in regions with weak local currencies or limited access to the global banking system, and increasingly as collateral in on-chain and traditional finance markets.
Bitcoin's second-layer ecosystem, led by the Lightning Network, extends its utility for small, instant payments. Sidechains and wrapped versions such as WBTC make BTC programmable on other blockchains, allowing it to participate in lending, trading and DeFi applications without leaving its security assumptions.
Where can you buy Bitcoin?
Bitcoin (BTC) is traded on a wide range of centralized and decentralized exchanges. The most liquid markets for BTC sit on tier-1 venues - the sort of exchanges where institutional desks and professional market makers rebalance continuously - which is what keeps the spread tight and the last price tied closely to fair value.
You can open the Markets section above to see the live list of exchanges quoting BTC, sorted by 24-hour volume. Each row links to the venue's trade page so you can go directly from research to execution without copying the ticker around by hand.
What is the daily trading volume of Bitcoin (BTC)?
The reported 24-hour trading volume of Bitcoin is $1.30B. Volume is a live reading of how much BTC changed hands across all tracked exchanges in the past day and tends to rise during periods of price discovery and fall during consolidation.
For traders, the ratio between volume and market cap is often more informative than either number on its own: a high vol-to-mcap ratio indicates liquid, actively traded supply, while a low ratio suggests that most holders are sitting on the asset.
What is the highest and lowest price for Bitcoin (BTC)?
Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $126,080.00 on October 6, 2025, and an all-time low of $67.81 on July 6, 2013. It is currently trading -40.15% from its peak and +111173.03% from its bottom.
The distance from ATH is a useful gauge of recovery potential during a bear market and of stretched positioning during a bull market. Combined with the all-time-low figure it provides a quick statistical frame for thinking about where BTC sits in its long-run price range.
What is the market cap of Bitcoin (BTC)?
Bitcoin's market capitalization is currently $1.60T, and it is ranked #1 by market cap on Cryptopricing. Market cap is calculated as the current price multiplied by the circulating supply (20.03 million BTC are actively circulating today).
Market cap is a common but imperfect measure. It reflects the theoretical value of every circulating token at the current market price, but it doesn't capture how thin the top of the order book might be - an important caveat for tokens with low floats or illiquid cap tables.
What is the fully diluted valuation of Bitcoin (BTC)?
The fully diluted valuation (FDV) of Bitcoin is $1.60T. FDV is a projection of what the market cap would be if every token that will ever exist - including those that have not yet been unlocked, mined or issued - were in circulation at the current price.
FDV is a useful second reading alongside market cap. A large gap between mcap and FDV signals that future token emissions could dilute current holders, while a small gap indicates that supply is already mostly out.
How does the price performance of Bitcoin compare against its peers?
Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin has moved -1.66%. Over the past seven days, the change is +3.24%. Comparing these figures to the global crypto market cap change (shown in the ticker at the top of this page) tells you whether BTC is leading, lagging or tracking the broader market.
For deeper analysis, the categories strip on the home page groups coins by theme - Layer 1, Meme, DePIN, AI, RWA and so on - and lets you compare Bitcoin against its closest peers. The category detail pages surface the underlying coins and their seven-day sparklines in a single view.
How to store Bitcoin?
Like any crypto asset, the right way to store BTC depends on how often you plan to use it. Long-term holders typically self-custody using a hardware wallet such as Ledger or Trezor, which keeps private keys offline and immune to most remote attacks.
For active traders, a reputable custodial exchange wallet can be appropriate, especially one with clear proof-of-reserves attestations. Whatever approach you choose, the most important rule is to keep your recovery phrase offline, never share it, and never enter it into a web form or attached to a DM - no legitimate support agent will ever ask for it.
