7D price · data to 07:03 UTC.
32.79% of this 2,016-block period mined
| Exchange | Pair | 24h Volume | Spread | Trust | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CoinUp.io | BTC/USDT | $2.48B | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| BTCC | BTC/USDT | $1.97B | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| Pionex | BTC/USDT | $1.46B | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| Azbit | BTC/USDT | $1.30B | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| BloFin | BTC/USDT | $1.08B | 0.02% | TRADE | |
| Binance | BTC/USDT | $941.14M | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| KCEX | BTC/USDT | $930.71M | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| Ourbit | BTC/USDT | $771.79M | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| Bybit | BTC/USDT | $710.44M | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| Gate | BTC/USDT | $635.41M | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| Hotcoin | BTC/USDT | $631.44M | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| Coinbase Exchange | BTC/USD | $563.38M | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| Deribit Spot | BTC/USDC | $562.33M | 0.01% | TRADE | |
| Tapbit | BTC/USDT | $542.18M | 0.04% | TRADE | |
| DigiFinex | BTC/USDT | $476.98M | 0.01% | TRADE |
Top 15 exchanges by 24h trading volume. Block Insider earns affiliate commission from some exchanges listed here. Placement does not affect editorial.
Bitcoin is the world's first decentralized cryptocurrency, created in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. It enables peer-to-peer electronic cash transactions without intermediaries like banks or governments, operating on a blockchain secured by Proof of Work mining and the SHA-256 cryptographic algorithm.
With a fixed supply cap of 21 million coins and programmatic halvings every four years that reduce miner rewards, Bitcoin is designed as a deflationary digital asset often called "digital gold." Its value stems from solving the double-spending problem without trusted intermediaries, creating the first truly scarce digital asset with censorship resistance and permissionless access that no government, corporation, or individual can control.
Bitcoin operates as a decentralized peer-to-peer network where transactions are recorded on a public ledger called the blockchain, distributed across thousands of computers globally. Transactions are grouped into blocks added approximately every 10 minutes through mining, where specialized computers compete to solve complex mathematical puzzles.
Bitcoin has achieved mainstream adoption through multiple vectors. The January 2024 SEC approval of 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs opened Bitcoin investment to traditional finance participants, and corporations like Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) are using Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset to protect against currency debasement, offering MSTR holders amplified exposure to Bitcoin.
The SEC has historically treated Bitcoin as a commodity rather than a security, a position reaffirmed across multiple administrations.
Every 210,000 blocks (~4 years) the block subsidy paid to miners is cut in half, constraining new supply until the 21M cap is asymptotically reached.
Estimates range from 2.5-3.8M BTC permanently lost to forgotten keys, destroyed drives, and early-era dust, effectively tightening the realized supply.
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