Price Chart

Chart by TradingView

24h Volume$25.07B
7d Avg Daily$30.11B
30d Avg Daily$36.13B
365d Total$17.21T
Volume
$34.97Bavg/day
avg $34.97BMay 19May 26Jun 2Jun 9Jun 16

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency, created in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, operating without a central bank or single administrator. Its supply is mathematically capped at 21 million coins — a hard limit enforced by protocol code that no single party can override. That fixed scarcity, combined with proof-of-work security, is what distinguishes it from every government-issued currency and from most competing cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin's security model relies on proof-of-work (PoW) mining: miners compete to solve SHA-256 computational puzzles, and the longest valid chain wins. This makes rewriting history astronomically expensive at scale — an attacker would need to outpace the entire global hash rate, which has grown to exahash-per-second levels. Transactions settle in roughly 10-minute blocks, with most exchanges requiring 3–6 confirmations for meaningful finality. The Lightning Network, a layer-2 payment channel protocol, enables near-instant micropayments off-chain, addressing Bitcoin's limited base-layer throughput of roughly 7 transactions per second.

The core criticism of Bitcoin is energy intensity: PoW mining consumes electricity comparable to mid-sized countries, and the mix of renewable versus fossil-fuel power varies widely by mining region. A second structural risk is miner revenue post-halving — block rewards halve approximately every four years, and the long-term security model assumes transaction fees eventually replace subsidies. Whether fee revenue alone can sustain sufficient miner participation is an open, unresolved question in Bitcoin's long-term design.

Reviewed by the 2Bitcoins Editorial Team · Updated . Not financial advice.

Bitcoin FAQ

Is Bitcoin's 21 million supply cap absolute?+

The 21 million cap is enforced by the Bitcoin protocol itself. Changing it would require a coordinated hard fork that the overwhelming majority of nodes, miners, and users would need to adopt — a change that has never come close to consensus. In practice, the cap is treated as a social contract as much as a technical rule: any chain that removed it would be a different coin.

What happens to Bitcoin after all coins are mined?+

The final bitcoin is projected to be mined around the year 2140. After that, miners earn only transaction fees. Whether those fees will be sufficient to maintain the security budget — and thus deter 51% attacks — is one of Bitcoin's most debated long-term questions. Higher layer-2 adoption could concentrate fees on-chain differently than current patterns suggest.

What is a Bitcoin halving?+

Roughly every 210,000 blocks (approximately four years), the block subsidy paid to miners is cut in half. This mechanism is hard-coded into the protocol to enforce the disinflationary supply schedule leading to the 21 million cap. The fourth halving in April 2024 reduced the per-block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

Bitcoin key numbers

Price (USD)$64,922.00
Market cap$1.30T
24h low / high$64,870.00 → $66,687.00
24h change 2.41%
7d change 6.05%
Circulating supply20.04M BTC

Where to buy Bitcoin

View all exchanges →

Buy BTC on these trusted exchanges. Ranked by our rating — based on fees, security, features, and user experience.

#1
Binance
BinancePoR
4.7
$600 bonus
World's largest exchange by volume
Lowest fees with BNB discount
400+ trading pairs
Maker 0.1%|Taker 0.1%|400+ coins
#2
Bybit
BybitPoR
4.3
Up to $30,000 bonus
Market-leading derivatives and perpetual contracts
Competitive 0.1% spot and futures fees
Best-in-class copy trading platform
Maker 0.1%|Taker 0.1%|270+ coins
#3
OKX
OKXPoR
4.4
Free Mystery Gift
Competitive fees with maker at 0.08%
One of the deepest order books in the industry
Native Web3 wallet built into the app
Maker 0.08%|Taker 0.1%|340+ coins
#4
Coinbase
Coinbase
4.4
Get 40£
NASDAQ-listed, publicly regulated company
Best-in-class regulatory compliance
Simple and intuitive user interface
Maker 0.6%|Taker 1.2%|240+ coins
#5
Kraken
KrakenPoR
4.5
$10 + bonus
One of the oldest and most trusted exchanges
No breach with loss of customer funds in 15 years
Strong regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions
Maker 0.25%|Taker 0.4%|220+ coins
#6
KuCoin
KuCoinPoR
4.1
Up to $11,000 bonus
Massive selection of 850+ cryptocurrencies
Supports many small-cap and new tokens early
Built-in trading bot and DCA tools
Maker 0.1%|Taker 0.1%|850+ coins
#7
MEXC
MEXCPoR
3.9
$10,000 bonus
0% maker fee — among lowest in industry
1,500+ listed cryptocurrencies
Very early listings of new tokens
Maker Free|Taker 0.05%|1500+ coins
#8
Bitget
BitgetPoR
4.1
$6,200 bonus
Industry-leading copy trading with 100,000+ signal providers
Competitive spot and derivatives fees
Strong $200M protection fund for user assets
Maker 0.1%|Taker 0.1%|550+ coins
#9
BingX
BingXPoR
3.7
$6,000 bonus
One of the strongest copy trading platforms in the industry
Competitive 0.1% spot fees and low futures rates
700+ cryptocurrencies with frequent new listings
Maker 0.1%|Taker 0.1%|700+ coins

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Bitcoin Markets

#ExchangePairPriceVolume (24h)Trust
1Binance logoBinanceBTC/USDT$64,911.00$910.91M
2Coinbase Exchange logoCoinbase ExchangeBTC/USD$64,926.00$411.80M
3OKX logoOKXBTC/USDT$64,940.00$274.14M
4Bitget logoBitgetBTC/USDT$64,942.00$281.72M
5Bybit logoBybitBTC/USDT$64,921.00$804.03M
6Gate logoGateBTC/USDT$64,908.00$703.59M
7Kraken logoKrakenXBT/USD$64,922.00$111.04M
8MEXC logoMEXCBTC/USDT$64,903.00$580.25M
9BingX logoBingXBTC/USDT$64,919.00$170.76M
10KuCoin logoKuCoinBTC/USDT$64,926.00$196.62M
11DigiFinex logoDigiFinexBTC/USDT$64,916.00$373.02M
12WhiteBIT logoWhiteBITBTC/USDT$64,918.00$360.92M
13AlphaX logoAlphaXBTC/USDT$64,919.00$27.04M
14Bullish logoBullishBTC/USDC$64,916.00$411.74M
15Bitstamp by Robinhood logoBitstamp by RobinhoodBTC/USD$64,919.00$72.22M
16Crypto.com Exchange logoCrypto.com ExchangeBTC/USD$64,947.00$323.34M
17Bitunix logoBitunixBTC/USDT$64,917.00$154.37M
18XT.COM logoXT.COMBTC/USDT$64,928.00$438.00M
19LBank logoLBankBTC/USDT$64,919.00$166.88M
20HashKey Exchange logoHashKey ExchangeBTC/USD$64,892.00$22.94M