Bitcoin Price

(BTC)
USD($)
BTC
Estimated
USD $ --
BTC/USDT5
‎$ 26,679.1+3.67%
BTC PERP/USDT125
‎$ 26,678.3+3.7%

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Movements ($)

PeriodChangeChange (%)
Today$ 941.63.66%
7 Days$ -401.6-1.48%
30 Days$ -1,219.6-4.37%
3 Months$ -1,478.3-5.25%

Bitcoin(BTC) Info

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Contract
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Audited By
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Code & Community
Investors
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‎$ 25,355
‎$ 27,393.2
‎$ 68,789.6
-0.49%
+3.67%
-1.70%
$ 519.87B 
$ 188.01M 
18,953,412
21,000,000

About BTC

What Is Bitcoin (BTC)?

Bitcoin is the world’s first cryptocurrency designed to operate decentralized over a blockchain. It can be used as a store of value and for making digital payments without the need for a central authority like a bank or a financial institution, unlike traditional currencies. The symbol BTC in the market represents Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin digital currency is the first of its kind that has seen widespread adoption and interest from users worldwide. In 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, further boosting its acceptance as an alternative to government-issued fiat currencies.

While the concept of digital payments has been around for several years now, Bitcoin stands apart due to its decentralization features. Instead of depending on the traditional financial infrastructure, transactions of Bitcoin take place on the blockchain on a peer-to-peer basis without the need for an intermediary authority.

Bitcoin’s blockchain employs a distributed ledger design instead of maintaining a centralized ledger or database. This model eliminates the risk of a single point of failure and makes BTC resilient against attacks. Additionally, the decentralized design of the blockchain makes digital transfers of payments faster and more efficient as well.

US-based nonprofit organization Bitcoin Foundation is responsible for coordinating and engaging with governments to increase awareness and adoption of the cryptocurrency. It is also tasked with countering any negative reputation impact that Bitcoin experiences.

You can learn more about Bitcoin at our KuCoin Blog.

How Does Bitcoin Work?

Bitcoin offers a unique payment network that is completely transparent and decentralized, powered by blockchain technology. The distributed ledger design allows all participants to view all transactions within the network.

Every BTC transaction gets recorded within the blockchain in a cryptographically secure and immutable manner. Records added to the blockchain are permanent and cannot be tampered with without the knowledge of all nodes in the network. This makes Bitcoin a far more secure payment method than conventional options like fiat currencies or credit cards which are susceptible to high levels of fraud.

The Bitcoin blockchain uses special mining rigs and computing devices with high processing power. These mining rigs are responsible for verifying all transactions within the Bitcoin network and recording them into the blockchain by adding new blocks and earning block rewards in return for their contributions.

The process of verifying Bitcoin transactions, also known as mining, also creates new coins, which bump up the BTC circulating supply. As the max supply of Bitcoins is fixed at 21 million, mining new BTC coins are getting harder with time. This, coupled with the rising demand for the cryptocurrency, makes Bitcoin more valuable over time.

Bitcoin leverages a proof of work (PoW) consensus mechanism to prevent the double spending problem within its network. Double spending occurs when a user tries to use the same token in two separate transactions within the time it takes to record the transaction details.

However, using long hashes makes it difficult for users to attempt double spending Bitcoins. In this manner, the intensive consensus mechanism prevents fraud within the blockchain.

History of Bitcoin

The origin of Bitcoin can be traced back to 31 October 2008, when its white paper was published by a pseudonym person or persons under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. The paper discussed a peer-to-peer, decentralized virtual currency that could be used to transfer payments online.

It also proposed using a distributed ledger that would record transactions in sets called blocks in an encrypted manner. This technology was the blockchain.

Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin proposal was unique as it merged the principles of security and anonymity with decentralization, creating a trustless environment to enable digital payment transfers. The underlying blockchain infrastructure made it possible to transfer peer-to-peer payments without the challenge of trust in the system - a key factor supporting centralized transactions.

On 3 January 2009, Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, mined its blockchain's first block (genesis block), officially launching the world's first and most popular cryptocurrency. At the time of launch, the Bitcoin price stood at $0 but gradually rose in value. This resulted in more Bitcoins being mined and demand for the crypto being created.

Fast forward to 22 May 2010, and Bitcoin was used for its first commercial transaction. Computer programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid for two pizzas using Bitcoin, being charged 10,000 BTC for his order. This was, of course, when the Bitcoin price was significantly lower than current levels.

In honor of the creator's name, the smallest unit of Bitcoin that can be bought is a Satoshi. Each Satoshi equals 0.00000001 BTC or one hundred millionth of one BTC.

Over the years, the Bitcoin blockchain has undergone several updates. The most recent significant upgrade as of July 2022 is the Taproot Update which went live in 2021 and is the most significant upgrade since Segregated Witness (SegWit) launched in 2017. Taproot makes Bitcoin transactions even more secure, using a technique called “MAST” to obscure private transaction data.

The Bitcoin Lightning Network is another notable development in the Bitcoin roadmap. This is a Layer-2 payment protocol designed on top of Bitcoin to improve scalability and throughput, making Bitcoin transactions faster with cheaper transaction fees.

FAQ

How can I buy Bitcoin (BTC)?
Buying BTC on KuCoin is fast and simple. Create an account, verify your identity, deposit funds, and start your trading. It's that simple! See How to Buy Bitcoin (BTC) for more information.
How much is 1 Bitcoin (BTC) worth?
KuCoin provides real-time USD price updates for Bitcoin (BTC). Bitcoin price is affected by supply and demand, as well as market sentiment. Use the KuCoin Calculator to obtain real-time BTC to USD exchange rates.
What Makes Bitcoin Valuable?

Fixed Supply of BTC

One of the most significant factors contributing to Bitcoin’s value is its rarity, owing to the fixed supply. At the launch, its creators announced that only 21 million BTC would be minted or generated.

Decentralization Makes Bitcoin Appealing For Users

As the popularity of decentralized cryptocurrency and its trading volume soar, there is increasing demand for Bitcoin among both retail and institutional investors. The price of Bitcoin enjoys support from an uptick in demand.

BTC's Large Market Cap Makes it Most Valuable Cryptocurrency

In addition, BTC's fixed max supply and reputation as the original cryptocurrency with the largest market capitalization makes it an attractive store of value, which further supports the Bitcoin live price.

Uptick in Crypto Adoption Further Boosts BTC Value

The rising interest among large and small investors in BTC and other digital assets has also increased its value in recent months. The increasing number of use cases for cryptocurrencies has made this asset class more attractive to invest in. As Bitcoin remains the leader of the pack, almost all investors vie to hold at least some portion of their portfolio.

Bitcoin a Hedge Against Inflation

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the level of uncertainty in global financial markets has been extremely high. Several investors consider Bitcoin a hedge against inflation, giving it the moniker ‘digital gold’ in the financial market. Amid monetary easing by central banks, volatility in equity markets, and gold becoming more expensive, many investors turned to Bitcoin for its high returns.

What Is Bitcoin Mining?

The process of creating new Bitcoins is known as mining. It involves using mining rigs and computers with high processing capabilities to solve complex mathematical puzzles. Bitcoin mining is an essential process that validates all transactions within the blockchain and records them in new blocks.

Bitcoin miners solve the puzzles to verify transactions, mint new BTC and increase its circulating supply. Miners receive a portion of new Bitcoins minted as block rewards for their crypto mining efforts. The new BTC coins increase the supply of the crypto in the market, but with the total supply being fixed and demand remaining strong, the mining of coins has little impact on the BTC price.

KuCoin offers a convenient way to mine Bitcoin via its KuCoin Pool. Use this service to contribute your computing resources to empower the mining hashrate and experience low mining costs for Bitcoin mining.

How Much Energy Does Bitcoin Consume?

Even as the demand for Bitcoin rises worldwide, there are growing concerns about the energy consumed in mining Bitcoins and keeping its blockchain running. According to estimates by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF), the Bitcoin network's energy consumption stands at around 110 Terawatt Hours per year, which is about 0.55% of all the electricity produced worldwide. To put it in perspective, this amount of energy could power a small nation for an entire year.

The Bitcoin network utilizes a proof of work consensus mechanism to validate transactions, requiring mining rigs with high computational power and energy. These Bitcoin mining rigs are essential to maintain a record of all transactions on BTC’s blockchain.

However, Bitcoin has an advantage against other industries as miners can utilize all kinds of power sources to power their rigs, which may not be accessible to the traditional financial sector. Harnessing cleaner energy sources could be a possible solution to Bitcoin's energy consumption problem.

How Secure Is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin enjoys superior security as it was devised keeping this factor in mind, and its blockchain has never suffered an outage or attack. Theoretically, there are ways to hack the Bitcoin protocol, although mounting such attacks can be costly in terms of time and effort.

Your Bitcoin holdings are vulnerable to hacks and attacks when stored in digital wallets or exchanges. As more investors enter the crypto market, its attractiveness as a target among cyber criminals continues to grow.

Since 2020, there has been an exponential increase in frauds and cybercrimes related to stealing Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies from users’ wallets and decentralized applications (dApps).

We recommend that you select a reputed crypto exchange or broker to buy Bitcoin and store them securely in an effective crypto wallet. Custodial wallets where you control the private keys to your BTC are recommended if you want an additional layer of security for your Bitcoin.

What Are The Different Ways to Invest in Bitcoin?

There are several ways to invest in BTC; the most popular option is buying and holding Bitcoin. You profit as long as the BTC value keeps rising but stand to lose in case the market crashes, in which case you can sell Bitcoin in the market. You can also earn passive income on your holdings by lending BTC to grow your capital conveniently.

KuCoin offers several avenues to invest in Bitcoin, including Spot Trading, Margin Trading, and Futures Trading. You also have the option to lend BTC via KuCoin Earn.

Another attractive option is investing in a Bitcoin ETF. Several financial firms have started offering this investment product to let you invest in futures contracts for Bitcoin. BTC ETFs are available for trading on stock exchanges.

Some firms such as Grayscale offer exposure to Bitcoin via investment trusts, a reliable option for large investors. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, for instance, is a publicly traded fund that lets you buy GBTC shares. Remember that they trade at a premium and can be more expensive to invest in than buying BTC directly on an exchange.

What Can You Buy With Bitcoin?

Bitcoin’s popularity has made it an acceptable payment method among several businesses. In addition to using it to trade cryptocurrencies on exchanges, BTC's Lightning Network can be used to pay for goods and services online and in some offline businesses.

BTC can be used in place of money to make purchases on online retailers, book holidays on travel websites, buy online services, pay for food at some eateries or order food online, and more. In addition, third-party services allow you to place orders on Amazon using Bitcoin.

While Tesla CEO Elon Musk no longer accepts Bitcoin as a payment method, car dealerships in the US allow customers to buy cars, even luxury cars, using BTC. There are also increasing instances of real estate sales taking place with Bitcoin as a payment option.

Live Bitcoin (BTC) Summary

$ 0
$ 68,789.62
The current price of Bitcoin is 26,679.1 $. Its 24-hour trading volume is 188.01M $. The price of Bitcoin increased by +3.67% over the past 24 hours, dropped by -1.70% over the past week. We will continue to update the price of BTC-USDT in real time. This coin ranks #1 in market capitalization, with a current market cap of 519.87B $.
  • The circulating supply of BTC is 18,953,412.
  • The maximum supply of BTC is 21,000,000.
  • The all-time high of BTC was 68,789.6 $ on 11-10, 2021, from which the coin is now down -61.22%.
  • The all-time low of BTC was < 0.00000001 $, from which the coin is now up 100.00%.