Glossary · Crypto
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency: digital money with a supply capped at 21 million coins, run since 2009 by a network of computers instead of a bank.
Also called: BTC, ₿, XBT
Closing price, November 11, 2026. Record close: $124,824 on October 6, 2025.
20,110,804 bitcoins exist (November 11, 2026).
One every 10.1 minutes on average over the last year.
In plain words
In October 2008 someone using the name Satoshi Nakamoto published a short paper describing electronic cash that people could send straight to each other, with no bank in between. In January 2009 the network went live and the first bitcoins were created. Nobody knows for certain who Satoshi was; the name went silent in 2011.
Bitcoin is two things at once: a network and the coin that moves on it. The network is thousands of computers that each keep a copy of every payment ever made, the blockchain. The coin is just a balance in that ledger, divisible down to one hundred-millionth, a satoshi.
Its rules are fixed in code: a new block about every 10 minutes, new coins paid to the miners who add the blocks, and that payout cut in half every four years or so (the halving), so the total stops just under 21 million. 95.8% of them exist already.
Example
The most expensive pizzas in history
On May 22, 2010, a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas: the first known purchase of goods with bitcoin. Fans still mark the date as Bitcoin Pizza Day.
- Then: 10,000 BTC for two large pizzas, worth about $40 at the time.
- Now: 10,000 × $73,806 = about $738M, at the close of November 11, 2026.
- Priced in bitcoin today, a $20 pizza costs about 27,098 satoshis.
The rise is extreme, but it was not a smooth ride: since 2013 alone, bitcoin has lost 70% or more from a record close 4 times.
One level deeper
Who decides the rules? Nobody alone. Anyone can run the software, and a change takes hold only if the people running the network choose to upgrade. That makes bitcoin’s rules very hard to change, which supporters see as the point and critics as a weakness.
Bitcoin is secured by proof of work: miners race to solve a puzzle by brute force, and to rewrite past payments an attacker would need more computing power than the rest of the network together. That network now makes about 1.0 sextillion guesses a second.
Its price is set only by trading, and it swings hard. Of the 13 full calendar years from 2013, the price fell in 4; the worst was 2018, at −74%. The record close so far is $124,824, on October 6, 2025. The latest close is 41% below it.
Bitcoin’s price since 2010
Each point is a month’s average of daily closing prices, on a log scale, where equal steps mean equal percentage moves. The deep dips are the falls of 70% or more that followed each boom. Prices before 2013 come from very thin markets.
The numbers behind the chart
| Date | Bitcoin price |
|---|---|
| Jul 2010 | $0.07 |
| Dec 2010 | $0.24 |
| Dec 2020 | $22K |
| Dec 2022 | $16.9K |
| Dec 2023 | $42.5K |
| Dec 2024 | $98.2K |
| Dec 2025 | $88.9K |
| Nov 2026 | $76.2K |
Why it matters
It was the first digital money that works without any company or government in control, and every later cryptocurrency builds on its ideas.
It is by far the largest coin: about 65% of the combined value of the coins on this site (November 11, 2026).
Its fixed supply makes it a test case of scarcity: some call it digital gold, others a bubble, and its price history gives both sides material.
A common mistake
Myth: You need a lot of money to buy bitcoin: one coin costs $73,806.
In fact: You do not have to buy a whole coin. Bitcoin divides into 100 million satoshis, so $10 buys about 13,549 of them at the latest price.
Questions people ask
Who created bitcoin?
Someone, or a group, using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, who published the design in October 2008 and mined the first block on January 3, 2009. Satoshi stopped writing publicly in 2011 and has never been identified for certain.
How many bitcoins are left to mine?
About 889,196 of the 21 million (November 11, 2026). Because the reward keeps halving, the last fractions of a coin are expected to be mined around the year 2140.
Can bitcoin be hacked?
The network has run since 2009. Its worst bug, in August 2010, let someone create billions of coins out of nothing and was fixed within hours; later bugs were patched before they did lasting damage. Most losses happen elsewhere: stolen keys, hacked or failed exchanges, and scams.
Read more on BigCapital
About the numbers
- The numbers on this page are recalculated from the data every night; the sources are listed at the end of the page.
- Cardano market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Avalanche market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Bitcoin Cash market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- BNB market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Bitcoin blocks per day: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric BlkCnt. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Bitcoin hash rate: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric HashRate. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Bitcoin market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Bitcoin supply: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric SplyCur. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Bitcoin price: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric PriceUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Dogecoin market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Polkadot market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Ethereum market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Chainlink market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Litecoin market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Solana market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- TRON market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- USD Coin (USDC) market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Tether (USDT) market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Stellar market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Monero market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- XRP market capitalization: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, metric CapMrktEstUSD. License: CC BY-NC 4.0.
- Prices are Coin Metrics reference rates at 00:00 UTC; trades on single exchanges can differ a little. Prices from 2010–2012 come from very thin markets.
- Crypto data: Coin Metrics Community Network Data, used under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
- This page explains a term. It is not investment advice.