Crypto glossary
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin (BTC) is the first cryptocurrency, a decentralized digital money launched in 2009 that runs on a proof-of-work blockchain capped at 21 million coins.
Bitcoin was described in a 2008 whitepaper by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, and its network started with the genesis block on 3 January 2009. It lets people send value directly to each other without a bank: transactions are broadcast to a global network of nodes, grouped into blocks by miners and secured by proof of work.
New bitcoins are created as block rewards, and the reward halves roughly every four years, so total supply will never exceed 21 million BTC. Each coin divides into 100 million satoshis. Upgrades such as SegWit in 2017 and Taproot in 2021 arrived as soft forks, and the Lightning Network handles fast small payments on top. Bitcoin is held by individuals, companies, funds through spot ETFs and some governments.
Its price is highly volatile, and the base layer processes only a handful of transactions per second, with fees that rise when demand spikes. Transactions are pseudonymous rather than anonymous, and lost private keys mean lost coins.
Example
Sending 0.005 BTC to another wallet requires only the recipient's address; after about 10 minutes the payment is usually included in a block, and a few more blocks make it practically irreversible.
Try it with live data
Related terms
Latest articles on Bitcoin
- What Is ZKP Crypto and How Zero Knowledge Proof Compares to Ethereum, Solana, and Bitcoin
- What Are the Most Trusted Crypto Casinos of 2025? Expert Comparison of Top Bitcoin Casinos
- Bitcoin Rebound Fails Near $75K as PEPE Drops More Than 10%
- Arkham Maps CoinShares Bitcoin ETP Wallets Holding $1.53B in BTC
- Texas Bill Could Allow Local Governments to Invest in Bitcoin
