Bitcoin (BTC)
Also called: BTC · XBT
Definition
Bitcoin (BTC) is the first cryptocurrency, a decentralized digital money with a hard cap of 21 million coins that runs on its own proof-of-work blockchain.
This entry is shown in English.
How Bitcoin works
Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. Miners around the world bundle transactions into a new block about every 10 minutes and receive newly created BTC plus fees as a reward. Every four years or so the block reward is cut in half in an event called the halving; the April 2024 halving reduced it to 3.125 BTC per block.
The supply limit of 21 million BTC is written into the protocol, which is why many people see Bitcoin as digital scarcity rather than a payment app. Each bitcoin divides into 100,000,000 units called satoshis, so you can own a tiny fraction.
You can buy BTC on centralized exchanges, hold it in a self-custody wallet, or gain price exposure through products such as the US spot bitcoin ETFs that began trading in January 2024. On exchanges, BTC is the most liquid crypto asset, with BTC/USDT usually the deepest spot pair and the biggest perpetual futures market.
Example
Suppose BTC trades at 80,000 USDT and you want to invest 200 USDT. You would receive 0.0025 BTC, which equals 250,000 satoshis. If the price rises 5 percent to 84,000 USDT, your holding is worth 210 USDT. If you instead bought it with 3x leverage on futures, the same 5 percent move would change your margin by about 15 percent, in either direction.
Common mistakes
- Waiting to afford a whole bitcoin, when you can buy any small fraction.
- Sending BTC to an address on another network, such as a BEP20 or ERC20 address, without checking the exchange's supported withdrawal network.
- Confusing Bitcoin with forks or similarly named tokens such as Bitcoin Cash or wrapped BTC.
Learn and practise
Try it on an exchange
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How many bitcoins are there?
The protocol caps supply at 21 million BTC. More than 19 million have already been mined, and the remaining coins are released more slowly after each halving.
Who controls Bitcoin?
No company or government controls the network. Changes require broad agreement among developers, miners, node operators and users.
What is the difference between BTC and XBT?
They are the same asset. XBT is an alternative ticker used by some exchanges and data providers to follow currency code conventions.