Bitcoin prices on this day

Bitcoin Price & Market Data

Bitcoin price today is $37,139 with a 24-hour trading volume of $43,250,051,034 . BTC price is up 0.9% in the last 24 hours. It has a circulating supply of 19 Million BTC coins and a max supply of 21 Million. If you are looking to buy or sell Bitcoin, Binance is currently the most active exchange.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency. It is a decentralized digital currency that is based on cryptography. As such, it can operate without the need of a central authority like a central bank or a company. It is unlike government-issued or fiat currencies such as US Dollars or Euro in which they are controlled by the country’s central bank. The decentralized nature allows it to operate on a peer-to-peer network whereby users are able to send funds to each other without going through intermediaries.

For more information on Bitcoin, do read CoinGecko’s How to Bitcoin book.

Who created Bitcoin?

The creator is an unknown individual or group that goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto with the idea of an electronic peer-to-peer cash system as it is written in a whitepaper. Until today, the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto has not been verified though there has been speculation and rumor as to who Satoshi might be.

When was Bitcoin launched?

It was launched in January 2009 with the first genesis block mined on 9th January 2009.

How does Bitcoin work?

While the general public perceives Bitcoin as some kind of physical looking coin, it is actually far from that. Under the hood, it is actually a distributed accounting ledger that is stored in a form of a chain of blocks, hence the name blockchain.

In a centralized system like the ones operated by a commercial bank, given a situation where Alice wants to transact with Bob, the bank is the only entity that holds the ledger that describes how much balance Alice and Bob has. As the bank maintains the ledger, they will do the verification as to whether Alice has enough funds to send to Bob. Finally when the transaction successfully takes place, the Bank will deduct Alice’s account and credit Bob’s account with the latest amount.

Bitcoin conversely works in a decentralized manner. Since there is no central figure like a bank to verify the transactions and maintain the ledger, a copy of the ledger is distributed across Bitcoin nodes. A node is a piece of software that anybody can download and run to participate in the network. With that, everybody has a copy of how much balance Alice and Bob has, and there will be no dispute of fund balance.

Now, if Alice were to transact with Bob using bitcoin. Alice will have to broadcast her transaction to the network that she intends to send $1 to Bob in equivalent amount of bitcoin. How would the system be able to determine that she has enough bitcoin to execute the transaction and also to ensure she does not double spend that same amount.

Here is where mining takes place. A Bitcoin miner will use his or her computer rigs to validate Alice’s transaction to be added into the ledger. In order to stop a miner from adding any arbitrary transactions, they will need to solve a complex puzzle. Only if the miner is able to solve the puzzle (called the Proof of Work), which happens at random, then he or she is able to add the transactions into the ledger and the record is final.

Since running these computer rigs cost money due to capital expenditure for buying the rigs and the cost of electricity, miners are rewarded with new supply of bitcoins that is part of its monetary system and some amount of fees paid by the person who wishes to transact (in this case it is Alice).

This makes the Bitcoin ledger resilient against fraud in a trustless manner. While it is resilient, there are still some risks associated with the system such as the 51% attack where by miners control more than 51% of the total computation power and also there can be security risks outside of the control of the Bitcoin protocol.

How to keep your Bitcoin safe?

When transacting coins, you would typically be doing it on your personal computer. Since your personal computer is connected to the internet, it has the potential to be infected by malware or spywares which could compromise your funds.

Hardware wallets such as Trezor and Ledger are strongly encouraged in mitigating that risk. These are external devices that look like USB sticks. A hardware wallet secures your private key that holds your Bitcoin into an external device outside of your personal computer. When you intend to transact, you would connect the hardware wallet into your personal computer, and all the key signing in order to transact would be done in the hardware itself outside of your computer.

However, if you physically lose your hardware wallet without a key phrase backup, there is no other way of recovering your funds ever. As such when setting up your hardware wallet, always remember to keep a copy of the key phrase and put it somewhere safe from fire or flood.

Bitcoin Halving

Bitcoin Halving or sometimes also known as the Halvening, refers to the reduction of block reward to miners by half. This is part of its built-in monetary policy, in which after every approximately 4 years, the mining reward will be halved towards the limited capped supply of 21 million Bitcoin. Once 21 million of Bitcoin have been minted, there will no longer be new supply of it rewarded to miners, and miners are expected to earn revenue by way of transaction fees.

In order to follow the real time of when the halving will take place, you can bookmark the CoinGecko’s bitcoin halving page.

This is seen as a significant event for couple of reasons. Firstly, traders may speculate on the possible scarcity of Bitcoin making way to high volatility. Secondly, as miners’ rewards will be reduced, we may see some miners exiting the market as they could not sustain the lower profitability. This in turn may cause the hashing rate to reduce and mining pools may consolidate. Due to this, the bitcoin network may be a little unstable during the halving period.

Is Bitcoin a good investment?

We do not provide investment advice. The price of bitcoin started off as zero and made its way to the market price you see today. It appears that the market is placing value for the following reasons.

1. Digital Gold — It is a viable digital store of value due to its digital scarcity
2. Payment — Almost instant and low cost transaction with anyone on the internet
3. Speculation — This may be due to inefficiency in the market, but there are people speculating that Bitcoin may be the asset class of the future

That being said, Bitcoin comes with risks. In order to determine for yourself if it is a good investment, it is important to understand the risk and only invest amount that you are comfortable losing.

There is a probability of Bitcoin price going to zero. This can happen if the project fails, a critical software bug is found, or there are newer more innovative digital currencies that would take over its place. If you recall Bitcoin was worth nearly $20,000 in 16th December 2017. But in 17th December 2018, the price of Bitcoin was at its low of about $3,200. Bitcoin is a highly volatile asset class and requires a high risk appetite.

As much as Bitcoin is a digital gold, it has only been around for about 10 years. In comparison to gold which has been a widely known store of value for over hundreds of years.

Can I short Bitcoin?

Yes, as bitcoin has grown to become more widely adopted, there are various derivative products being launched that allows you to short sell bitcoin. If you are an institutional investor, CME and Bakkt provide regulated bitcoin futures products which you can participate to long or short bitcoin. Alternatively, there are many other cryptocurrency derivative exchanges such as BitMEX, Binance Futures, FTX, Deribit, and more. These derivative exchanges are not formally regulated and can provide even up to 100x leverage. Derivative contracts are high risk products, you might want to understand what you are doing before participating in it.

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What Is the Price of Bitcoin?

When people talk about the price of Bitcoin, they are referring to the current price at which Bitcoin is changing hands. Since Bitcoin is a purely speculative asset, this price is determined by how little sellers are willing to charge and how much buyers are willing to pay. Even then, the price of Bitcoin can vary across exchanges like Coinbase and Binance or currencies because of market inefficiencies

The price of Bitcoin is constantly changing and is closely monitored by a number of banks, financial institutions, and retail investors. Our website shows you the average price of Bitcoin across major exchanges in the currency of your choice, with updates every 30 seconds.

Bitcoin Price History in 2020

MONTH	HIGH	LOW
December 2020	$28,891.61 (December 31)	$18,250.47 (December 12)
November 2020	$19,157.16 (November 25)	$13,571.24 (November 3, 2020)
October 2020	$13,646.02 (October 28, 2020)	$10,552.04 (October 4, 2020)
September 2020	$11,926.69 (September 2, 2020)	$10,174.62 (September 4, 2020)
August 2020	$12,301.19 (August 8, 2020)	$11,063.50 (August 3, 2020)
July 2020	$11,113.66 (July 31, 2020)	$9081.44 (July 6, 2020)
June 2020	$10,211.23 (June 2, 2020)	$9,007.14 (June 28, 2020)
May 2020	$9,999.93 (May 8, 2020)	$8,568.88 (May 12, 2020)
April 2020	$8,784.96 (April 30, 2020)	$6,423.61 (April 1, 2020)
March 2020	$9,160.39 (March 7, 2020)	$4,916.78 (March 13, 2020)
February 2020	$10,630.37(February 15, 2020)	$8,793.50(February 27, 2020)
January 2020	$9,501.38 (January 31, 2020)	$6,965.72 (January 3, 2019)

Bitcoin Annual Closing Prices & % Return

Bitcoin Annual Closing Prices and % Returns

Biggest Moments in Bitcoin’s Price History

There have been a few defining moments for the price of Bitcoin, here are the biggest price movements:

June 2019 Bull Rally

Following the dump in November 2018, Bitcoin spent several months slowly creeping up to the $8,000 mark. Then, in the month of June alone, Bitcoin rallied to almost $13,000, eventually stabilizing around $10,000 for the coming months.

2018 End of Year Dump

Contrary to the previous year, 2018 saw a prolonged bear bias for the major cryptocurrency. However, following the closure of a 10-month long price wedge, Bitcoin fell from as much as $6,700 to below $3,700 within the single month of November.

2017 Bull Market and All Time High

2017 was a great year for Bitcoin price-wise, but the bullish price action went parabolic in the last few months of the year. Between November 1 and December 17, Bitcoin’s price skyrocketed from $6,600 to its All Time High of over $20,000 — a more than three times increase.

February 2014 Crash

Following the currency’s recent rally, there was bound to be tension in the Bitcoin price in the first months of 2014. This tension broke out when news aired that cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox had been hacked, causing the price to drop from around $800 to below $450.

2013 End of Year Rally

Only at the start of November 2017 did Bitcoin recover to its highs from earlier in the year, and this marked the beginning of one of Bitcoin’s most notable bull runs. By the end of the month, the price had quadrupled, although it stabilized around the $700 mark by the new year.

April 2013 Crash

In early April 2013, Bitcoin was trading for as much as $237. Overnight, it fell to just $67. This seventy-plus percent drop hit the market with a lasting effect, as it would take over six months for the price to recover to previous levels.

Bitcoin Price FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

How is the price of Bitcoin determined?

The price of Bitcoin is determined by how little sellers are willing to charge (the ask price) and how much buyers are willing to pay (the bid price). When these prices overlap, a trade occurs representing the current price at which Bitcoin is changing hands.

How often does the price of Bitcoin change?

The price of Bitcoin is constantly changing, with every new trade that is made. Our platform updates the price information every 30 seconds. The cryptocurrency price data on BitcoinPrice.com is based on CryptoCompare’s API. The data is an aggregate of cryptocurrency exchange prices from around the world.

Is the price of Bitcoin the same across the world?

Due to market inefficiencies, it’s possible that Bitcoin is traded for different prices at the same time in different parts of the world. This discrepancy can increase if it becomes harder for buyers in a certain geographical location or using a certain currency to buy Bitcoin.

What is the difference between bid and ask prices?

The bid price is the price at which buyers are willing to buy Bitcoin, and the ask price is the price at which sellers are willing to sell Bitcoin. A trade only occurs, thereby changing the price of Bitcoin, when these prices overlap.

How does Bitcoin work?

The big record book or ledger is called a blockchain. The file size of blockchain is quite small, similar to the size of a text message on your phone.

Every Bitcoin blockchain has three parts; its identifying address (of approximately 34 characters), the history of who has bought and sold it (the ledger) and its third part is the private key header log.

The first two parts are quite easy to understand. The third one is a bit complex – this is where a sophisticated digital signature is captured to confirm each and every transaction for that particular Bitcoin file. Each digital signature is unique to each individual user and his/her personal Bitcoin wallet.

Each and every trade of Bitcoin is tracked and publicly disclosed, with each participant’s digital signature attached to the Bitcoin blockchain as a confirmation.

These trades can be found at blockchain.info.

This also means people can see the history of your Bitcoin wallet which is a good thing because it adds transparency and security. Also, it helps deter people from using Bitcoins for illegal purposes.

The integrity and chronological order of the blockchain is enforced with cryptography. In addition to archiving transactions, each new ledger update creates some newly-minted Bitcoins.

The number of new Bitcoins created in each update is halved every 4 years until the year 2140 when this number will round down to zero. At that time no more Bitcoins will be added to circulation and the total number of Bitcoins will have reached a maximum of 21 million.

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