What is the current price of bitcoin?
Bitcoin, or 1 BTC, traded at $61,180.10 as of 8 a.m. ET. The highest intraday price the crypto reached in the past year was $73,750.07 on March 14, 2024.
Bitcoin price chart
The above chart pulls data as of 8 a.m. ET daily. It doesn’t display intraday highs or lows.
Bitcoin price history
*The return comparisons are as of 8 a.m. ET.
Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $73,750.07 on March 14, 2024. The lowest intraday price it traded in the past year was $26,558.32 on Oct. 12, 2023. Bitcoin is up 122% year over year.
The original cryptocurrency debuted in January 2009. It’s now a major asset with a market cap of $1.21 trillion.
Bitcoin has become a popular alternative to government-backed fiat currencies, which tend to lose value over time due to inflation.
What is bitcoin? And how does bitcoin work?
Bitcoin runs on a groundbreaking blockchain-based network powered by a collection of global users. It allows anyone with internet access worldwide to make financial transactions that completely circumvent banks or other financial or government intermediaries.
Bitcoin’s security system is centered on its cryptography. All bitcoin transactions are validated by miners, who use high-powered computers to solve complex mathematical puzzles and create new blocks of verified transactions on the blockchain.
Since its launch, bitcoin has inspired thousands of other cryptocurrencies. While many additional cryptocurrencies have become successful, bitcoin remains the most valuable and popular globally.
How is bitcoin’s price determined?
No underlying assets are associated with bitcoin, making it unique. The crypto doesn’t represent ownership of a company or pay a dividend. As a result, its price is entirely at the mercy of supply and demand.
Miners receive new bitcoin when they verify and add a block of transactions to the blockchain. The total supply is capped at 21 million BTC.
Prices fluctuate based on demand. This makes investor sentiment the lone factor determining bitcoin’s price.
Bitcoin’s starting price
Bitcoin prices started very low. The first recorded transaction in late 2009 saw 5,050 BTC change hands for $5.02. That comes to $0.00099 per BTC, or less than a tenth of a cent.
Bitcoin halvings
Each time 210,000 blocks of transactions are added to the bitcoin blockchain, the network automatically undergoes a process known as halving.
Bitcoin miners receive a set amount of BTC as a reward for their services to validate a block. But that reward is cut in half each time a halving occurs. In other words, about once every four years, bitcoin miners get a 50% pay cut.
Bitcoin halving is essential in limiting bitcoin’s supply and theoretically supporting its price.
Does bitcoin halving increase BTC’s price?
Less new bitcoin should ostensibly push up prices. But that doesn’t always happen.
A halving doesn’t directly impact prices, so it isn’t a guaranteed bullish catalyst. In the past, BTC prices hit a bottom about a year before the next halving. They then rose for more than a year after the halving. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the pattern will repeat.
A history of bitcoin prices
2010 – 2019
The first bitcoin exchanges launched in 2010. BTC grew to over $1 by 2011.
It took another two years for the next thousandfold increase. The price of BTC pushed past $1,000 by late 2013.
Prices continued to snowball from there. In November 2017, they exceeded $10,000. The following month, when CME Group announced the first bitcoin futures contracts, prices cleared $20,000.
But 2018 saw a reversal, with prices falling under $4,000.
2020 – 2024
The crypto soared during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A combination of government stimulus funds and low interest rates helped boost bitcoin.
But interest rates started rising in 2022, prompting a price drop. That decline exposed some cracks in the crypto industry, including overextended companies. The result was a string of layoffs and bankruptcies that likely dragged prices down.
Prices rose again in 2023. On March 14, 2024, BTC hit a new intraday high of $73,750.07.
How to buy bitcoin
Many investors rely on popular crypto exchanges, such as Binance, Coinbase and Kraken to buy BTC.
To buy bitcoin directly, you need a digital wallet. This allows you to store bitcoin and access it with a private key specific to your wallet.
Hardware wallets resemble USB drives. Software wallet apps store BTC on smartphones or other devices.
Wallets can also be hot or cold. Hot wallets are connected to the internet for convenience, while cold wallets are unconnected for greater security.
Read more: How to buy bitcoin
Bitcoin ETFs
Investors can use bitcoin exchange-traded funds to speculate without investing directly in BTC.
The Securities and Exchange Commission approved these ETFs in January 2024. They hold bitcoin, not futures contracts, and trade on U.S. exchanges.
Many interpreted this approval as a significant validation of the cryptocurrency.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Bitcoin is identified with a ticker just like a stock. Traders use BTC to identify bitcoin on exchanges. One BTC equals one bitcoin.
One BTC represents one bitcoin, which is currently valued at $61,180.10. While global central banks often increase the supply of fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, the supply of bitcoin is capped at 21 million BTC.
