What is the price of bitcoin today?
As of 8 a.m. ET, the price of bitcoin, or 1 BTC, was $63,719.48. The crypto’s highest intraday price 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 prices
*The return comparisons are as of 8 a.m. ET.
Bitcoin’s all-time high was on March 14, 2024, trading at $73,750.07 per bitcoin. The lowest intraday price that the crypto traded in the past year was $26,558.32 on Oct. 12, 2023. The original crypto is up by 126% year over year.
BTC had very humble beginnings when it was launched in January 2009. Since then, the world’s first cryptocurrency has completely shifted global financial markets and amassed a global market capitalization of $1.26 trillion.
The crypto is also becoming a popular alternative to government-backed fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, which tend to lose value over time due to inflation.
What is bitcoin?
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.
What determines bitcoin’s price?
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 halving dates
The reward miners receive for validating new blocks is reduced by half every 210,000 blocks. It’s a process known as halving.
This built-in pay cut limits bitcoin’s supply and supports its price.
Does bitcoin halving increase BTC’s price?
Because bitcoin halvings reduce the supply of new BTC, they would theoretically be good for bitcoin prices.
But a halving doesn’t directly impact the price of bitcoin. So it’s not a guaranteed bullish catalyst. Historically, bitcoin prices have reached a cyclical bottom roughly a year before a halving occurs and have risen for more than a year after a halving.
A history of bitcoin prices
2010 – 2019
The first online bitcoin exchanges emerged in 2010. The price per coin grew from the $1 threshold in 2011.
From there, BTC prices continued to climb, reaching the $1,000 mark in late 2013. Its popularity and trading volumes snowballed four years later.
In November 2017, bitcoin reached $10,000 and peaked at over $20,000 roughly a month later. The rally was partly driven by CME Group’s announcement to launch the first bitcoin futures contracts in December 2017.
Enthusiasm for the original crypto cooled in 2018, with BTC prices dropping below $4,000.
2020 – 2024
The next notable bitcoin boom occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This time, BTC’s rise was partly driven by government shutdowns of sports, casinos, and other leisure and entertainment options and multiple rounds of government stimulus checks that left many Americans with extra disposable income.
But rising interest rates cooled investor enthusiasm in 2022, with a flight away from riskier assets like cryptocurrency.
Falling crypto prices in 2022 exposed overleverage among crypto lenders, hedge funds and exchanges. A string of crypto industry layoffs and bankruptcies weighed on bitcoin prices in 2022.
But it wasn’t too long before the original crypto began to rebound. Bitcoin’s rally resumed in 2023 and continues to climb.
On March 14, 2024, bitcoin reached an all-time intraday high of $73,750.07.
How to buy bitcoin online
Binance, Coinbase and Kraken are popular cryptocurrency exchanges for buying BTC.
You need a digital wallet to store your crypto. Private keys lock these wallets. Only people with the keys can use them to trade or store crypto.
Some bitcoin wallets are hardware wallets that look like USB drives. Others are software wallets that use apps on smartphones or other devices to store BTC.
Wallets are also divided into hot and cold options. Hot wallets are connected to the internet, which makes them more convenient but less safe. Cold wallets aren’t connected to the internet, offering more security but less convenience.
Read more: How to buy bitcoin
Bitcoin ETFs
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds offer a way to speculate on bitcoin prices without buying bitcoin directly.
In January 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved several bitcoin spot ETFs. They trade on exchanges like stocks and hold actual bitcoin.
These ETFs signal the increasing acceptance of crypto in the financial world.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Bitcoin’s all-time high was $73,750.07, which it reached on March 14, 2024.
Since bitcoin exchanges launched in 2010, BTC’s lowest recorded price was $0.04865 on July 14, 2010, according to CoinMarketCap. That said, bitcoin reportedly traded on online forums for just $0.00099 per BTC in 2009.
