Live Bitcoin Price (USD)

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that operates without central banks or intermediaries. Using cryptography to secure transactions, it enables direct peer-to-peer value transfers over a global network, and every transaction is permanently recorded on the blockchain — a public, distributed ledger that anyone can verify. Beyond serving as a medium of exchange, Bitcoin has emerged as a powerful store of value: its fixed supply of 21 million coins creates digital scarcity, while its divisibility to eight decimal places makes it accessible to anyone, whether buying a fraction of a coin or accumulating larger amounts.

Bitcoin emerged in 2008 when someone using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a whitepaper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," describing a way to transfer digital money directly between parties without trusted third parties. On January 3, 2009, Satoshi mined the genesis block, launching the Bitcoin network. After actively developing Bitcoin through 2010, Satoshi disappeared from public view, and their true identity remains one of technology's greatest mysteries. The network has operated autonomously through its decentralized participants ever since.

The live bitcoin price is shown at the top of this page in US dollars and updates in real time as trades happen on major exchanges. Alongside the spot price you can see the 24-hour change, the 24-hour high and low, total market capitalization, and how many satoshis one US dollar currently buys.

Bitcoin has no official price. Its price is set by supply and demand on hundreds of exchanges around the world, where buyers and sellers continuously agree on what a bitcoin is worth. Because these markets never close, the bitcoin price moves 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — unlike stocks, there is no opening bell and no weekend pause.

Bitcoin’s supply is fixed by its protocol, so every change in demand shows up directly in the price. The market is still young relative to gold or equities, trades around the clock, and reacts quickly to macroeconomic news, regulation, and large institutional purchases or sales. Over time, volatility has tended to decline as the market has grown deeper and more liquid.

Bitcoin has a fixed maximum supply of 21 million coins, and about 95% of them have already been issued. New bitcoin enters circulation as a reward to miners with each block, currently 3.125 BTC roughly every ten minutes. This reward halves about every four years, with the next halving expected in 2028, so the remaining supply will be issued ever more slowly over the next century.

A satoshi is the smallest unit of bitcoin, equal to one hundred-millionth of a coin (0.00000001 BTC). It is named after Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Because each bitcoin divides into 100 million satoshis, you can own a meaningful amount of bitcoin without ever buying a whole coin — the "Sats per USD" figure on this page shows how many satoshis one dollar buys right now.

Bitcoin’s fixed supply and deep, around-the-clock liquidity have turned it into more than a retail investment. A growing number of public companies, private firms, exchange-traded funds, and even governments hold bitcoin on their balance sheets as a long-term reserve asset — a trend that accelerated sharply after the first large corporate purchases in 2020. For these institutions, bitcoin offers scarcity that fiat reserves lack, without the storage and transport costs of physical assets like gold.

The largest known holders of bitcoin are exchange-traded funds, public companies, and governments. Bitcoin Treasuries tracks every known institutional holding — covering public and private companies, ETFs, and sovereign entities — including how much bitcoin each holds, what they paid for it, and how their positions change over time.