Bitcoin (BTC) Price Today
| Market Cap | $1,545,289,701,026 |
| 24h Volume | $27,916,063,883 |
| Volume / Market Cap | +1.81% |
| Rank | #1 |
| Fully Diluted Valuation | $1,545,289,701,026 |
| All-Time High | $126,080 (-38.82%) |
| All-Time Low | $67.81 (+113657.60%) |
| Circulating | 20M |
| Total | 20M |
| Max | 21M |
| Circulating / Max | +95.39% |
| Date | Price (USD) |
|---|---|
| 5/16/2026 | $79,068.82024 |
| 5/17/2026 | $78,135.009949 |
| 5/18/2026 | $77,425.715192 |
| 5/19/2026 | $76,952.214859 |
| 5/20/2026 | $76,808.810553 |
| 5/21/2026 | $77,459.944346 |
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin (BTC) is the full name of the asset and BTC is its common ticker symbol. In plain terms, Bitcoin is best known as a digital currency that lets people send and receive value over the internet without relying on a single company or bank to control it. It is most often described as a form of money that exists on a shared public record, and many people also refer to it as a digital asset used for payments or long-term value storage.
No official description was provided in the input I received, so the above is a simple rephrasing of widely known, public information about the project. That means I am not using language from any single official source; instead I am describing the project in clear, non-technical terms so a reader can understand the basic idea. Bitcoin was first released in 2009 and runs on software anyone can inspect. It operates using a distributed ledger that records transactions and a set of rules that define how new units are created and moved.
Different people and groups view Bitcoin in different ways: some treat it primarily as a medium for sending payments, others as a store of value, and some as an experiment in decentralized money. Traders, researchers, and market services often use tools to study price and trading behavior; for example, traders commonly use a screener for crypto to find patterns in Bitcoin markets. This description avoids promotional claims and focuses on observable functions and roles Bitcoin plays in the broader digital-asset ecosystem.
What does Bitcoin actually do?
At its core, Bitcoin provides a shared public ledger that records transfers of bitcoin units between addresses. The primary purpose is to enable peer-to-peer transfer of value without a single central authority. Technically, this is achieved by many independent participants running software that agrees on the order of transactions and enforces rules about how new units can be issued. That role makes Bitcoin the basic settlement layer for sending and receiving its native asset, BTC, and for some users it acts as a way to move value across borders or to preserve buying power over time.
The main functions Bitcoin enables are straightforward: it allows users to send payments directly to one another, to hold BTC in digital wallets, and to settle transfers on a public record. Developers and infrastructure operators run full nodes that validate and relay transactions. Miners or validators (in Bitcoin’s design these are miners using proof-of-work) secure the network and include transactions in blocks. Traders and automated systems interact with exchanges and wallets; some traders use a trading bot for binance to automate trades, while others deploy a scalping trading bot for short-term strategies. Institutions, custodial services, and retail users access Bitcoin through wallets, exchanges, or custody providers depending on their needs.
Bitcoin has a few features that distinguish it from many other projects: a fixed supply limit of 21 million units, a consensus system that relies on proof-of-work, and a transaction model designed around unspent outputs. It does not natively support complex smart contracts in the same way some other platforms do, though basic scripting and layered services like the Lightning Network add functionality. Privacy is limited because transactions are recorded publicly, and scalability is commonly addressed by layer-2 solutions rather than by changing the base layer. If specific technical details or an official specification were required, those were not provided in the input and are not included here.
Disclaimer
This page is for educational purposes only and is not financial advice.
Where to buy Bitcoin?
Below is a curated list of supported exchanges.
| Exchange | Price (USD) | Link |
|---|---|---|
| $77,158.00 | Trade on Binance | |
| $77,140.00 | Trade on BingX | |
| $77,140.00 | Trade on Bitget | |
| $77,142.00 | Trade on KuCoin | |
| $77,162.00 | Trade on OKX | |
| $77,117.00 | Trade on Phemex |
