What is Bitcoin (BTC)?

The first and largest cryptocurrency — a fixed-supply digital asset whose price leads and defines the entire crypto market.

Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, launched in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. It runs on a decentralised network of computers that verify transactions and secure the ledger through mining, with a supply hard-capped at 21 million coins — a scarcity that anchors the digital gold narrative. Bitcoin is the largest crypto asset by value and the market's reference point: most altcoins are priced against it, and its major moves set the direction for the whole sector.

For traders, Bitcoin is the natural starting instrument in crypto: it has the deepest liquidity, the most reliable technical behaviour, and the least vulnerability to the manipulation that plagues small coins. Its price history moves in pronounced cycles of powerful bull runs followed by drawdowns that have exceeded 70% — a level of volatility that makes position sizing and stop discipline non-negotiable. Learn to read Bitcoin's higher-timeframe structure first; the rest of the crypto market rarely fights it for long.