The Bitcoin (BTC) price again reached an all-time high in 2025, as values exceeded over 112,778.34 USD on August 20, 2025. Price hikes in early 2025 were connected to the approval of Bitcoin ETFs in the United States, while previous hikes in 2021 were due to events involving Tesla and Coinbase, respectively. Tesla's announcement in March 2021 that it had acquired 1.5 billion U.S. dollars' worth of the digital coin, for example, as well as the IPO of the U.S.'s biggest crypto exchange, fueled mass interest. The market was noticeably different by the end of 2022, however, after another crypto exchange, FTX, filed for bankruptcy.Is the world running out of Bitcoin?Unlike fiat currency like the U.S. dollar - as the Federal Reserve can simply decide to print more banknotes - Bitcoin's supply is finite: BTC has a maximum supply embedded in its design, of which roughly 89 percent had been reached in April 2021. It is believed that Bitcoin will run out by 2040, despite more powerful mining equipment. This is because mining becomes exponentially more difficult and power-hungry every four years, a part of Bitcoin's original design. Because of this, a Bitcoin mining transaction could equal the energy consumption of a small country in 2021.Bitcoin's price outlook: a potential bubble?Cryptocurrencies have few metrics available that allow for forecasting, if only because it is rumored that only a few cryptocurrency holders own a large portion of the available supply. These large holders - referred to as 'whales'-are' said to make up two percent of anonymous ownership accounts, while owning roughly 92 percent of BTC. On top of this, most people who use cryptocurrency-related services worldwide are retail clients rather than institutional investors. This means outlooks on whether Bitcoin prices will fall or grow are difficult to measure, as movements from one large whale are already having a significant impact on this market.

By 2025, the Bitcoin market cap had grown to over ***** billion USD as the cryptocurrency kept growing. Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the total number of Bitcoins in circulation by the Bitcoin price. The Bitcoin market capitalization increased from approximately *** billion U.S. dollars in 2013 to several times this amount since its surge in popularity. Dominance The Bitcoin market cap takes up a significant portion of the overall cryptocurrency market cap. This is referred to as "dominance". Within the crypto world, this so-called "dominance" ratio is one of the oldest and most investigated metrics available. It measures the coin's market cap relative to the overall crypto market — effectively showing how strong Bitcoin compared to all the other cryptocurrencies that are not BTC, called "altcoins". The Bitcoin dominance was above ** percent. Maximum supply and scarcity Bitcoin is unusual from other cryptocurrencies in that its maximum supply is getting closer. By 2025, well over ** million out of all 21 million possible Bitcoin had been created. Bitcoin's supply is expected to reach its maximum around the year 2140, likely making mining more energy-intensive.

Bitcoin's circulating supply has grown steadily since its inception in 2009, reaching over **** million coins by late July 2025. This gradual increase reflects the cryptocurrency's design, which put a limit of ** million on the total number of bitcoins that can ever exist. This impacts the Bitcoin price somewhat, as its scarcity can lead to volatility on the market. Maximum supply and scarcity Bitcoin is unusual from other cryptocurrencies in that its maximum supply is getting closer. By July 2025, more than ** percent of all possible Bitcoin had been created. That said, Bitcoin's circulating supply is expected to reach its maximum around the year 2140. Meanwhile, mining becomes exponentially more difficult and energy-intensive.

Institutional investors

In 2025, countries like the United States openly started discussion the possibility of buying bitcoins to hold in reserve. By the time of writing, it was unclear whether this would happen. Nevertheless, institutional investors displayed more interest in the cryptocurrency than before. Certain companies owned several thousands of Bitcoin tokens in 2025, for example. This and the limited number of Bitcoin may further fuel price volatility.

In March 2024 Bitcoin BTC reached a new all-time high with prices exceeding 73000 USD marking a milestone for the cryptocurrency market This surge was due to the approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds ETFs in the United States allowing investors to access Bitcoin without directly holding it This development increased Bitcoin’s credibility and brought fresh demand from institutional investors echoing previous price surges in 2021 when Tesla announced its 15 billion investment in Bitcoin and Coinbase was listed on the Nasdaq By the end of 2022 Bitcoin prices dropped sharply to 15000 USD following the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its bankruptcy which caused a loss of confidence in the market By August 2024 Bitcoin rebounded to approximately 64178 USD but remained volatile due to inflation and interest rate hikes Unlike fiat currency like the US dollar Bitcoin’s supply is finite with 21 million coins as its maximum supply By September 2024 over 92 percent of Bitcoin had been mined Bitcoin’s value is tied to its scarcity and its mining process is regulated through halving events which cut the reward for mining every four years making it harder and more energy-intensive to mine The next halving event in 2024 will reduce the reward to 3125 BTC from its current 625 BTC The final Bitcoin is expected to be mined around 2140 The energy required to mine Bitcoin has led to criticisms about its environmental impact with estimates in 2021 suggesting that one Bitcoin transaction used as much energy as Argentina Bitcoin’s future price is difficult to predict due to the influence of large holders known as whales who own about 92 percent of all Bitcoin These whales can cause dramatic market swings by making large trades and many retail investors still dominate the market While institutional interest has grown it remains a small fraction compared to retail Bitcoin is vulnerable to external factors like regulatory changes and economic crises leading some to believe it is in a speculative bubble However others argue that Bitcoin is still in its early stages of adoption and will grow further as more institutions and governments recognize its potential as a hedge against inflation and a store of value 2024 has also seen the rise of Bitcoin Layer 2 technologies like the Lightning Network which improve scalability by enabling faster and cheaper transactions These innovations are crucial for Bitcoin’s wider adoption especially for day-to-day use and cross-border remittances At the same time central bank digital currencies CBDCs are gaining traction as several governments including China and the European Union have accelerated the development of their own state-controlled digital currencies while Bitcoin remains decentralized offering financial sovereignty for those who prefer independence from government control The rise of CBDCs is expected to increase interest in Bitcoin as a hedge against these centralized currencies Bitcoin’s journey in 2024 highlights its growing institutional acceptance alongside its inherent market volatility While the approval of Bitcoin ETFs has significantly boosted interest the market remains sensitive to events like exchange collapses and regulatory decisions With the limited supply of Bitcoin and improvements in its transaction efficiency it is expected to remain a key player in the financial world for years to come Whether Bitcoin is currently in a speculative bubble or on a sustainable path to greater adoption will ultimately be revealed over time.

Prices for BTCUSC Bitcoin USD Coin including live quotes, historical charts and news. BTCUSC Bitcoin USD Coin was last updated by Trading Economics this August 24 of 2025.

Bitcoin trading volume peaked in late February 2021 to a level much higher in the rest of the year, marking a significant month in the coin's history. Whilst there is no clear explanation why the trade volume went up so much on February 26, Bitcoin's price development suggests the cryptocurrency's value around that time declined somewhat after weeks of growth and continued media attention. That morning, Bitcoin went down by around ** percent - potentially sparking a buying frenzy for people who saw this as an opportune time to invest in the coin. Indeed, most consumers in both the U.S. and the UK invest in crypto for growth prospects. As of August 18, 2025, the Bitcoin trading volume was recorded at 20.91.

Bitcoin transaction fluctuated significantly as more users started to display interest in the cryptocurrency in late 2020 and early 2021. By 2025, this fee was worth ******** U.S. dollars. Transaction fees refer to the money paid to Bitcoin's miners to get transactions accepted and costs increases can occur when user numbers increase: As the blockchain has limited space available to process all the transactions, it effectively becomes congested. Growing transaction fees therefore represent both the number of Bitcoin transactions that are waiting in line to be processed, but are also meant as an incentive to miners to process the especially large transactions - as they are more profitable for them. The number of Bitcoins processed on a single day reached its highest value at the beginning of 2021.

Bitcoin's transaction volume was at its highest in December 2023, when the network processed over ******* coins on the same day. Bitcoin generally has a higher transaction activity than other cryptocurrencies, except Ethereum. This cryptocurrency is often processed more than *********** times per day. Note that the transaction volume here refers to transactions registered within the Bitcoin blockchain. It should not be confused with Bitcoin's 24-hour trade volume, a metric associated with crypto exchanges. The more Bitcoin transactions, the more it is used in B2C payments? A Bitcoin transaction recorded in the blockchain can be any transaction, including B2C but also P2P. While it is possible to see in the blockchain which address sent Bitcoin to whom, details on who this person is and where they are from are typically missing. Bitcoin was designed to go against monetary authorities and prides itself on being anonymous. An important argument against Bitcoin replacing cash or cards in payments is that the cryptocurrency was not allowed for such a task: Bitcoin ranks among the slowest cryptocurrencies in terms of transaction speed. Are cryptocurrencies taking over payments? Cryptocurrency payments are set to grow at a CAGR of nearly ** percent between 2022 and 2029, although the market is relatively small. The forecast is according to a market estimate made in early 2023, based on various conditions and sources available at that time. Research across ** countries during the same time suggested that the market share of cryptocurrency in e-commerce transactions was "less than *** percent" in all surveyed countries, with predictions being this would not change in the future.

Context

Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency. In mid-2017, a group of developers wanting to increase bitcoin's block size limit prepared a code change. The change, called a hard fork, took effect on 1 August 2017. As a result, the bitcoin ledger called the blockchain and the cryptocurrency split in two. At the time of the fork anyone owning bitcoin was also in possession of the same number of Bitcoin Cash units.

On 15 November 2018 Bitcoin Cash split into two cryptocurrencies.

Content

You can access the data from BigQuery in your notebook with bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin_cash dataset.

Querying BigQuery tables

You can use the BigQuery Python client library to query tables in this dataset in Kernels. Note that methods available in Kernels are limited to querying data. Tables are at bigquery-public-data.crypto_bitcoin_cash.[TABLENAME].

Acknowledgements

This dataset wouldn't be possible without the help of BigQuery and all of their contributions to public data.

Prices for ADABTC Cardano Bitcoin including live quotes, historical charts and news. ADABTC Cardano Bitcoin was last updated by Trading Economics this August 24 of 2025.

Prices for BTCRON Bitcoin Romanian Leu including live quotes, historical charts and news. BTCRON Bitcoin Romanian Leu was last updated by Trading Economics this August 24 of 2025.

Prices for BCHAVX Bitcoin Cash Avalanche including live quotes, historical charts and news. BCHAVX Bitcoin Cash Avalanche was last updated by Trading Economics this August 25 of 2025.

It is estimated that the cumulative market cap of cryptocurrencies increased in early 2023 after the downfall in November 2022 due to FTX. That value declined in the summer of 2023, however, as international uncertainty grew over a potential recession. Bitcoin's market cap comprised the majority of the overall market capitalization. What is market cap? Market capitalization is a financial measure typically used for publicly traded firms, computed by multiplying the share price by the number of outstanding shares. However, cryptocurrency analysts calculate it as the price of the virtual currencies times the number of coins in the market. This gives cryptocurrency investors an idea of the overall market size, and watching the evolution of the measure tells how much money is flowing in or out of each cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency as an investment The price of Bitcoin has been erratic, and most other cryptocurrencies follow its larger price swings. This volatility attracts investors who hope to buy when the price is low and sell at its peak, turning a profit. However, this does little for price stability. As such, few firms accept payment in cryptocurrencies. As of June 25, 2025, the cumulative market cap of cryptocurrencies reached a value of ******.

Prices for BTCMXN Bitcoin Mexican Peso including live quotes, historical charts and news. BTCMXN Bitcoin Mexican Peso was last updated by Trading Economics this August 24 of 2025.

Prices for BTCNPR Bitcoin Nepalese Rupee including live quotes, historical charts and news. BTCNPR Bitcoin Nepalese Rupee was last updated by Trading Economics this August 25 of 2025.

Prices for LUNBTC Terra Bitcoin including live quotes, historical charts and news. LUNBTC Terra Bitcoin was last updated by Trading Economics this August 25 of 2025.

Prices for BTCUNI Bitcoin Uniswap including live quotes, historical charts and news. BTCUNI Bitcoin Uniswap was last updated by Trading Economics this August 25 of 2025.

Prices for BTCPAB Bitcoin Panamanian Balboa including live quotes, historical charts and news. BTCPAB Bitcoin Panamanian Balboa was last updated by Trading Economics this August 24 of 2025.

Mining Bitcoin made increasingly more money at the end of 2020, but profit growth seemingly stopped during March 2021. During the mining of cryptocurrencies, a computer is trying to solve complicated logic puzzles to verify transactions in the blockchain. When this process is completed, the miner receives the cryptocurrency as a block reward. The underlying development is that machines with more computing power - or hash rate - are likely to solve more puzzles, and therefore mine more cryptocurrencies. Whether a miner can make money with this depends on various costs such as electricity consumption during this process, transaction fees or whether the hardware used is efficient or not. As of August 12, 2025, the profit from mining has decreased to ****.

The average price of one Bitcoin Cash reached its all-time high in 2017, although the price since then never came close to that position. As of August 20, 2025, one Bitcoin Cash token was worth 548.09 U.S. dollars, rather than the nearly 2,500 USD from the peak in 2017. Bitcoin Cash, abbreviated as BCH, is a variant of the much more known Bitcoin, or BTC, and is traded separately on online exchanges. That the two cryptocurrencies are different from each other already shows when looking at the price of a 'regular' Bitcoin: this was over 40,000 U.S. dollars during the same time frame.