Bitcoin (BTC) price again reached an all-time high in 2025, as values exceeded over 107,000 USD in June 2025. That particular price hike was connected to the approval of Bitcoin ETFs in the United States, whilst 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.’ biggest crypto exchange fueled mass interest. The market was noticeably different by the end of 2022, however, with Bitcoin prices reaching roughly 94,315.98 as of May 4, 2025, 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 available supply. These large holders - referred to as “whales” - are said to make up of two percent of anonymous ownership accounts, whilst 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 already having a significant impact on this market.

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.

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.

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 June 30, 2025, one Bitcoin Cash token was worth 502.85 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.

Ethereum's price history suggests that that crypto was worth significantly less in 2022 than during late 2021, although nowhere near the lowest price recorded. Much like Bitcoin (BTC), the price of ETH went up in 2021 but for different reasons altogether: Ethereum, for instance, hit the news when a digital art piece was sold as the world’s most expensive NFT for over 38,000 ETH - or 69.3 million U.S. dollars. Unlike Bitcoin - of which the price growth was fueled by the IPO of the U.S.’ biggest crypto trader Coinbase - the rally on Ethereum came from technological developments that caused much excitement among traders. First, the so-called “Berlin update” rolled out on the Ethereum network in April 2021, an update which would eventually lead to the Ethereum Merge in 2022 and reduced ETH gas prices - or reduced transaction fees. The collapse of FTX in late 2022, however, changed much for the cryptocurrency. As of May 4, 2025, Ethereum was worth 1,808.59 U.S. dollars - significantly less than the 4,400 U.S. dollars by the end of 2021. Ethereum’s future and the DeFi industry Price developments on Ethereum are difficult to predict, but cannot be seen without the world of DeFi - or Decentralized Finance. This industry used technology to remove intermediaries between parties in a financial transaction. One example includes crypto wallets such as Coinbase Wallet that grew in popularity recently, with other examples including smart contractor Uniswap, Maker (responsible for stablecoin DAI), moneylender Dharma and market protocol Compound. Ethereum’s future developments are tied with this industry: Unlike Bitcoin and Ripple, Ethereum is technically not a currency but an open-source software platform for blockchain applications - with Ether being the cryptocurrency that is used inside the Ethereum network. Essentially, Ethereum facilitates DeFi - meaning that if DeFi does well, so does Ethereum. NFTs: the most well-known application of Ethereum NFTs or non-fungible tokens grew nearly ten-fold between 2018 and 2020, as can be seen in the market cap of NFTs worldwide. These digital blockchain assets can essentially function as a unique code connected to a digital file, allowing to distinguish the original file from any potential copies. This application is especially prominent in crypto art, although there are other applications: gaming, sports and collectibles are other segments where NFT sales occur.

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 ******.

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 **, 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 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.

Ripple - or XRP - prices surged in 2021, but went down significantly as 2022 progressed. As of June 30, 2025, one XRP token was worth 2.19 U.S. dollars. Ethereum's price, for example, kept on reaching new all-time highs, a feat not performed by XRP. Indeed, XRP's more price spikes followed relatively late - only occurring in early 2021, against late 2020 for most other cryptos - after the US SEC filed a legal complaint against Ripple in November 2020. This legal action caused the XRP price to plummet from around 0.70 U.S. dollars to 0.20 U.S. dollars. Ripple versus XRP: two become one Technically speaking, Ripple is not a cryptocurrency. Renamed from a protocol called OpenCoin in 2013, Ripple facilitates open-source payments. XRP, on the other hand, is the cryptocurrency that runs on this network. In that sense, Ripple and XRP have a similar symbiosis to each other like the Ethereum network and its cryptocurrency Ether. Unlike Ethereum - whose price changes are connected to the world of Decentralized Finance or DeFI - Ripple/XRP mostly looks at developments in cross-border payments for companies. In 2020, companies worldwide began to favor fintech solutions for future B2B solutions and, in a way, Ripple is an extension of that. What affects the price of Ripple? Ripple is mostly active in Southeast Asia - a region with a splintered payment landscape and that heavily investigates its own types of state-issued cryptocurrency to make cross-border payments a lot easier. Price spikes tend to follow news on this topic in this specific region. In 2019, for example, the XRP price grew after Japan and South Korea began testing to reduce time and costs for transferring international funds between the two countries. In March 2021, Ripple announced that it had agreed to acquire 40 percent of Malaysian cross-border payments firm Tranglo to meet growing demand in Southeast Asia.

Bitcoin dominance steadily declined in April 2024 to below ** percent, amid rumors of central banks halting or potentially lowering interest rates in the future. 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". Why dominance matters is because market caps of any crypto can change relatively quickly, either due to sudden price changes or a change of recorded trading volume. Essentially, the figure somewhat resembles a trading sentiment, revealing whether Bitcoin investors are responding to certain events or whether Bitcoin is losing out on functions offered by, for example, stablecoins or NFT tokens. "Dominance" criticism: Ethereum and stablecoin The interpretation of the Bitcoin metric is not without its criticism. When first conceived, Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be created and had a substantial market share within all cryptocurrencies? The overall share of stablecoins, such as Tether, as well as Ethereum increasingly start to resemble that of Bitcoin, however. Some analysts argue against this comparison. For one, they point towards the large influence of trading activity between Bitcoin and Ethereum in the dominance metric. Second, they argue that stablecoins can be traded in for Bitcoin and Ethereum, essentially showing how much investors are willing to engage with "regular" cryptocurrency. A rally around Bitcoin in late 2023? By December 2023, the Bitcoin price reached roughly 41,000 U.S. dollars — the first time in 20 months such a value was reached. A weaker U.S. dollar, speculation on decreasing interest rates, and a potential Bitcoin ETF approval are believed to be at the heart of this price increase. Whether this will hold in 2024 is unclear: The monthly interest rate from the U.S. Fed is speculated to decrease in 2024, despite a vow of "higher for longer". In December 2023, the thought of decreasing interest rates and the potential of a Bitcoin ETF fuelled market sentiment towards riskier assets.

The price of the cryptocurrency based on the famous internet meme broke its price decline in early November 2022 - as people started buying the coin after FTX's collapse. This rally only lasted for a few days, however, as a Dogecoin was worth roughly 0.16 U.S. dollars on June 30, 2025. This is a different development than in 2021 - when the crypto became very popular in a short amount of time. Between January 28 and January 29, 2021, Dogecoin's value grew by around 216 percent to 0.023535 U.S. dollars after comments from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The digital coin quickly grew to become the most talked-about cryptocurrency available: not necessarily for its price - the prices of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP) and several other virtual currencies were much higher than that of DOGE - but for its growth.

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.

The Litecoin cryptocurrency peaked in both 2017 and 2020 - reaching prices worth around 250 dollars - but did not reach this by 2022. As of May 4, 2025, one Litecoin token was worth 85.02 U.S. dollars. Litecoin's price was relatively volatile recently, revealing high price swings between months. What is a cryptocurrency? Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that do not have a centralized regulating authority. The first of these, Bitcoin, introduced a technology called blockchain, in which a distributed ledger records every transaction on every bitcoin in circulation to prevent fraud. Litecoin also uses this technology. To accommodate the demands of constant ledger updates, users sell computational power in exchange for an amount of Litecoin, a process known as mining. More about Litecoin Cryptocurrencies are still an emerging technology, and few are using them for transactions. As such, most users are speculators who look at the value of all coins in circulation as the market capitalization rather than money supply. Still, the average number of Litecoin transactions ranges in the tens of thousands, meaning that the cryptocurrency has a substantial financial footprint.

This statistic shows the average trading value of Bitcoin in the Netherlands as of 30 September 2017, by province. Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings (ICOs) reached the news quite often in 2017. Because of its design, however, it is difficult to get an insight in the complete size of the Bitcoin market in individual countries. In the first three quarters of 2017, the source indicates it witnessed that customers from the Netherlands on average bought 0,25 bitcoins per transaction on their trading platform.

Crypto 24h trading volume declined as 2023 progressed, with figures being ********* lower than in 2022. The decline follows after Binance - one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world - received lawsuits in the United States. Observations are also that the crypto market was quiet after April, citing a lack of a "strong overarching narrative". This contrasts with 2021 and 2022 when cryptocurrency dominated the news and many people sought fortune in the digital currency. Bitcoin developments Bitcoin's trade volume slowed in the second quarter of 2023, after hitting a noticeable growth at the beginning of the year. The coin outperformed most of the market. Some attribute this to the announcement in June 2023 that BlackRock filed for a Bitcoin ETF. This iShares Bitcoin Trust was to use Coinbase Custody as its custodian. Regulators in the United States had not yet approved any applications for spot ETFs on Bitcoin. Changes in Ethereum staking in 2023 Ethereum's trade volume changed in 2023 due to the rollout of the Shapella (Shanghai and Cappella) upgrade. The update allowed investors to withdraw (unstake) Ethereum deposited into the network. Staking can be somewhat compared to depositing money at a bank, where one would submit money to be held and gains interest as time goes by. Lido has the highest staking pool (a platform that allows for staking) in Ethereum, higher than major crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken. As of May **, 2025, the 24h trading volume stands at *****.

The transaction fee of a transaction involving Bitcoin slowly increased during April 2024, as trading volume grew right before the Bitcoin halving. The fee of ** USD, however, was still in stark contrast to the first wave of public interest in the cryptocurrency, when the fee per transaction was over ** U.S. dollars. Regardless, the Bitcoin trading volume in the United States was bigger in 2017 than it was during 2020.

Swiss cryptocurrency Cardano (ADA) witnessed a price surge of nearly 100 percent in seven days in early February 2021, amid high interest from investors. One reason for this interest is the digital coin's close relation to Ethereum (ETH), as mathematician Charles Hoskinson co-founded both virtual currencies. Moreover, like Ethereum, ADA has an open-source format, meaning anybody can develop this currency further. As of June 30, 2025, one ADA token was worth 0.56 U.S. dollars.

Following NFT hype and growing demand in the DeFi community, the price of cryptocurrency Solana or SOL more than tripled during the summer of 2021. This had all but evaporated by the end of 2022, as a price of 151 U.S. dollars for SOL on Jun 30, 2025, was similar to the price of Solana in early 2021. The collapse of crypto trader FTX in 2022 especially impacted the cryptocurrency, as FTX and its sister firm Alameda Research sold a large amount of the coin to avoid bankruptcy. The Solana protocol is similar to Ethereum in that it can allow for nun-fungible tokens to be created ('minted') or traded. Solana, however, uses a technology called 'PoH' or Proof of History, which allows it to reach high transaction speeds. The Solana Foundation - the creators of the protocol, based in Switzerland - claims they could reach up to 65,000 transactions per second compared to 16 for Ethereum. Additionally, Solano had no transaction fees or 'gas', unlike Ethereum, which had growing transaction costs. These two reasons combined - Solana being deemed cheaper and faster than Ethereum - turned this relatively young protocol into a breeding ground for NFT projects in August 2021.

Price swings of Bitcoin increased substantially in November 2022, recording a 10-day volatility of more than *** percent. Measured in a metric called volatility, the percentage shown here reflect how much the price of BTC in U.S. dollars changed historically over a preceding 7-day window. Changes can be either up or down, with a higher volatility reflecting that an asset is more risky, as price movements are less easy to predict and can swing in any direction. The volatility metric referred to here is called "realized volatility", otherwise known as "historic volatility" and describes these price swings over a given period of time - and consequently is not looking into the future. Despite the rise of several cryptocurrencies since 2021, Bitcoin still had the highest market share ("dominance") of all cryptocurrencies in 2022.

Cryptocurrency Ethereum would be processed over *********** times per day in early 2021, a figured that stayed relatively stable in recent years. Compared to other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, this transaction volume was significantly bigger. This might explain the high market capitalization of several cryptocurrencies.

The estimated time with which Kraken would confirm a deposit of certain cryptocurrencies varied from between near-instantaneous to up to several hours. Bitcoin, for instance, could take around ** minutes - depending on the fees involved - whereas tokens like Cardano or Solana could be handled almost immediately. The transaction speed matters as it indicates which cryptocurrency is more efficient. A higher efficiency means that the blockchain underneath the coin is more capable of transferring data from one party to the other and confirm transactions. Transaction speed can be influenced by various factors, including block time, block size, transaction fees, and network traffic.