Context

Things like Block chain, Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash, Ethereum, Ripple etc are constantly coming in the news articles I read. So I wanted to understand more about it and this post helped me get started. Once the basics are done, the data scientist inside me started raising questions like:

1. How many cryptocurrencies are there and what are their prices and valuations?
2. Why is there a sudden surge in the interest in recent days?

So what next? Now that we have the price data, I wanted to dig a little more about the factors affecting the price of coins. I started of with Bitcoin and there are quite a few parameters which affect the price of Bitcoin. Thanks to Blockchain Info, I was able to get quite a few parameters on once in two day basis.

This will help understand the other factors related to Bitcoin price and also help one make future predictions in a better way than just using the historical price.

Content

The dataset has one csv file for each currency. Price history is available on a daily basis from April 28, 2013. This dataset has the historical price information of some of the top crypto currencies by market capitalization.

• Date : date of observation
• Open : Opening price on the given day
• High : Highest price on the given day
• Low : Lowest price on the given day
• Close : Closing price on the given day
• Volume : Volume of transactions on the given day
• Market Cap : Market capitalization in USD

Acknowledgements

This data is taken from coinmarketcap and it is free to use the data.

Cover Image : Photo by Thomas Malama on Unsplash

Inspiration

Some of the questions which could be inferred from this dataset are:

1. How did the historical prices / market capitalizations of various currencies change over time?
2. Predicting the future price of the currencies
3. Which currencies are more volatile and which ones are more stable?
4. How does the price fluctuations of currencies correlate with each other?
5. Seasonal trend in the price fluctuations

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 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.

Context

Bitcoin is the longest running and most well known cryptocurrency, first released as open source in 2009 by the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin serves as a decentralized medium of digital exchange, with transactions verified and recorded in a public distributed ledger (the blockchain) without the need for a trusted record keeping authority or central intermediary. Transaction blocks contain a SHA-256 cryptographic hash of previous transaction blocks, and are thus "chained" together, serving as an immutable record of all transactions that have ever occurred. As with any currency/commodity on the market, bitcoin trading and financial instruments soon followed public adoption of bitcoin and continue to grow. Included here is historical bitcoin market data for select bitcoin exchanges where trading takes place. Happy (data) mining!

CSV files for select bitcoin exchanges for the time period of September 2011 to June 2024, with updates of OHLC (Open, High, Low, Close), Volume in BTC and indicated currency, and weighted bitcoin price. Timestamps are in Unix time. Timestamps without any trades or activity have their data fields filled with NaNs. If a timestamp is missing, or if there are jumps, this may be because the exchange (or its API) was down, the exchange (or its API) did not exist, or some other unforeseen technical error in data reporting or gathering. All effort has been made to deduplicate entries and verify the contents are correct and complete to the best of my ability, but obviously trust at your own risk.

Acknowledgements and Inspiration

Bitcoin charts for the data. The various exchange APIs, for making it difficult or unintuitive enough to get OHLC and volume data that I set out on this data scraping project. Satoshi Nakamoto and the novel core concept of the blockchain, as well as its first execution via the bitcoin protocol. I'd also like to thank viewers like you! Can't wait to see what code or insights you all have to share.

Bitcoin's circulating supply has grown steadily since its inception in 2009, reaching over ** million coins by early 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 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.

Context

Bitcoin is the longest running and most well known cryptocurrency, first released as open source in 2009 by the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin serves as a decentralized medium of digital exchange, with transactions verified and recorded in a public distributed ledger (the blockchain) without the need for a trusted record keeping authority or central intermediary. Transaction blocks contain a SHA-256 cryptographic hash of previous transaction blocks, and are thus "chained" together, serving as an immutable record of all transactions that have ever occurred. As with any currency/commodity on the market, bitcoin trading and financial instruments soon followed public adoption of bitcoin and continue to grow. Included here is historical bitcoin market data at 1-min intervals for select bitcoin exchanges where trading and speculation take place. Happy (data) mining!

Content

bitstampUSD_1-min_data_2012-01-01_to_2017-05-31.csv - 13% of all BTC Volume (05/01/2017 through 05/31/2017)

coinbaseUSD_1-min_data_2014-12-01_to_2017-05-31.csv - 15% of all BTC Volume (05/01/2017 through 05/31/2017)

CSV files for select bitcoin exchanges for the time period of Jan 2012 to May 2017, with minute to minute updates of OHLC (Open, High, Low, Close), Volume in BTC and indicated currency, and weighted bitcoin price. Timestamps are in Unix time. Timestamps without any trades or activity have their data fields populated with NaNs. If a timestamp is missing, or if there are jumps, this may be because the exchange (or its API) was down, the exchange (or its API) did not exist, or some other unforseen technical error in data reporting or gathering. All effort has been made to deduplicate entries and verify the contents are correct and complete to the best of my ability, but obviously trust at your own risk.

Acknowledgements and Inspiration

Bitcoincharts, the data source. The various exchange APIs, for making it difficult or unintuitive enough to get OHLC and volume data at 1-min intervals that I set out on this data scraping project. Satoshi Nakamoto and the novel core concept of the blockchain, as well as its first execution via the bitcoin protocol. I'd also like to thank viewers like you! Can't wait to see what code or insights you all have to share.

I am a lowly Ph.D. student who did this for fun in my meager spare time. If you find this data interesting and you can spare a coffee to fuel my science, send it my way and I'd be immensely grateful!

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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 February 27, 2025, the profit from mining has decreased to ****.

According to Cognitive Market Research, The Global cryptocurrency mining market size is USD 1925.2 million in 2023 and will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.20% from 2023 to 2030.

The increasing demand for cryptocurrencies is one of the key factors driving the global cryptocurrency mining market's rise.
Demand for ASIC remains higher in the cryptocurrency mining market.
The remote hosting services category held the highest cryptocurrency mining market revenue share in 2023.
North American cryptocurrency mining will continue to lead, whereas the Asia Pacific cryptocurrency mining market will experience the most substantial growth until 2030.

Increase in the Use of Digital Currencies to Provide Viable Market Output

The market for cryptocurrency mining hardware is anticipated to be driven during the forecast period by the growing popularity of virtual or digital currencies like Bitcoins, Litecoins, Ethers, and others. The simple and adaptable transactional mechanism that digital currency offers is likely to be adopted by people in industrialized nations. The central bank started supporting virtual money because of how well-liked it was as a medium of exchange. For digital currency programs in numerous developed nations, the central bank's proprietary Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) activity provisions are used. CBDC's adoption of digital currency as a medium of exchange is also supported by the People's Bank of China and the Central Bank of the Eastern Caribbean.

For instance, Meta Platforms, Inc. introduced the digital currency Libra in June 2019. Customers should be able to use Libra to make purchases, send money to others, and cash out either online or at grocery stores. Companies can also fortify their digital assets and profit from the price fluctuations of digital currencies.

The market for mining hardware for cryptocurrencies is expanding due to these demands.

(Source: techcrunch.com/2019/06/18/facebook-libra/amp/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAA_SuDWoz5yH07rT03s_93-U4-SW6OcuIw392Bj779AQraRpZ066j1QeUumiNNVJ_NfZCx-8S7sL5DHCct346vAshAq9o3OxrRMhMjo0sWHOaNc3PNDRseBpw-8QeZju71ahe8u-Bn22k5XCq_3eZCkRuQsPjnAtMD8KyCEcq7xs)

Increased Utilization of Digital Transformation Technologies to Propel Market Growth

Digitization is the process of using cutting-edge technology to transform data or information into a digital format. It is a crucial component of cryptocurrency mining hardware because of the increasing demand for transaction recording and validation on the Bitcoin network in order to improve customer service, stop fraud, and add new blocks to the blockchain, which creates new Bitcoins in a decentralized fashion. Additionally, blockchain ledgers save time for digital consulting and enable Bitcoin businesses to provide digital services to their clients, which fuels the market expansion for cryptocurrency mining hardware. The market for cryptocurrency mining hardware is expanding due to the growing need for digital transformation technologies in the Bitcoin space and the increasing reliance of different providers on SaaS solutions. Furthermore, companies all over the world are implementing cutting-edge technologies like big data, blockchain, and artificial intelligence to boost productivity while using less resources, which is propelling the demand for cryptocurrency mining hardware.

Market Dynamics of Cryptocurrency Mining

High Cost of Mining Cryptocurrency to Restrict Market Growth

Significant expenditures in terms of labor, software, and hardware are needed to implement cryptocurrency mining technology. The implementation of mining hardware solutions is anticipated to be hampered by this, which will pose a significant obstacle for small and medium-sized Bitcoin enterprises. Due to the numerous functionalities and interconnections needed for cryptocurrency mining gear, it can be expensive, ranging from $10,000 to $70,000, and, in some cases, up to $150,000, especially for sophisticated applications with advanced functionality. Thus, the expansion of the cryptocurrency mining hardware market is anticipated to be hampered by this aspect. In addition, the execution, migration, workforce size, and technological debt related to digital service technology are the main causes of elevated expenses. Demands on software architects and developers to tra...

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.

At the end of March 2025, the Ethereum cryptocurrency had been processed nearly ** million times on-chain that month. This was about ***** times that of the more commonly known rival Bitcoin, which saw a total of ** million transactions that month. Other leading cryptocurrencies also saw significantly less transaction activity. What kind of transactions were these? Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies which owe their credibility to their technology rather than a central bank. Many of the transactions in this statistic involve cryptocurrency exchanges which exchange these coins for other currencies, including traditional currencies such as U.S. dollars or euros. In selected countries, Bitcoin ATMs also dispense the local currency in exchange for Bitcoin. However, few retailers accept that or any other cryptocurrency on a large scale. Cryptocurrency as an investment Many cryptocurrency enthusiasts point to the high market capitalization of their favorite cryptocurrencies. Moreover, the currency price is an important factor. The price volatility of Bitcoin and others attracts investors, hoping to buy low and sell high.

Bitcoin's annualized footprint in electricity consumption reached an all-time high in early 2022, then believed to be higher than the power consumption of Finland. This is according to a source that tries to estimate the energy consumption of Bitcoin (BTC). It does by assuming that miner's costs and income are the same thing: The higher the miner's income, the more powerful machinery it can support. As of May 19, 2025, Bitcoin's energy consumption fell in between the consumption of Australia or the Netherlands. Note, however, there is no central authority where cryptominers report their figures to. Exponential growth As Bitcoin has a maximum supply, the closer the cryptocurrency gets to its limit of 21 million coins, the more effort it takes to mine. Not every cryptocurrency has a maximum supply. Bitcoin, however, stands out as more than 90 percent of all its coins have already been created. This exponential growth cycle indirectly impacts the overall size of the blockchain as well, as it currently grows less fast than it did several years ago. Which countries mine Bitcoin the most? According to the latest available estimates, the United States had a higher Bitcoin mining hashrate than China. This research - using IP addresses from hashers accessing certain Bitcoin mining pools, a method the source admits can lead to issues - was last held in 2022, however. It is generally assumed that the different electricity prices worldwide may impact the decision on where to mine for Bitcoin.

By March 2022, over *** million Ethereum tokens were issued and in active circulation - but it is expected new coins will not arrive at a fast pace. Although the cryptocurrency has an unlimited supply - unlike Bitcoin, of which there can only be ** million tokens and not a single more - the Ethereum blockchain received an update in August 2021, EIP-1559, that both increased the block size needed to create new coins and destroyed (“burned”) any transactions fees, rather than send them to the original miners. This led to a decline in issuance, as mining Ethereum essentially was made less profitable. Issuance is expected to decline further when Ethereum *** arrives.

Ethereum: a counter to inflation?

In a time when inflation rates became a big talking point, Ethereum received much social media attention in late 2021 for possibly being deflationary. This argument stems from August 2021, or “London Hard Fork”, upgrade in August 2021: Each transaction on the Ethereum network would entirely remove a portion of Ethereum from the total supply in circulation. On days of high transaction activity of Ethereum, for example, after a change in the price of Ethereum, this can effectively mean more coins are being destroyed than there are being created.

Ethereum supply to change after the upgrade to ***?

Experts state burning on a scale that the supply of Ethereum declines only happens on occasion, stating it acts more as a temporary slowdown of growth rather than an active attempt to continuously shrink supply. This could change, however, when Ethereum *** arrives – or when Ethereum switches from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The general assumption for this is that staking rewards are generally lower than rewards for Proof-of-Work (mining), lowering the incentive for the creation of new coins. If usage – which some measure via the Ethereum gas price, or transaction fee per transaction – remains unchanged otherwise, this would lower the threshold for Ethereum to become deflationary.

How many cryptocurrencies are there? In short, there were over ***** as of June 2025, although there were many more digital coins in the early months of 2022. Note, however, that a large portion of cryptocurrencies might not be that significant. There are other estimates of roughly ****** cryptocurrencies existing, but most of these are either inactive or discontinued. Due to how open the creation process of a cryptocurrency is, it is relatively easy to make one. Indeed, the top 20 cryptocurrencies make up nearly ** percent of the total market. Why are there thousands of cryptocurrencies? Any private individual or company that knows how to write a program on a blockchain can technically create a cryptocurrency. That blockchain can be an existing one. Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain are popular blockchain platforms for such ends, including smart contracts within Decentralized Finance (DeFi). The ease of crypto creation allows some individuals to find solutions to real-world payment problems while others hope to make a quick profit. This explains why some crypto lack utility. Meme coins such as Dogecoin - named after a Japanese dog species - are an infamous example, with Dogecoin's creator coming out and stating the coin started as a joke. The many types of cryptocurrency Meme coins are but one group of cryptocurrencies. Other types include altcoins, utility tokens, governance tokens, and stablecoins. Altcoins are often measured against Bitcoin, as this refers to all crypto that followed Bitcoin - the first digital currency ever created. Utility tokens and governance tokens are somewhat connected to NFTs and the metaverse. A specific example is the MANA cryptocurrency, which allows real estate purchases in the Decentraland metaverse. Stablecoins refer to the likes of Tether, which are pegged to a real-world asset like the U.S. dollar. Such coins are meant to be less volatile than regular cryptocurrency.

Verified users of the Coinbase trading platform increased over ***** times between 2018 and 2021 as interest in cryptocurrency grew. Cryptocurrency apps became significantly more popular between December 2020 and January 2021 and the price of Bitcoin grew significantly, and other cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin attracted more and more general interest.

Big in the West: Coinbase users by country

The Delaware based platform reached its highest ever number of daily active users (DAU) in the United States in early 2021: The number of DAUs for the Coinbase app was significantly higher than many other cryptocurrency wallets available. Coinbase was not just popular in its native country, however. More than *** out of 10 respondents in the United Kingdom said they preferred to use Coinbase over other exchanges in 2019, with 2021 DAU figures further strengthening the app's position in the UK. Coinbase was also popular in Germany in 2021, although this country had several domestic alternatives at its disposal.

Cryptocurrency's gender gap

Crypto owners or investors overall tend to be male rather than women. This trend is observed several countries worldwide, and in different regions as well. For instance, Colombia was said to be one of *** Latin American countries with the highest percentage of female users, even though Colombian women did not make up a clear majority. In Oceania, crypto ownership among Australia women showed a decline between 2019 and 2020. Note this information stems from consumer surveys, with most of these being released either in late 2020 or early 2021 - right before the Bitcoin and Ethereum prices went up dramatically. Whether these figures have changed come 2021, can therefore not yet be established.