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.
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.
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.
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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.
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 *****.
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.
Consumers from countries in Africa, Asia, and South America were most likely to be an owner of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in 2025. This conclusion can be reached after combining ** different surveys from the Statista's Consumer Insights over the course of that year. Nearly one out of three respondents to Statista's survey in Nigeria, for instance, mentioned they either owned or use a digital coin, rather than *** out of 100 respondents in the United States. This is a significant change from a list that looks at the Bitcoin (BTC) trading volume in ** countries: There, the United States and Russia were said to have traded the highest amounts of this particular virtual coin. Nevertheless, African and Latin American countries are noticeable entries in that list too. Daily use, or an investment tool? The survey asked whether consumers either owned or used cryptocurrencies but does not specify their exact use or purpose. Some countries, however, are more likely to use digital currencies on a day-to-day basis. Nigeria increasingly uses mobile money operations to either pay in stores or to send money to family and friends. Polish consumers could buy several types of products with a cryptocurrency in 2019. Opposed to this is the country of Vietnam: Here, the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a payment method is forbidden. Owning some form of cryptocurrency in Vietnam as an investment is allowed, however. Which countries are more likely to invest in cryptocurrencies? Professional investors looking for a cryptocurrency-themed ETF were more often found in Europe than in the United or China, according to a survey in early 2020. Most of the largest crypto hedge fund managers with a location in Europe in 2020, were either from the United Kingdom or Switzerland - the country with the highest cryptocurrency adoption rate in Europe according to Statista's Global Consumer Survey. Whether this had changed by 2025 was not yet clear.
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Mean Bitcoin daily returns for non-event and post-event days.
BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF received around 15 billion dollars' worth of investment inflow since January 2024, whereas Grayscale lost 16 billion. This is according to a day-to-day investment flow timeline involving 10 of the 11 Bitcoin ETFs that got approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in early 2024. The highest inflow towards these ETFs occurred in March, coinciding with the Bitcoin price's all-time high and a general increase in Bitcoin trading volume. Note that the figures here do not cover all Bitcoin ETFs found throughout the world. That said, the United States investment vehicles tend to be the largest and most impactful ones. In April 2024, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) approved three ETFs, but their potential impact is not yet clear - if only because mainland China does not allow for crypto trading after the country banned crypto mining in 2021.
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.
The average energy consumption for one single Bitcoin transaction in 2025 could equal several hundreds of thousands of VISA card transactions. This according to a source that tries to estimate the energy consumption of both Bitcoin (BTC) over time. It does so by estimating how much income miners possibly spend on electricity, as there is no institution that tracks how much energy the cryptocurrency actually consumes. This also applies to which countries mine the most Bitcoin, as this is estimated by cross referencing IP addresses. A matter of design: why Bitcoin consumes so much energy Of all the 21 million Bitcoins that can exist at the same time, nearly 90 percent was already mined in mid-2021. This, however, does not necessarily mean that the Bitcoin supply is running out as the last Bitcoin was forecast to be mined around the year 2140. This is a design choice in the cryptocurrency: The closer Bitcoin gets to its supply limits, the computing power – and therefore energy - needed to mine goes up incrementally. The BTC mining difficulty or amount of computing power being applied to mine Bitcoin reflects that: Bitcoin mining in, say, 2014 – when there were less Bitcoin in circulation - was easier and less energy consuming than in 2021. By then, there were significantly more coins in circulation and the cryptocurrency’s design essentially tries to halt the creation of more. China’s doubts on whether Bitcoin is green Over the course of 2021, the price of Bitcoin was over 60,000 U.S. dollars but by the summer only half of that amount remained. This was partially caused by China’s Financial Stability and Development Committee trying to curb domestic crypto mining since May 2021 – which led some to doubt whether there was a future for the cryptocurrency. China’s efforts are said to have been triggered due to remote mining farms demanding so much electricity that idle coal mines were restarted without government approval. Whilst this was never confirmed, China is generally seen as the most coal consuming country in the world.
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.
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 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.
Based on 24 hour trading volume, stablecoin Bitcoin outpaced Ethereum and, more importantly, Tether in May 2025, accounting for most crypto trades. This is unusual as stablecoin Tether often tends to be most traded - due to its use in purchasing other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin's leading role is underlined in a market cap league table of more than 100 cryptocurrencies — including ones for DeFi, NFT and stablecoins. Bitcoin and Ethereum are typically the only ones to reach over *** billion U.S. dollars, with Ethereum usually following by around one **** this amount. Does this mean that Bitcoin gets traded more than Ethereum? Not necessarily, as the daily transactions of Ethereum tend to be significantly higher than that of Bitcoin.
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 ****.
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.
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.
This statistic shows the answers to a survey question about the average minutes spent per day on cryptocurrencies in the Netherlands as of 2018. On average, Dutch consumers with cryptocurrencies spent 25 minutes per day either trading or talking about cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is a so-called cryptocurrency, a digital currency that uses blockchain technology as a means of security. Because of its design, it is difficult to get an insight in the full size of the Bitcoin market in individual countries. Because Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies reached the news often in 2017, approximately 60 percent of the households in the Netherlands who invest in cryptocurrencies started doing so in 2017. In the first three quarters of 2017, there were approximately 44,000 transactions in Bitcoin from the Netherlands on a trading platform called BTC Direct. In addition, Belgium and the Netherlands have several Bitcoin ATM installations.
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'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.