Bitcoin (BTC) price today
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency and the largest by market capitalization: a public network for transferring and holding value without relying on a bank or government.
Bitcoin price now
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- Price in Brazilian reais (BRL)
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Market data source: CoinGecko, with a reference USD/BRL rate. Values can lag by a few minutes.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency created in 2009 by a person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. The project was described in a nine-page technical paper published in late 2008, and the network went live on January 3, 2009, with its first block.
The network's unit is the bitcoin (BTC), divisible into 100 million parts called satoshis. There is no issuing company: the rules are enforced by thousands of computers running the same open-source software.
How Bitcoin works
Transactions are grouped into blocks and recorded on a public blockchain. Miners compete to validate each block by solving a computational problem based on the SHA-256 algorithm, a mechanism known as proof of work. A new block appears roughly every ten minutes.
Issuance is programmed: the miner that validates a block receives new bitcoins, and that reward is cut in half every 210,000 blocks, an event called the halving. By design, supply will never exceed 21 million units.
Whoever holds the private keys controls the bitcoins. Keys live in a wallet, which can be self-custodied or held by an exchange on the customer's behalf.
What BTC is used for
- Long-term store of value, because supply is limited and predictable.
- Transfers between people in any country without a banking intermediary.
- Price and liquidity benchmark for the rest of the crypto market.
- Exposure through regulated products such as exchange-traded spot ETFs.
Risks and points of attention
- Volatility: the price has fallen more than 70% from a peak to the following low in past cycles.
- Custody: losing the private key or recovery phrase means losing access to the funds, with no chargeback.
- Regulation and taxation vary by country and can affect use and trading.
- Network fees rise during congestion, which makes small transfers expensive.
Key facts
| Symbol | BTC |
|---|---|
| Asset type | Cryptocurrency |
| Launch | January 3, 2009 |
| Network | Own blockchain (Bitcoin) |
| Consensus mechanism | Proof of Work |
| Hashing algorithm | SHA-256 |
| Maximum supply | 21 million BTC |
Reference data checked on October 3, 2026 against CoinGecko and the project's official pages.
Official links
Frequently asked questions about Bitcoin
How many bitcoins will ever exist?
The protocol caps supply at 21 million BTC. Issuance drops at every halving, and the last bitcoins are expected to be mined around the year 2140.
Can I buy a fraction of a bitcoin?
Yes. Each bitcoin divides into 100 million satoshis, and exchanges allow small purchases, subject to each platform's minimum.
Is Bitcoin safe?
The network has run since 2009 without its transaction record being altered, but users remain exposed to price risk, scams, exchange failures and lost keys. Safety also depends on how the asset is stored.
Where does the Bitcoin price on this page come from?
The panel shows the BTC price in US dollars and Brazilian reais, with change, volume and market capitalization. Data comes from CoinGecko, uses a reference exchange rate and can lag by a few minutes.