GLOSSARY // Crypto
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, launched in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto as digital cash that settles without a bank in the middle. Its supply is capped at 21 million coins by code, and new coins enter circulation only as a reward to the miners who secure the network.
That fixed cap is why supporters call it digital gold: unlike a currency a central bank can print, no one can raise the ceiling. Critics counter that a payment network settling one block every 10 minutes, with a price that can swing 10% in a day, is a poor medium of exchange. Both things can be true, and the market prices the tension daily.
As of mid-2026 roughly 19.9 million of the 21 million cap has been mined, so about 95% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist already circulates. The remaining coins release slowly over the next century as block rewards shrink.
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Educational only — not financial advice. Definitions simplified for clarity; markets are messier than definitions.