Last Update: March 28th, 2023

Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer digital currency that is powered by its users, with no central authority or middlemen. The average price of one bitcoin was recorded as approximately 11,118.92 US dollars at the end of July 2020. The prices of Bitcoin can vary, as it is traded on many independent exchanges. However, the Bitcoin Price Index offers the average price across the leading global exchanges. Bitcoin emerged during the 2008 global economic crisis when big banks were caught misusing borrowers’ money, manipulating the system and charging exorbitant fees. In order to secure the owners’ money, the creators of bitcoin wanted to put the owners of bitcoins in charge of the transactions, eliminate the middleman, cut high-interest rates and transaction fees and make transactions transparent.

They created a distributed network system, where people could control their funds in a transparent way. Bitcoin has gathered popularity and grown rapidly in a relatively short period of time. Many companies, hospitals and large-scale hotel businesses across the world deal in bitcoins. Some multi-billion dollar corporations, such as Dell, PayPal, Microsoft, Expedia, etc. also deal in bitcoins. Today, websites also promote bitcoins, magazines publish bitcoin news, and forums are also discussing cryptocurrencies and trading in bitcoins. However, there are some issues related to bitcoin, like hackers breaking into accounts, the high volatility of bitcoin and long transaction delays. Nevertheless, bitcoin is considered to be reliable, particularly in third-world countries, as a channel for monetary transactions.

Current BITCOIN Price: $

Bitcoin price history charts

All-time Bitcoin historical chart

The 1-year Bitcoin price history chart is red due to the bearish nature of the cryptocurrency market since last year (2022). The coin dropped all the way to a bottom of $16,000, however, towards 2023 end of Q1, the coin is progressing upwards and could break the $30K mark really soon.

Factors impacting Bitcoin Prices:
Coronavirus Pandemic:
When the coronavirus crisis disturbed the global economic activities after the lockdowns were imposed, the traders moved from riskier assets to safer ones like bitcoin. During mid-March, the US Federal Reserve cut its interest rates to almost zero and launched a $ 700 billion QE- program to combat the market chaos brought about by the coronavirus crisis. That weighed on the equity market, with Dow futures dropping by 1,000 points, and made cryptocurrencies more attractive, pushing the bitcoin prices upwards.

US Dollar Prices:
The relationship between bitcoin and the US dollar is negative, which means that whenever the US dollar is strong across the board, the bitcoin prices come under pressure and vice versa. The recent decline in USD prices, due to loose monetary policy, interest rate cuts, and the US economic crisis, has supported the BTC/USD prices. The US dollar prices have also been affected by the delay in the release of the US stimulus package by the US Congress, and this has kept the bitcoin prices under pressure lately.

Adoption of users:
The value of the bitcoin is highly dependent on the adoption of the assets by users. The cryptocurrencies are getting more popular day by day, and this is raising the bitcoin price, as it is the most popular cryptocurrency. However, when the demand for a currency goes down, it results in lower prices. At present, most users are switching to bitcoin as a currency. Incidentally, it is also used as an excellent online trading currency. The usage of bitcoin as a medium for online transactions has increased lately, and the opportunities offered by its easy usage could lead to higher prices in the coming years.

Media Influence:
Media is the most important source of information nowadays, and the prices of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also affected by its influence. Greater media coverage means a better understanding of the crypto market and bitcoin by the general public. If the media presents a positive image of bitcoin, it will generally lead to higher prices of the BTC/USD pair, while negative media coverage could have the opposite effect on the bitcoin prices.

Political events:
Unlike central bank currencies, the cryptocurrencies have opposite relationships with political events. The lack of confidence in the country’s economy tends to undermine the local currency, whereas the people gain more confidence in cryptocurrencies in such a situation, as a substitute for traditional currencies. Bitcoin is the emblematic leader in the cryptocurrency market, so the prices of bitcoin tend to increase first whenever there is any political disturbance, before the other currencies on the market are affected. A recent example could be the prevailing trade war between the United States and China, which pushed the bitcoin prices up.

Governmental Regulatory Changes:
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are highly influenced by government decisions. As these currencies are still considered as a new concept in the market, the governments are constantly changing the regulations in terms of taxation of cryptocurrency investors. On one occasion, the world’s largest crypto market, China, decided at the end of 2017 to close several trading platforms, and that caused a dramatic fall in bitcoin prices, resulting in a 100 billion dollar drop in the cryptocurrency market in a single day. So the government regulations have a dramatic influence on the prices of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.