Bitcoin (BTC) Price, Real-time Quote & News

Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. Use of bitcoin as a currency began in 2009, with the release of its open-source implementation. In 2021, El Salvador adopted it as legal tender. It is mostly seen as an investment and has been described by some scholars as an economic bubble. As bitcoin is pseudonymous, its use by criminals has attracted the attention of regulators, leading to its ban by several countries as of 2021. Bitcoin works through the collaboration of computers, each of which acts as a node in the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Each node maintains an independent copy of a public distributed ledger of transactions, called a blockchain, without central oversight. Transactions are validated through the use of cryptography, preventing one person from spending another person's bitcoin, as long as the owner of the bitcoin keeps certain sensitive data secret. Wikipedia

About Tether

Tether, often referred to by its currency codes USD₮ and USDT, is a cryptocurrency stablecoin launched by Tether Limited Inc. in 2014. It is pegged to the United States dollar, and is distinct from a central bank digital currency. As of 1 August 2024, Tether reported having $118.4 billion in reserves, including $5.3 billion in excess reserves. In the second quarter of 2024, the company achieved profit of $1.3 billion, contributing to a total profit of $5.2 billion for the first half of the year. Tether Limited also disclosed a net equity of $11.9 billion, and the stablecoin's market capitalization exceeded $114 billion. Tether is the largest cryptocurrency in terms of trading volume, holding 70% of the market share among stablecoins. In 2019, it surpassed bitcoin to become the most traded cryptocurrency globally. As of July 2024, Tether has more than 350 million users worldwide. Tether Limited is owned by iFinex, a company based in the British Virgin Islands which also operates the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange. As of January 2024, Tether's official website lists fourteen protocols and blockchains on which Tether has been minted. Wikipedia