Bitcoin is the asset that started all of this. It was the first cryptocurrency, it is still the largest by market value, and every other crypto market is measured against it. It is also one of the most traded markets on Hyperliquid, which means you can trade it through Based at any hour of any day. This guide covers what Bitcoin actually is, where it came from, and how to approach it if you are starting from zero.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is two things sharing one name. Lowercase bitcoin, or BTC, is a digital asset with a hard supply cap of 21 million coins. Uppercase Bitcoin is the network those coins live on: a public database, called a blockchain, maintained by thousands of independent computers around the world rather than by any bank or company.
The supply cap is the defining feature. No government, company or developer can issue more than 21 million BTC. New coins enter circulation on a fixed schedule that halves roughly every four years, an event called the halving, and more than 19 million of the 21 million already exist. That predictable scarcity is why supporters call bitcoin digital gold: an asset you hold to protect purchasing power, not a currency you spend on coffee.
Where Bitcoin came from
Bitcoin was proposed in a nine-page paper published on October 31, 2008, by someone using the name Satoshi Nakamoto. To this day nobody knows who Satoshi is. The network went live on January 3, 2009, and the first block embeds a newspaper headline about bank bailouts: a timestamp and a mission statement in one, money that does not depend on banks being solvent or governments being disciplined.
For its first decade Bitcoin was a niche experiment run by hobbyists and cypherpunks. The turn came when regulated wrappers arrived. US spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024 and pulled in tens of billions of dollars, and public companies began holding BTC on their balance sheets. Bitcoin graduated from internet curiosity to institutional portfolio line item.
How Bitcoin works, in plain words
The network is secured by miners, operators running specialized computers that compete to add the next page of transactions to the blockchain. The competition works like a lottery: miners race to solve a mathematical puzzle, the winner adds the block and earns newly issued bitcoin plus transaction fees. This system is called proof of work.
Two details matter. First, blocks arrive roughly every ten minutes, and the puzzle difficulty adjusts automatically about every two weeks so the pace stays constant no matter how many miners join or leave. Second, cheating does not pay: rewriting the record would require outcomputing the honest majority of the network, which costs more than it could ever earn. That is how a database with no owner has run continuously for over fifteen years.
What Bitcoin is used for
Mostly, holding. The dominant use of BTC in 2026 is as a store of value: individuals, funds and companies buy it as a long-term position against currency debasement. Cross-border transfer is a real second use, because bitcoin moves between any two wallets on earth, any day, without asking a bank.
A smaller application layer exists too, tokens and collectibles inscribed on Bitcoin after upgrades like SegWit and Taproot, but Bitcoin has deliberately stayed simple. It does one thing, the final settlement of BTC between wallets. The ecosystem around it, ETFs, custodians, exchanges and perp markets like the one on Hyperliquid, does everything else.
Where Bitcoin stands in August 2026
Bitcoin reached an all-time high above $125,000 in late 2025, then spent 2026 in a long correction. By August 20, 2026 it trades around $70,000 after a sharp weekly rally, far above most of its history and still far below the peak. Both halves of that sentence are worth remembering.
Under the price, the institutional buildout continued. US spot ETFs collectively hold over a million BTC, and Strategy, the largest corporate holder, sits on roughly 580,000 coins. In the week of August 10, Bitcoin ETFs recorded their strongest weekly inflows since April, and Mastercard agreed to buy stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for $1.8 billion, another sign of payment giants moving onto crypto rails. On the policy side the US Senate pushed the CLARITY Act, the major crypto market-structure bill, to the fall, so the regulatory picture remains unfinished.
How to trade Bitcoin on Based
You do not need an exchange account to trade BTC. Based is a self-custody wallet that connects you to the Bitcoin perpetual futures market on Hyperliquid, one of the deepest markets in crypto. Fund the wallet with USDC and you can go long or short, with leverage if you choose, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Be clear about the instrument. A perp is a derivative that tracks the bitcoin price. You are not buying coins, and you have no claim on actual BTC. Leverage amplifies losses exactly as much as gains, a leveraged position can be liquidated if the market moves against you, and funding fees apply while a position is open. The perpetual futures guide explains the mechanics before you touch size.
The honest risks
Bitcoin is the least volatile major crypto asset and it still moves 10 percent in a week with some regularity. A 50 percent drawdown is not a tail risk; it has happened repeatedly, including in 2026. Leveraged perp positions can be liquidated entirely. And while self-custody removes exchange-collapse risk, it makes you your own security team: lose your recovery phrase and there is no password reset.