Analysis topic
Photo: André François McKenzie / UnsplashBitcoin
These pieces cover buying, sending, selling and spending bitcoin, with fees read from each app's own help pages.
They also cover bitcoin ETFs, bitcoin ATMs, the remaining supply and what a casino or an exchange can trace. US apps such as Cash App and Coinbase are covered step by step.
Every figure in these pieces traces to a document named at the foot of the page it appears on. Nothing here is a recommendation to gamble.
17 pieces, newest first
· 6 minHow do bitcoin ATMs work? Fees, state caps and the scam numbers from the FBI and FTCA bitcoin ATM sells bitcoin for cash and sends it to a wallet address the customer supplies. CoinFlip's terms price purchases at a 21.90% transaction fee. The FBI's IC3 recorded 13,460 complaints and $389 million in losses tied to crypto ATMs in 2025, and California caps kiosk fees at the greater of $5 or 15%. · 6 minHow much bitcoin does Satoshi have? The genesis block, the Patoshi estimate and what the chain showsNobody can prove how much bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto holds. The widely cited figure of about 1 million BTC is an estimate from Sergio Lerner's 2013 Patoshi research, which he described as made "at eyesight". The genesis address holds 107.66 BTC by Blockchain.com's count, 50 of it unspendable. · 6 minHow much bitcoin is left to mine, and when will the last bitcoin be mined?At block 971,395 on 14 October 2026 the issuance schedule has released 20,098,112.5 BTC, leaving about 901,887 BTC, or 4.3% of the cap, still to be mined. The block subsidy reaches zero at block 6,930,000, which at the 10-minute target lands around the year 2140. · 6 minHow to buy bitcoin with Cash App: the steps, the 0% to 2% fee and the spread, from Cash App's help pagesTo buy bitcoin on Cash App, open the Bitcoin tile on the Money tab, tap Buy, pick an amount and a funding source and confirm. Cash App's fee runs from 2.0% on buys under $500 to 0% from $2,000, and a spread of up to 0.75% (or 1%, on a second help page) sits inside the price. · 6 minHow to buy bitcoin in the US: the steps, and the fees Coinbase, Kraken, Cash App, Robinhood and PayPal publishBuying bitcoin in the US means opening a verified account at a broker or exchange, funding it, placing a buy and, optionally, withdrawing to a wallet. Fees published on 14 October 2026 range from 0% to 2.20% of the trade at five US apps, and most add a spread on top. One bitcoin is 100,000,000 satoshis, so any dollar amount can be bought. · 6 minHow do you sell bitcoin? Exchanges, broker apps, P2P and ATMs, with each provider's own feesBitcoin is sold through an exchange, a broker app, a peer-to-peer market or a bitcoin ATM. Stated fees on 14 October 2026 run from 0% plus a spread of up to 0.75% on a Cash App sale of $2,000 or more to 4.99% at a CoinFlip kiosk. Every sale is a capital gain or loss event for US tax. · 6 minHow to send bitcoin to another wallet, and how to find a bitcoin wallet address, step by stepSending bitcoin means pasting the recipient's address, choosing the amount and fee, and signing. Coinbase's web flow has 6 steps and Trezor Suite's has 4. Addresses start with 1, 3, bc1q or bc1p. Mempool.space recommended 1 sat/vB on 14 October 2026, and bitcoin.org says a transaction "cannot be reversed". · 6 minHow to set up a bitcoin wallet, step by step from the Blockstream and Trezor guidesA self-custody bitcoin wallet is set up by installing the app, generating keys, writing down a 12 or 24 word recovery phrase and checking it. Blockstream's app guide lists 4 steps; Trezor says its hardware setup takes about 15 minutes and wipes the device after 16 wrong PINs. · 6 minHow to spend bitcoin with a card, a BitPay invoice, Lightning or PayPalBitcoin is spent four ways in practice: a crypto debit card, a payment processor invoice such as BitPay, a Lightning payment, or PayPal's checkout with crypto. Each sells the bitcoin, and the IRS treats each payment as a disposal on which gain or loss is recognised. · 6 minHow to transfer bitcoin to Cash App: finding your address, on-chain vs Lightning, and the $10,000 weekly capTo transfer bitcoin to Cash App, open the Bitcoin tile, tap Deposit bitcoin and copy the address, which changes after every deposit. On-chain deposits are capped at $10,000 in any 7 days and Lightning at $999. Cash App takes BTC only. · 6 minHow to withdraw bitcoin from Cash App: speeds, fees, minimums and selling to dollarsCash App sends bitcoin to an outside wallet at three speeds. Standard is free, takes 24 hours or less and needs at least 0.001 BTC; Rush and Priority charge a network fee plus up to $2 or $3. Selling to dollars costs 0% to 2.0% plus a spread, and the cash-out to a bank is free or 0.5% to 2.5%. · 6 minIs bitcoin safe? The protocol, the custody risk and the scams, by the documentsBitcoin's protocol is secured by proof of work and has produced 971,395 blocks since January 2009. The money people lose goes through custody failures and scams: the FBI's IC3 recorded 181,565 crypto-related complaints and $11.366 billion in losses in 2025, about $7.2 billion of it investment fraud. · 6 minIs XRP a stablecoin? The GENIUS Act definition, Ripple's RLUSD and why bitcoin is not one eitherXRP is not a stablecoin. The GENIUS Act defines a payment stablecoin as one whose issuer must redeem it for a fixed amount of money; XRP and bitcoin have no such issuer and float on supply and demand. Ripple's dollar stablecoin is RLUSD, with $2,460.7 million circulating on 8 October 2026. · 6 minWhat is a bitcoin ETF? The SEC order, the spot funds, their fees and custodiansA spot bitcoin ETF is a trust whose shares trade on a stock exchange and which holds bitcoin with a custodian. The SEC approved 11 such listings on 10 January 2024 in Release No. 34-99306. Sponsor fees on issuers' own pages read on 14 October 2026 range from 0.15% to 0.25%. · 5 minWhat is a bitcoin wallet? Keys, addresses, and who holds them in each wallet typeA bitcoin wallet is software or a device that holds private keys and signs transactions; the coins stay on the blockchain. Bitcoin.org splits wallets by where the keys live. 24 of the 30 wallets on the CryptoGuardz register name Bitcoin among their chains. · 6 minWhat is bitcoin backed by? The whitepaper, proof of work, and what a reserve-backed token addsBitcoin is not backed by a reserve or an issuer's promise. The protocol issues it to miners who spend computing work, under a fixed schedule capped at 20,999,999.9769 BTC, and its value rests on what buyers will pay. Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are claims on an issuer's reserves; spot bitcoin ETFs are backed by bitcoin held at a custodian. · 8 minIs bitcoin untraceable? What the ledger, casino AML policies and exchange terms showBitcoin is not untraceable. Every transfer sits on a public ledger, and the whitepaper says privacy rests only on keeping addresses unlinked to names. Stake and Shuffle say every crypto deposit and withdrawal runs through Chainalysis, and the DOJ has traced and seized over 94,000 bitcoin in one case.