Bitcoin has gone through bull and bear market hype cycles in its 11-year history. That it doesn’t just die and go away might be puzzling to casual observers.  

What is bitcoin anyway? It’s a parallel, open financial system with a new money that is strictly limited to no more than 21 million bitcoins (each divisible to 100 million satoshis or ‘sats’). 

More specifically, bitcoin is two things: a monetary token, and an open source payment network.