$BTC Bitcoin (BTC) as the first decentralized cryptocurrency, its core value lies in its anti-inflation properties and technology trust mechanism. Its design of a limit of 21 million coins anchors its scarcity, attracting institutional allocation (BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF manages over $18 billion). However, high volatility (with fluctuations reaching 55% in 2024), energy controversies (each transaction consumes approximately the same amount of electricity as a household does in 3 weeks), and regulatory uncertainties (with the divergence of policies between China and the U.S.) remain major risks. The future direction depends on the degree of integration with traditional finance (such as JPMorgan's blockchain settlement applications) and the competitive landscape of sovereign digital currencies, while on the technological front, breakthroughs are needed to overcome transaction efficiency bottlenecks (with the Lightning Network expanding to handle a million transactions per second).