Bitcoin Rocket
a live Bitcoin chart as your New Tab page

What you see on every new tab

Bitcoin Rocket draws the real Bitcoin price as a chunky arcade chart across the middle of the New Tab page, on a plain navy sky with drifting square stars. The line runs in from the left edge and ends at the tail of a red-and-cream pixel rocket with an orange Bitcoin panel and a blue porthole, parked about three quarters of the way across.

The rocket is steered by the latest minute of trading. A rise of half a per cent in one minute is a full climb and the same fall is a full dive, so on a quiet market it mostly cruises.

• Climbing: The nose tilts to match the slope of the line, up to 66 degrees, and spinning pixel bitcoins pour from the nozzle: about 3 a second on a small rise, 16 at full climb.
• Hypersonic plume: Past a third of a full climb the flame stretches from 18 blocks toward 95, about three rocket lengths, with shock diamonds running down it and speed streaks whipping past. On big moves the ship shakes.
• Diving: The nose dips, the flame shrinks to a short sputter and grey smoke squares puff out behind.
• Green or red: The chart line, the shading under it and the floor grid fade to green when the price is up over the range on screen, and to red when it is down.
• Price panel: Top left: the live BTC price, the change over the chosen range with an arrow, and the last minute's change. Buttons switch the chart between 1H, 24H, 7D, 1M, YTD and MAX, and it remembers your choice.

The rocket and coins come from a tiny pixel sprite sheet, and every block of flame, smoke, stars and chart snaps to a grid about 1/400 of the screen height. A scanline pass darkens alternate rows of the sky, like an arcade monitor.

What it reacts to

• Price: Coinbase's public BTC-USD data, fetched about every 30 seconds while the theme is showing. 1H uses one-minute candles; longer ranges use 15-minute, hourly, 6-hour or daily ones.
• Offline: Without permission or a connection it flies on a simulated price, a new minute every 8 seconds, and the panel says SIM.
• Mouse: The starfield slides slightly against the cursor, up to about 18 pixels.
• Music: With music sync on, bass lengthens, widens and shakes the plume, a kick fires a flash of shock diamonds and speed streaks, mids brighten the chart toward white and treble makes the stars twinkle harder.

Free or Pro?Pro

Ambient New Tab is free to install, with five free themes. Bitcoin Rocket is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever, and it unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it. You can preview Bitcoin Rocket full screen before you buy: open the Themes panel and rest your mouse on it. Changed your mind? 14-day refund, no questions.

How to get it

1. Add Ambient New Tab to Chrome.
2. Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
3. Pick Bitcoin Rocket. Done.

Questions

Why is the rocket diving when the chart is green?

The rocket and the coins follow only the latest minute, while the colour follows the whole range on the chart. A green chart with a sputtering rocket means Bitcoin is up over that range but slipped in the last minute.

What does the MAX range show?

Daily closes from Coinbase's BTC-USD history, which begins around 2015, up to 4,000 days of them. YTD shows daily closes since the start of the year. Both are cached for a while, so switching back is quick, and the live price at the tip keeps updating.

Does it need a wallet or a Coinbase account?

No. It only reads Coinbase's public price feed: candles and 24-hour stats for BTC-USD. Chrome asks once for permission to reach api.exchange.coinbase.com. Decline and it keeps flying on a simulated price, marked SIM in the panel.

Does it work on my phone?

No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.

More themes

See every theme →