and owners of bitcoin make money as the price per coin increases
The value of Bitcoin increases as the price per coin increases, but holders do not make money or loss money until they sell and convert to some other currency.
For example, if you purchased 100 coins at $65.52 (100 x $65.52 = $6,552) on July 5, 2013 (bitcoin's record low) and held it until its all-time high of $61,683.86 on March 13, 2021, you would have $6,168,386.4
Bitcoin has been valued for lower than a dollar, so $65.52 is not the record low. IIRC, the first recorded exchange value was marked sometime in 2010-2011.