If one bitcoin is $100,000, what is one dollar worth in sats?
What is the misunderstanding behind "bitcoin is too expensive"?
If one bitcoin is $80,000, how many sats does one dollar buy?
You buy $50 of bitcoin at $100,000 per coin. How many sats is that?
Then prove it: a 3-question quiz · 2 challenges. The lesson marks itself complete at 100%.
After this lesson you can: convert between bitcoin, sats and dollars in your head.
A single bitcoin divides into 100,000,000 satoshis, or sats. That is the smallest unit on the blockchain; on Lightning it divides further. With 21 million coins there will be 2.1 quadrillion sats, which is plenty for a planet.
Reading the price in sats
If one bitcoin is $100,000, then one dollar is 1,000 sats and one sat is a tenth of a cent. Many bitcoiners quote prices in sats, and "Moscow time" is a nickname for sats per dollar.
![Table of sats per dollar at different bitcoin prices.](bb-sats-and-units-f1.svg ""Moscow time": how many sats a dollar buys as the price moves.")
Unit
In BTC
In sats
1 BTC
1
100,000,000
1 mBTC (millibit)
0.001
100,000
1 bit (μBTC)
0.000001
100
1 sat
0.00000001
1
"Bitcoin is too expensive"
You buy an amount, not a coin.
A common misunderstanding is that you must buy a whole coin. You can buy $5 of bitcoin. The unit price only looks high because the unit is large; the same money expressed in sats has a price of a fraction of a cent.
MINI CHALLENGEMoscow time
If one bitcoin is $80,000, how many sats does one dollar buy?
sats
Divide 100,000,000 by 80,000.
1,250 sats per dollar.
MINI CHALLENGEFractions of a coin
You buy $50 of bitcoin at $100,000 per coin. How many sats is that?
01100,000,000Eight decimal places: 0.00000001 BTC is one sat.
02About 1,000 sats100,000,000 sats divided by 100,000 dollars is 1,000 sats per dollar.
03Confusing the price of one whole coin with the smallest amount you can buyYou never need a whole coin; any amount down to a single sat can be bought.
