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.
| 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"
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.
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?
Try the sats converter for any amount.