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In the quest to become a better version of money, Bitcoin has improved on many of its properties, including divisibility. Unlike the real-world currencies we’re used to, BTC can be divided into even smaller units. The ChangeHero team explains all you need to know about satoshi or sats in this guide.
Key Takeaways
- Every Bitcoin (BTC) is divisible into a hundred million units (0.00000001 BTC) called satoshi. Satoshi is named in honor of the Bitcoin blockchain’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto;
- Satoshis are useful for calculating small amounts of Bitcoin for fees, trading, and microtransactions. They are also tracked in the Ordinals protocol that attaches digital artifacts called inscriptions to individual sats;
- As is the case with the whole asset, the value of a satoshi can fluctuate rapidly. How much Bitcoin is in satoshi and vice versa, however, is constant.
Bitcoin’s Divisibility
As a peer-to-peer electronic cash, Bitcoin (BTC) was designed to have most if not all properties of money. In addition to fungibility, durability, recognizability, and stability, money should be portable.
Divisibility is one of the ways to make money more portable. As a digital currency, the whole Bitcoin is as portable as a fraction of it but making it divisible ultimately made it more accessible.
Fiat currencies are usually divisible up to two decimals (0.01). In contrast, one Bitcoin can be divided into up to eight decimals or a hundred million units. This gives BTC greater flexibility than traditional fiat currencies, enabling transactions with minuscule amounts of value called microtransactions.
In other words, BTC is divisible and you do not have to buy, hold, or transfer a whole Bitcoin. As BTC becomes more and more valuable, smaller amounts of Bitcoin become handy.
What is a satoshi?
A satoshi, or sat for short, is the smallest unit of bitcoin, named after Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of the Bitcoin blockchain protocol. A satoshi represents one hundred millionth of a bitcoin (0.00000001), making it the smallest possible unit of BTC.
So, how many satoshis in a Bitcoin? There are 100 million satoshis in 1 BTC. Therefore, the total supply of 21 million bitcoins converted to sats is 2.1 quadrillion (2,100,000,000,000,000).
A single bitcoin is currently worth almost a hundred thousand U.S. dollars, while a satoshi is still worth fractions of a penny. The satoshi makes smaller transactions easier to conduct and readable by people. Some cryptocurrency exchanges also support this denomination, allowing for purchases as small as a few dollars. For example, on ChangeHero, you can buy as little as 31,630 satoshi!
The Role of Satoshis in the Bitcoin Economy
Satoshis are the key to turning Bitcoin from a store of value into an accessible digital currency for day-to-day transactions. They let users utilize Bitcoin for small payments in use cases like tipping, online purchases, and microtransactions. While not very common, traders also sometimes use satoshis in cryptocurrency pairs with BTC for coins with values on the lower side.
More recently, sats have found use as the base for inscriptions in the ordinals protocol. As the base trackable unit with a negligible value even at the current BTC price, they act as suitable vehicles for various digital attachments.
Bitcoin fees are calculated depending on the size of a transaction with a unit called transaction weight (vBytes). While the formula for vB is somewhat complex and accounts for both inputs and outputs, the fee is calculated straightforwardly by multiplying transaction size in vB by the current fee in satoshis. Although the transaction size is not decided by its value, smaller transactions can still be done at virtually no cost through scaling protocols such as Lightning Network.
Stacking sats is another related phenomenon in the Bitcoin economy. This idea refers to accumulating small amounts of Bitcoin to arrive at a more tangible lump sum as BTC grows in value. Due to a great degree of divisibility, satoshis cost fractions of cents and are therefore affordable. Although satoshis help BTC act as a medium of exchange, they have also found a place in the BTC as a store of value narrative.
How Satoshis Relate to Bitcoin Prices
The value of one satoshi changes as the bitcoin price fluctuates, too. With the BTC price at $100,000, one satoshi equals 0.001 USD (or 0.1 cents). As the price of one Bitcoin goes down, so does the value of satoshis, and vice versa.
Small increments make it easier to own a piece of Bitcoin without needing to buy a whole BTC. Despite its value growing to six numbers only recently, the division up to eight decimal places was there from the very start at the protocol level.
On the part of Satoshi Nakamoto, this was a great future-proofing decision. Satoshis allow for more precise pricing and easier transactions, making them a useful unit for everyday use.
Other Units of Bitcoin
Aside from its smallest unit – satoshi, bitcoin operates with several smaller units. With the exception of another unit called finney, after Hal Finney, the other units mirror the International System of Units with metric prefixes.
Here is a full breakdown of all BTC sub-units and how they translate into satoshi:
| Satoshis | SI Prefix | BTC |
| 10 sats | finney | 0.0000001 |
| 100 sats | microbitcoin (μBTC) | 0.000001 |
| 1,000 sats | - | 0.00001 |
| 10,000 sats | - | 0.0001 |
| 100,000 sats | millibitcoin (mBTC) | 0.001 |
| 1,000,000 sats | centibitcoin (cBTC) | 0.01 |
| 10,000,000 sats | decibitcoin (dBTC) | 0.1 |
| 100,000,000 satoshis | - | 1 |
Understanding the Value of a Satoshi with Numbers
The difference between 1,000,000 and 10,000 satoshis should be as easy to grasp as the difference between $1 and $0.01, which they roughly equal these days. The value of one satoshi is measured relative to the price of bitcoin. Tracking sats implies staying up-to-date with the latest BTC prices.
If the Bitcoin price is $21,970.70, one satoshi would be worth $0.000219707. At the current price of Bitcoin ($97,990), it is $0.0009799, so 10 sats are worth about a cent.
Therefore, working backward, 1 cent is worth roughly 0.0000001 in BTC. 1 dollar is 0.00001006 BTC or 1,006 satoshis.
Satoshis can also be useful in understanding the rate of BTC conversion for other fiat currencies. Currently, 1 Indian rupee is about 12 sats and a Euro is worth 1,100 satoshis.
To convert satoshi into Bitcoin and other currencies, use online calculators. Our team has found the converter tool by CoinMarketCap and Finder’s online satoshi converter particularly helpful.
Conclusion
Thanks to Bitcoin being divisible for up to eight whole decimal places, it can easily be converted into amounts simple enough to understand. This base unit of Bitcoin has extensive uses, covering trading, transacting, and even digital artifacts.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many satoshi makes $1?
At the current price of Bitcoin, 1 U.S. dollar is equal to about 9,800 sats.
How much is 1,000 satoshi worth?
1,000 satoshi represents $0.001 if we consider BTC to be worth $100,000.
How many bitcoins is 1 satoshi?
A single satoshi is equal to 0.00000001 Bitcoin (BTC).
How much is 0.1 BTC to satoshi?
0.1 Bitcoin is 10 million satoshi. With the metric prefix from the International System of Units, it can also be called deciBitcoin (dBTC).
How much is 1 Bitcoin in US dollars?
At the time of writing, the price of 1 BTC is $97,990 in USD.
How many satoshi does 1 Bitcoin make?
One Bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis.
