Bitcoin: The iPhone Has Gone From Thousands of BTC to 0.015 BTC

A striking comparison has been circulating since the unveiling of the new iPhones: 52.79 BTC were allegedly needed to buy an iPhone 4 in 2010, compared with just 0.02 BTC for an iPhone 18 today. The general idea is correct. Bitcoin’s purchasing power relative to Apple’s smartphone has surged over sixteen years. The figures, however, require serious correction. With BTC trading near 77,700 dollars, the new 1,199-dollar iPhone 18 Pro represents approximately 0.015 BTC. In 2010, the same calculation produced not a few dozen, but potentially several thousand bitcoins.

Bitcoin: The 52.79 BTC Figure Does Not Hold Up

Let’s start with the figure making the rounds on social media.

Apple unveiled the iPhone 4 on June 7, 2010, ahead of its U.S. launch on June 24. The price advertised by the company was indeed 199 dollars for the 16GB version and 299 dollars for the 32GB version. But Apple officially specified that these prices applied to eligible customers accepting a two-year contract with AT&T. This was therefore not actually the device’s unsubsidized price.

This distinction reflects an important feature of Bitcoin’s early years, detailed in our complete guide to Bitcoin’s history and how it works: in 2010, BTC still lacked the liquidity, marketplaces and price discovery mechanisms we know today. Apple’s official 2010 announcement confirms the starting price and the two-year contract.

The 52.79 BTC figure primarily raises a mathematical problem.

199 dollars divided by 52.79 works out to approximately 3.77 dollars per bitcoin.

Bitcoin was nowhere near that level in June 2010.

On May 22, during the now-famous Bitcoin Pizza Day, 10,000 BTC were used to obtain two pizzas, with an estimated market value of around 41 dollars, or approximately 0.0041 dollars per bitcoin. Even on July 13, 2010, the first date for which some modern daily datasets have figures, BTC closed at only around 0.06 dollars.

It would be much longer before Bitcoin traded above several dollars.

The 52.79 BTC figure therefore cannot correspond to the price of an iPhone 4 at launch.

An iPhone 4 Could Have Represented Thousands of BTC

So what would be a more credible figure?

The exercise is less straightforward than it appears, because there was no global, liquid and continuous Bitcoin market comparable to that of 2026 in June 2010. Prices came from a handful of tiny markets and peer-to-peer transactions.

It is nevertheless possible to establish an order of magnitude.

At the implied Bitcoin Pizza Day rate of approximately 0.0041 dollars per BTC, the 199 dollars charged for the subsidized iPhone 4 would have represented nearly 48,500 BTC.

Now take a much higher level: the 0.06 dollars observed on July 13, 2010, less than three weeks after the phone’s release. Even then, 199 dollars still corresponded to approximately 3,317 BTC.

And once again, we are using the subsidized price.

AT&T’s pricing document from the time listed a “No Commitment” price of 599 dollars for the 16GB iPhone 4 and 699 dollars for the 32GB version. In other words, a customer who did not enter into a new two-year contract had to pay nearly three times as much. AT&T’s 2010 pricing sheet confirms this.

At 0.06 dollars per BTC, a 599-dollar iPhone 4 would have been equivalent to approximately 9,983 BTC.

Using the Bitcoin Pizza Day rate, the figure would approach 146,000 BTC.

It would be excessive to treat either of these figures as “the” exact Bitcoin price of the phone on June 24, 2010. The market was too immature to support that level of precision.

One thing is certain, however: the figure was thousands, or even tens of thousands, of BTC—not 52.79 BTC.

In 2026, 0.015 BTC Is Enough for an iPhone 18 Pro

Sixteen years later, the situation has almost completely reversed.

On September 9, 2026, Apple unveiled its new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. The iPhone 18 Pro starts at 1,199 dollars, while the Pro Max starts at 1,299 dollars. Preorders are scheduled to open on September 12, ahead of availability from September 18. Apple details these prices directly in its launch announcement.

At the time of our review, Bitcoin was trading around 77,700 dollars.

The calculation is straightforward:

1,199 / 77,700 = approximately 0.0154 BTC.

The 1,299-dollar iPhone 18 Pro Max comes to approximately 0.0167 BTC.

Even with Bitcoin’s daily fluctuations, 0.02 bitcoin is therefore more than enough to buy either Pro model, excluding taxes and depending on the country.

However, a second element of the viral post also needs correcting: Apple did not unveil a standard model simply called the “iPhone 18” at its September event. The company launched the 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max and its first foldable iPhone. The base model is expected later.

The new, most expensive phone makes the comparison even more striking.

The foldable iPhone Duo starts at 1,999 dollars.

At the same Bitcoin price, it represents approximately 0.0257 BTC.

Even the most expensive smartphone Apple has ever unveiled therefore requires only a tiny fraction of one bitcoin today.

That is the real statistic.

The iPhone Has Become More Expensive in Dollar Terms

The comparison becomes particularly interesting when viewed in dollar terms.

In 2010, Apple announced the iPhone 4 at 199 dollars with a contract, while AT&T charged 599 dollars without a new contract.

In 2026, the iPhone 18 Pro starts at 1,199 dollars.

The smartphone’s nominal price has therefore increased.

Bitcoin tells precisely the opposite story.

It took an enormous number of BTC to reach a few hundred dollars when the network was still experimental. Today, approximately 1.5% of one bitcoin is enough to buy a high-end phone priced above 1,000 dollars.

This is where purchasing power becomes more informative than the BTC/USD price alone.

Saying that Bitcoin is worth 77,700 dollars indicates how many dollars the market offers in exchange for one BTC. Saying that an iPhone costs 0.015 BTC provides a much more tangible measure: how many goods can be obtained with one monetary unit?

This logic helps explain why some investors view Bitcoin as a long-term store of value. Bref Crypto recently noted that debt and currency debasement regularly reinforce the monetary narrative around Bitcoin.

The reasoning should not, however, be reversed.

The fact that Bitcoin has gained significant purchasing power since 2010 does not mean that this increase will be constant. Between its November 2021 peak and its 2022 low, for example, the amount of BTC required to buy the same good would have risen sharply.

Bitcoin wins over sixteen years.

Over twelve months, the story can be very different.

Bitcoin’s Supply Changes the Entire Equation

Why such a difference between 2010 and 2026?

The first answer lies in scarcity.

Bitcoin has a programmed monetary policy. Its protocol caps the final supply at 21 million BTC, while the amount of new units paid to miners decreases approximately every four years during halvings.

The iPhone follows a radically different logic.

Apple can produce more phones depending on demand, its industrial capacity and its supply chains. Older models are gradually replaced. New chips are introduced. Devices can be manufactured in quantities of several tens of millions.

Bitcoin is not a company capable of increasing its production when its price rises.

This scarcity obviously guarantees no value. An object can be scarce and useless. In Bitcoin’s case, the decisive factor has been the simultaneous increase in demand: individuals, exchanges, funds, companies, ETFs, states and payment infrastructure have gradually joined a network whose supply remains constrained.

In 2010, finding someone willing to give a few dollars for thousands of BTC was already a milestone.

In 2026, publicly listed companies hold hundreds of thousands of bitcoins, and ETFs allow traditional investors to gain exposure through their brokerage accounts.

It is this combination of rigid supply and growing demand that explains most of the change in purchasing power.

Our analysis of Bitcoin, inflation and the Fed’s decisions nevertheless recalls that BTC remains dependent on liquidity conditions. High interest rates can reduce appetite for risky assets, even when their supply is limited.

Scarcity provides the structure.

The market still sets the price.

The Dollar Is Not the Only Loser in This Comparison

It would be tempting to tell this story simply as follows: “Bitcoin preserves its value while the dollar loses it.”

The reality is more interesting.

The iPhone 18 Pro is not the same product as the iPhone 4. Over sixteen years, performance has surged. The 2010 model had a 3.5-inch display, a 5-megapixel rear camera, an A4 chip and up to 32GB of storage.

The new iPhone 18 Pro starts at 256GB, uses the A20 Pro chip and adds far more advanced cameras, artificial intelligence capabilities and performance that would have seemed absurd in 2010.

Comparing only their prices therefore means comparing two very different goods bearing the same commercial name.

And yet, that is precisely what makes the exercise interesting.

Technology tends to improve a product’s performance over time. A 2026 dollar buys an incomparably more powerful phone than a 2010 dollar, even though the iPhone’s nominal price has increased.

Bitcoin has gone even further: its relative purchasing power has increased faster than the product itself has moved upmarket.

BTC has therefore not merely appreciated against the dollar.

It has appreciated massively against a technology product whose capabilities have themselves multiplied.

Spend 0.015 BTC or Keep Your Bitcoin?

This comparison inevitably raises a question for Bitcoin holders.

Should you actually spend 0.015 BTC on a phone?

No one knows the future answer.

That is precisely the trap of Bitcoin Pizza Day. Laszlo Hanyecz is often portrayed as the man who “wasted” 10,000 BTC on two pizzas. This interpretation overlooks the fact that without users willing to spend their bitcoin, the asset would have had a much harder time proving that it could actually function as money.

A currency that no one wants to spend has a different problem from a currency that no one wants to hold.

Merchants can also use Bitcoin today without necessarily retaining volatility risk. Solutions allow them to receive a payment and convert it immediately. Bref Crypto has already explained why Bitcoin can offer certain opportunities to small businesses.

The real lesson of the iPhone is therefore not “never spend your BTC.”

It is monetary.

In 2010, Bitcoin had so little purchasing power that it potentially took thousands of units to acquire a phone. In 2026, one hundred iPhone 18 Pros represent approximately 1.54 BTC.

A single bitcoin could theoretically buy around 64 iPhone 18 Pros at the current U.S. price, excluding taxes.

This figure is probably more meaningful than many charts.

The viral post was therefore right about the essentials and wrong about the data. Bitcoin has not gone from 52.79 BTC to 0.02 BTC per iPhone.

The shift is even more spectacular.

Available data indicate that the 2010 order of magnitude was probably several thousand BTC, while the iPhone 18 Pro unveiled by Apple in 2026 currently costs approximately 0.015 BTC.

The comparison does not prove that Bitcoin will continue to rise. Nor does it say anything about the price in 2030 or 2040.

It documents something already established: over sixteen years, one bitcoin’s purchasing power relative to one of the world’s best-known consumer products has changed scale.

The iPhone has become much more powerful.

Bitcoin has become much more scarce to spend.