Can You Buy Part of a Bitcoin or Less Than One?

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Can you buy part of a bitcoin?

The short answer is:

Yes, you can.

If you want an answer that is a little more detailed, then this is the right article for you.

Key Takeaways

  • Yes, it is possible to buy parts of a Bitcoin and less than one.
  • All exchanges allow you to buy less than one bitcoin. All exchanges allow you to buy parts.
  • Each whole Bitcoin can be split up into 100 million pieces.

What We Call Parts of Bitcoin

You may have heard that 1 bitcoin costs tens of thousands of dollars, and then thought:

“That’s too expensive for me to afford!”

But it’s possible to own only a fraction of a bitcoin, such as owning 0.02 BTC, or to buy only $100 of bitcoin.

partial fractions less than one bitcoin

Just how divisible is Bitcoin?

Each bitcoin is divisible down to one 100 millionth.

There are different names for the different subunits of bitcoin, listed here:

Unit Symbol Bitcoin Value
bitcoin BTC or ₿ 1
millibit mBTC 0.001
bit μBTC 0.000 001
satoshi sat or ㋛ 0.000 000 01

This was how Bitcoin was designed from inception.

It was created to be highly divisible so that even in the case of a large value increase, it would still be easily tradable in useful divisions.

That’s a good thing since Bitcoin has appreciated tremendously over the past decade.

It’s worth noting that millibits and bits are not very commonly used anymore.

Usually, people just refer to bitcoins and satoshis, or “sats”.

While satoshis are the smallest divisible unit for transactions that occur directly in Bitcoin blocks, even smaller sub-units are possible on Bitcoin’s various second-layer technologies like Lightning.

For example, the lightning network is a payments layer that allows for faster and cheaper transfers of bitcoin.


buying partial bitcoin on eToro
Known Lightning Network Nodes - acinq.co


It uses milli-satoshis as the smallest divisible unit. 1000 milli-satoshis equals one satoshi. Or, 1 milli-satoshi is 0.000 000 000 01 of a bitcoin.

Buying a fraction of a Bitcoin

Buying only part of a bitcoin is very easy.

You don’t even need to understand all of the sub-units explained in the previous section.

If you are buying bitcoins on a cryptocurrency exchange, you can simply deposit your fiat currency, and then purchase that amount of BTC.

The exchange should then credit you with the equivalent amount in Bitcoin.

For example, today as we’re writing this, bitcoin is worth $27,000.

If you have $200 USD on the exchange and then purchase the bitcoins, then the exchange should credit you with about .0075 BTC (minus whatever trading fees the exchange charges).

Warning

You should never keep your coins on an exchange after buying them, even if it's just a partial bitcoin.

Always transfer purchased coins to a wallet you control.

This is why, if you ever see amounts from Bitcoin transactions, it is quite rare for whole Bitcoin amounts to be sent - you rarely see transactions of 1.0 BTC or 60 BTC.

In most contexts, you’ll see transactions sending 1.45638240 BTC, or 0.00462351 BTC.

Fun fact:

Because a satoshi is the smallest unit of bitcoin usable for on-chain transactions, you will often see amounts listed in BTC going to 8 decimal places - specific right down to the satoshi!

The Bitcoin Price Fluctuates

One thing to keep in mind is that because bitcoin’s price relative to fiat currencies is always changing, your fraction of a bitcoin may not reflect the same dollar value over time.

For example, if you bought $170 of bitcoins and received 0.01048956 BTC in the morning, you might check back later that day and see that you now have $172 of bitcoin.

This depends on how your wallet or service displays your holdings.

It is not uncommon for beginners to get confused or alarmed when they see that this dollar amount has changed.

If you check the amount in bitcoin, it should still be 0.01048956 BTC. That is, you still own the same amount in bitcoin, it’s just that the exchange rate has changed.

Article Sources

BuyBitcoinWorldWide writers are subject-matter experts and base their articles on firsthand information, like interviews with experts, white papers or original studies and experience. We also use trusted research and studies from other well-known sources. You can learn more about our editorial guidelines.

  1. Bitcoin Wiki - Units, https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Units
  2. Wikipedia - Bitcoin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

About the Author


colin aulds

Colin Aulds is a founder at 10NetZero, an off-grid Bitcoin mining company. He is the former VP and founder at Billfodl, a Bitcoin wallet backup company, as well as PrivacyPros, a blog dedicated to helping every day people improve their privacy. He also runs the popular Unhashed Podcast. Colin holds a bachelors degree from Belmont University (BBA).


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