CHART: Time taken for the average US worker to earn one BTC tops 12 months

It currently takes over one year of full-time work for the average US worker to earn enough money to buy one BTC. But this wasn’t always the case.

Below is a chart of pre-tax and pre-living expense calculations, assuming an average US private sector employee working full-time using all wages to buy BTC.

As lofty and unattainable as today’s BTC cost is, it’s actually cheaper on a wage basis than it was at its peak in July 2025.

That month, the average price of BTC was $115,101, equating to 394 full-time working days or 1.6 years for the average US employee .

The price of BTC denominated in average US wages has actually been declining from its 1.6 year peak in July 2025.

Read more: Boomer gold outperformed digital rival BTC by 70% over the past year

Protos built this chart using wage averages from private sector employee pay rates per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Data starts on October 12, 2009, when New Liberty Standard paid Martti Malmi $5.02 for 5,050 BTC, the first sale of BTC for US dollars. Prior to this date — and for more than a year afterward — the price of BTC remained trivial or free.

Since 2009, BTC has rallied from sub-pennies to a luxury expense worth several years of post-tax, post-living expense savings.

Work required to buy one BTC

• October 2009: Less than one second
• October 2010: 14 seconds
• October 2011: 10 minutes
• October 2012: 30 minutes
• October 2013: Six hours
• October 2014: 15 hours
• October 2015: 11 hours
• October 2016: 25 hours
• October 2017: 202 hours (five weeks)
• October 2018: 235 hours (six weeks)
• October 2019: 297 hours (seven weeks)
• October 2020: 402 hours (two and a half months)
• October 2021: 1,860 hours (11 months)
• October 2022: 601 hours (four months)
• October 2023: 873 hours (five months)
• October 2024: 1,849 hours (11 months)
• October 2025: 3,100 hours (18 months)
• September 2026: 2,127 hours (12 months)

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