The Bitcoin Transition
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UK, NZ and US · 2015 to today · annual averages

There is no cost of living crisis on a Bitcoin standard.

Prices have not risen. The unit you measure them in has collapsed.

Film · Life gets cheaper in bitcoin · 2:03

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A film in the language of this site's homepage: the same basket of everyday groceries (9 items in Britain, 7 in the United States, 4 in New Zealand, each listed with its quantity and its price then and now) priced two ways, year by year from 2015 to 2025, from the site's cost-of-living data. In fiat currency it keeps costing more, because fiat currency has no fixed limit; in bitcoin it has cost less, over the latest five years, item by item, since the series began, and in pounds, US dollars and New Zealand dollars alike. Over a single year it can go either way; over every five-year span in the data, it has fallen. One bitcoin is always one bitcoin, and you price things in bitcoin. Why: a fixed supply of bitcoin, while things get cheaper to make. History, not a forecast; every window states its years. It loops while on screen; use Pause to stop it. Turn on Narration to hear it explained aloud. A transcript follows.

A film in the language of this site's homepage: the same basket of everyday groceries (9 items in Britain, 7 in the United States, 4 in New Zealand, each listed with its quantity and its price then and now) priced two ways, year by year from 2015 to 2025, from the site's cost-of-living data. In fiat currency it keeps costing more, because fiat currency has no fixed limit; in bitcoin it has cost less, over the latest five years, item by item, since the series began, and in pounds, US dollars and New Zealand dollars alike. Over a single year it can go either way; over every five-year span in the data, it has fallen. One bitcoin is always one bitcoin, and you price things in bitcoin. Why: a fixed supply of bitcoin, while things get cheaper to make. History, not a forecast; every window states its years.
Read the film, with its sources
  1. Everyday groceries, 2015–2025Life gets cheaper in bitcoin. This film prices the same basket of everyday groceries (9 items in Britain, 7 in the United States, 4 in New Zealand, each with its quantity) two ways, year by year from 2015 to 2025: in fiat currency, where it keeps costing more, and in bitcoin, where it has cost less. Every figure comes from this site’s cost-of-living data, and every window says its years. It is history, not a forecast.The Bitcoin Transition, Cost of living: every item, its source and its years
  2. 2019 → 2024In Britain, the same basket of 9 everyday items cost £19.29 in 2019 and £24.30 in 2024, at the ONS’s yearly average prices: +26% in fiat currency in five years. Item by item, 2019 → 2024: white loaf 800g, 2 loaves: £2.12 → £2.80; milk, 6 pints: £2.64 → £3.90; butter 250g, 1 block: £1.77 → £2.14; beef mince, 500g: £3.35 → £4.05; chicken, 1kg: £2.75 → £3.79; cheddar, 250g: £1.77 → £2.10; instant coffee 100g, 1 jar: £3.03 → £3.32; bananas, 1kg: £0.95 → £1.03; broccoli, 500g: £0.91 → £1.17. It is a small basket of staples, not everything a household buys. In 2015 it cost £19.62.ONS, RPI average prices (9 series, from CZOH)The Bitcoin Transition, Cost of living: every item, its source and its years
  3. August 1971 → 2026Fiat currency has no fixed limit, and it keeps losing value: the Bank of England aims for prices to rise 2% a year. On the ONS’s retail prices index, prices have multiplied 20.5 times since August 1971, so a pound today buys what 4.9p bought then.Office for National Statistics, RPI (CDKO)Bank of England, Monetary policy: inflation target
  4. The latest five yearsPeople are struggling. Over the latest five years in the data, each country’s basket of everyday items rose +26% in Britain (9 items, 2019–2024, £19.29 to £24.30), +51% in America (7 items, 2020–2025, US$18.34 to US$27.66), +47% in New Zealand (4 items, 2020–2025, NZ$24.60 to NZ$36.10), in each country’s own fiat currency. The American and New Zealand baskets are their own statistics offices’ items: America, white bread (2 lb), milk (1 gallon), eggs (1 dozen), ground beef (1 lb), chicken (2 lb), ground coffee (half lb), bananas (2 lb); New Zealand, milk 2l (2 bottles), butter 500g (1 block), eggs (1 dozen), beef mince (500g). New Zealand’s prices are still marked for verification on the cost-of-living page.ONS, RPI average prices (9 series, from CZOH)US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price DataStats NZ, food price index, average retail prices
  5. 2019 → 2024Priced in bitcoin, at each year’s average price, the same 9 items cost 327,936 sats in 2019 and 46,455 sats in 2024: −86%. Item by item, in sats: white loaf 800g, 2 loaves: 36,036 → 5,353; milk, 6 pints: 44,875 → 7,456; butter 250g, 1 block: 30,087 → 4,091; beef mince, 500g: 57,029 → 7,752; chicken, 1kg: 46,745 → 7,245; cheddar, 250g: 30,129 → 4,005; instant coffee 100g, 1 jar: 51,504 → 6,347; bananas, 1kg: 16,148 → 1,969; broccoli, 500g: 15,383 → 2,237. A sat is a hundred-millionth of a bitcoin.ONS, RPI average prices (9 series, from CZOH)Bitcoin’s yearly average price: Yearly average of weekly closes. GBP, USD and EUR direct from Kraken (XBTGBP, XBTUSD, XBTEUR). NZD and AUD as XBTUSD multiplied by the ECB USD reference rate yearly average (frankfurter.app).The Bitcoin Transition, Cost of living: every item, its source and its years
  6. 2019 → 2024Item by item, 2019–2024: white loaf, sliced, 800g +32% in pounds, −85% in sats; milk, pasteurised, per pint +48% in pounds, −83% in sats; butter, block, 250g +21% in pounds, −86% in sats; beef mince, per kg +21% in pounds, −86% in sats.ONS, RPI average prices (9 series, from CZOH)Bitcoin’s yearly average price: Yearly average of weekly closes. GBP, USD and EUR direct from Kraken (XBTGBP, XBTUSD, XBTEUR). NZD and AUD as XBTUSD multiplied by the ECB USD reference rate yearly average (frankfurter.app).The Bitcoin Transition, Cost of living: every item, its source and its years
  7. 2015 → 2024Since the series began: the same 9 everyday items cost 10,838,398 sats in 2015 and 46,455 in 2024, −99.6%. In pounds the basket rose from £19.62 to £24.30, +24%. Item by item, in sats: white loaf 800g, 2 loaves: 1,149,171 → 5,353; milk, 6 pints: 1,425,414 → 7,456; butter 250g, 1 block: 867,403 → 4,091; beef mince, 500g: 2,171,271 → 7,752; chicken, 1kg: 1,729,282 → 7,245; cheddar, 250g: 1,059,392 → 4,005; instant coffee 100g, 1 jar: 1,508,287 → 6,347; bananas, 1kg: 475,138 → 1,969; broccoli, 500g: 453,039 → 2,237.ONS, RPI average prices (9 series, from CZOH)Bitcoin’s yearly average price: Yearly average of weekly closes. GBP, USD and EUR direct from Kraken (XBTGBP, XBTUSD, XBTEUR). NZD and AUD as XBTUSD multiplied by the ECB USD reference rate yearly average (frankfurter.app).The Bitcoin Transition, Cost of living: every item, its source and its years
  8. Three currenciesThe same in each currency the site tracks, each with its own basket of everyday items. Britain, 9 items, 2015–2024: +24% in pounds, −99.6% in sats. America, 7 items, 2015–2025: +42% in dollars, −99.6% in sats. New Zealand, 4 items, 2015–2025: +69% in New Zealand dollars, −99.6% in sats. New Zealand’s prices are still marked for verification on the cost-of-living page.ONS, RPI average prices (9 series, from CZOH)US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price DataStats NZ, food price index, average retail pricesBitcoin’s yearly average price: Yearly average of weekly closes. GBP, USD and EUR direct from Kraken (XBTGBP, XBTUSD, XBTEUR). NZD and AUD as XBTUSD multiplied by the ECB USD reference rate yearly average (frankfurter.app).
  9. Every span, 2015–2024Measured in fiat, bitcoin’s price moves, so over a single year the basket can cost more sats or fewer: of the 9 one-year spans in Britain’s data, 7 cost fewer sats and 2 cost more (the most, +85%, from 2021 to 2022). Over five years: 5 of 5 in Britain, 5 of 5 in America, 6 of 6 in New Zealand cost fewer sats at the end than at the start.ONS, RPI average prices (9 series, from CZOH)US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price DataStats NZ, food price index, average retail pricesBitcoin’s yearly average price: Yearly average of weekly closes. GBP, USD and EUR direct from Kraken (XBTGBP, XBTUSD, XBTEUR). NZD and AUD as XBTUSD multiplied by the ECB USD reference rate yearly average (frankfurter.app).
  10. One bitcoinMeasured in fiat currency, bitcoin’s price moves. But one bitcoin is always one bitcoin. You don’t price bitcoin; you price things in bitcoin, and over the years, the things have cost less of it.
  11. WhyWhy? Bitcoin’s supply is fixed: never more than 21,000,000 coins, a limit written into the software every full node runs. Meanwhile people keep finding ways to make things more cheaply. In a money that cannot be printed, those savings tend to show up as lower prices.
  12. The Bitcoin TransitionLife gets cheaper in bitcoin.The Bitcoin Transition, Cost of living: every item, its source and its years

Objections, answered

“You could do this with any asset that went up.”
You could draw the chart, but the comparison would not hold. A stock carries earnings risk, management risk and dilution. A commodity carries production supply responses. Bitcoin has a fixed supply of 21 million, no issuer and no earnings to miss. It is the only candidate for a measuring stick rather than a bet on a company or a commodity.
“Nobody earns in sats.”
Correct, and this page says so plainly. This is the cost of living for savers. Anyone who saved in Bitcoin over these windows watched everyday life get cheaper against their savings, while anyone saving in pounds or New Zealand dollars watched it get more expensive. What you earn in matters less than what you save in.
“You cherry-picked the window.”
All windows are shown, including the bad ones. The honest windows section renders the single worst rolling one year window in the dataset, computed at build time, alongside what the longer windows actually show. If the data changes, that section changes with it.
“It's too volatile to price things in.”
Over short windows the sats price of the basket moves, and the worst one-year window on this page shows it plainly. Over multi-year windows the direction has been consistent: in every rolling four year window in this dataset (6 of 6), the same basket of everyday items got cheaper priced in sats.

Methodology and sources

Every price on this page is an annual average from the named source. Sats values are computed as: sats = fiat price ÷ BTC price in that currency × 100,000,000. Historical conversions use the yearly average BTC price for the matching year, computed from weekly Kraken closes (XBTGBP directly; XBTUSD multiplied by the ECB USD to NZD yearly average reference rate for New Zealand dollars). No period is ever converted at a rate from a different era.

Current BTC rate, used for context only and appearing nowhere else on this page: £62,005 / NZ$146,393 as of 2026-10-15 (CoinGecko snapshot committed to the repository).

The basket of everyday items contains: 2 loaves white loaf 800g, 6 pints milk, 1 block butter 250g, 500g beef mince, 1kg chicken, 250g cheddar, 1 jar instant coffee 100g, 1kg bananas, 500g broccoli (UK), and 2 bottles milk 2l, 1 block butter 500g, 1 dozen eggs, 500g beef mince (NZ), and the US grocery lines listed on the American receipt. Mortgage payments assume the average national property at 75% loan to value on a 25 year repayment mortgage at the average 2 year fixed rate for that year (Bank of England quoted rates for the UK; average carded rates for New Zealand). The American mortgage follows the US convention instead: the median home at 80% loan to value on a 30 year fixed mortgage at the Freddie Mac average rate for that year.

United States prices come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics average price series (US city average) and FRED. Australian dollars and euros appear in the reprice module with real BTC rate histories, but have no item grid: the ABS discontinued its average retail price series in 2011 and Eurostat publishes indices rather than price levels, and this page does not estimate.

The ONS retired its RPI average price series family in January 2025, so UK grocery and everyday series end at their 2024 annual averages. The UK egg series shown was retired in early 2022 and carries a shorter window rather than a spliced one. Draught lager has no 2020 value because pubs were closed and prices could not be collected. Gaps are shown as gaps: nothing on this page is interpolated or estimated.

Full source list, item by item

United Kingdom

New Zealand

United States

† maintained by hand from the named source and pending external verification. BTC price history: Kraken public OHLC API (XBTGBP, XBTUSD, XBTEUR, weekly); frankfurter.app ECB reference rates (USD/NZD, USD/AUD); CoinGecko simple price (dated current rate). Data last assembled 2026-10-15.

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