The starting price of Apple's first foldable iPhone Duo in the U.S. is $1,999. Based on the Bitcoin market price of approximately $78,000 on September 10, one Duo is equivalent to about 0.0255 BTC.

Article author, source: ME News



TL;DR

• The starting price of Apple's first foldable iPhone Duo in the U.S. is $1,999. Based on the Bitcoin market price of approximately $78,000 on September 10, one Duo is equivalent to about 0.0255 BTC, which is the more accurate calculation for the phrase "0.025 BTC."
• It should be noted that dividing the Chinese mainland price of 15,999 yuan by the current BTC price of approximately 529,500 yuan yields about 0.030 BTC. For consistency with historical iPhone data, this article uses the standardized approach of “US starting price ÷ BTC price in USD during the same period.”
• From approximately 0.169 BTC for the iPhone XS Max in 2018 to as low as approximately 0.010 BTC for the iPhone 17 Pro Max in 2025, the "Bitcoin price" of top-tier iPhones has decreased by more than 90% over seven years. What has truly changed is not the phone, but Bitcoin itself as the denominator of valuation.
• This curve is not a one-way decline. The number of BTC corresponding to the iPhone 14 Pro Max in 2022 rose from approximately 0.024 in the previous year to 0.056; in 2026, the iPhone 18 Pro Max rebounded from approximately 0.010 in 2025 to about 0.016, indicating that this improvement in purchasing power has always been accompanied by significant fluctuations.
• The significance of the iPhone Duo also lies in Apple’s further expansion into the premium price segment. With a starting price of $1,999—about 54% higher than the $1,299 iPhone 18 Pro Max—the Duo’s equivalent of 0.025 BTC cannot be simply interpreted as “Bitcoin becoming cheaper” or “iPhones losing value”; rather, it reflects the combined effect of Bitcoin’s price cycle and Apple’s premium product strategy.

How many bitcoins should one iPhone be worth?

Apple released the iPhone 18 Pro series on September 9, simultaneously launching its first foldable iPhone Duo. In the Chinese market, the iPhone 18 Pro starts at ¥9,999, the iPhone 18 Pro Max at ¥10,999, and the foldable iPhone Duo at a steep ¥15,999; in the U.S. market, the starting prices are $1,199, $1,299, and $1,999 respectively. For those accustomed to flagship phones in the ten-thousand-yuan range, ¥15,999 certainly seems expensive—but viewed through a different pricing unit, this price takes on a completely different appearance.

On the morning of September 10, the price of Bitcoin was trading around $78,000. Directly converting the U.S. starting price of $1,999 for the Duo, this amounts to approximately 0.0255 BTC. In other words, Apple’s most expensive and most significantly redesigned iPhone to date is now worth roughly one-fortieth of a single Bitcoin.

The real interest in this number lies not in making a novelty comparison between a smartphone and crypto assets, but in extending the timeline to see how two entirely different pricing systems have diverged over the past eight years.

Approximating based on the initial U.S. launch prices of flagship iPhones relative to Bitcoin prices around their release, pre-order, or first-sale windows, we can derive the following data: the XS Max in 2018 was approximately 0.169 BTC, the 11 Pro Max in 2019 was 0.107 BTC, the 12 Pro Max in 2020 was 0.068 BTC, and the 13 Pro Max in 2021 dropped sharply to 0.024 BTC; in 2022, as the crypto market entered a deep correction, the 14 Pro Max rebounded to 0.056 BTC, the 15 Pro Max in 2023 was approximately 0.045 BTC, the 16 Pro Max in 2024 declined to about 0.019 BTC, and the 17 Pro Max in 2025 further fell to approximately 0.010 BTC. This year, due to a Bitcoin price correction and Apple’s price increase, the 18 Pro Max has risen again to about 0.016 BTC, while the more expensive foldable Duo reaches approximately 0.025 BTC.

The exact figures may vary slightly depending on whether the launch day, pre-order day, or first sale day is selected, especially for models like the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which have a significant time gap between announcement and availability; therefore, this data is better suited for observing long-term trends rather than serving as a precise historical price index. However, the direction it reveals is very clear: when measured in BTC, the price of a top-tier iPhone has shown a remarkably significant overall decline over the past eight years.

What has truly changed is not the price of the iPhone

Looking at this data, it’s easy to get the impression that iPhones are continuously “declining” in price when measured in Bitcoin. But if you look only at Apple’s own USD pricing, the story is exactly the opposite.

In 2018, the U.S. starting price for the iPhone XS Max was $1,099. By 2026, the starting price of the iPhone 18 Pro Max had risen to $1,299, a nominal increase of approximately 18%; if opting for the new foldable iPhone Duo, the price reaches $1,999—about 82% higher than the XS Max from that year. Regardless of supply chain costs, storage capacity, or Apple’s ongoing product strategy to move upmarket, it is difficult to argue that the iPhone itself has experienced a long-term price reduction.

The denominator changes more dramatically.

In the fall of 2018, Bitcoin was still trading primarily in the $6,000 range, meaning a $1,099 XS Max consumed nearly 0.17 BTC. Eight years later, even if Apple raised the price of a foldable iPhone to nearly $2,000, as long as Bitcoin remained around $78,000, the same calculation would amount to only about 0.025 BTC. In other words, while the Duo’s dollar price is about 80% higher than the XS Max, the amount of Bitcoin required has decreased by approximately 85%.

This change is even more apparent when comparing only traditional Pro Max models: in 2018, it was approximately 0.169 BTC, and by the time the iPhone 17 Pro Max is released in 2025, it will be around 0.010 BTC, meaning that the same tier of Apple’s flagship device will require only about one-seventeenth the amount of Bitcoin seven years later.

This is the most intuitive manifestation of the so-called "unit-of-account effect." Whether the same product is becoming more expensive or cheaper largely depends on which asset is used as the unit of measurement. Observed in RMB or USD, flagship smartphones are becoming increasingly costly; measured in gold, the trend might be different; but when viewed in Bitcoin—which has appreciated significantly over the past decade—most consumer goods naturally exhibit long-term "BTC deflation."

Therefore, this set of data first demonstrates not that Apple has become cheaper, but that the market price of Bitcoin relative to consumer goods underwent a much larger magnitude of change during this period.

The reversal in 2022 precisely demonstrates that BTC is not a stable "unit of account."

If the story ended here, it would be easy to slide into another oversimplified conclusion: since fewer BTC are needed to buy an iPhone, holding Bitcoin long-term naturally leads to ever-increasing purchasing power.

Historical data does not support such a linear assessment.

When the iPhone 13 Pro Max was released in 2021, its price equated to approximately 0.024 BTC; a year later, the U.S. starting price of the iPhone 14 Pro Max remained around $1,099, but the equivalent in BTC rose rapidly to about 0.056 BTC—an increase of more than double. The phone itself did not suddenly become twice as expensive; the change came from Bitcoin’s significant decline during the 2022 bear market.

A similar phenomenon occurred between 2025 and 2026. During the launch window for the iPhone 17 Pro Max last year, Bitcoin was trading at around $110,000, making the Pro Max cost approximately 0.010 BTC; this year, Bitcoin has declined to around $78,000, while the U.S. starting price for the iPhone 18 Pro Max has increased to $1,299, causing its BTC price to rise again to approximately 0.016 BTC—a rebound of about 60% over the year.

These two historical periods are important because they remind us that Bitcoin has demonstrated significant purchasing power growth over longer timeframes, but it has still not become a stable unit of account for everyday use. A sharp fluctuation in the USD price could easily cause the same basket of goods to double in cost when priced in BTC within just one year.

So, “How much would the money spent on a phone in 2018 be worth today if held as BTC?” is certainly a striking way to look back, but it clearly suffers from survivorship bias and hindsight bias. People in 2018 did not know what price Bitcoin would reach afterward, just as people in 2026 cannot use this to predict returns over the next eight years.

Historical purchasing power is something that has actually occurred, but future returns cannot be directly extrapolated from historical ratios—this is a boundary that must be maintained when discussing such data.

The 0.025 BTC in iPhone Duo hides Apple's own pricing ambitions.

This year is more interesting than previous years because Apple didn't just update one Pro Max model—it introduced a significantly higher price point for the first time.

The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 in the United States, approximately 54% higher than the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s $1,299; in China, it’s priced at ¥15,999, about 45% higher than the Pro Max’s ¥10,999. This indicates Apple is attempting to establish a new ultra-premium category above its traditional flagship phones, rather than simply replacing the Pro Max with a foldable screen.

From a product logic perspective, this is not surprising. Duo features a 7.6-inch inner screen and a 5.4-inch outer screen, powered by the A20 Pro, along with a new hinge, dual-battery architecture, and software experience reimagined for the foldable form factor. Foldable screens add more than just display area—they also introduce complexity in hinges, structural components, thermal management, yield rates, and supply chain logistics. Apple’s pricing of the first-generation model at $1,999 essentially aims to establish a new price ceiling for this emerging product category.

Therefore, Duo’s equivalent of 0.025 BTC simultaneously reflects two opposing forces: over the past eight years, Bitcoin’s price appreciation against the US dollar has steadily lowered the BTC price of the iPhone; meanwhile, Apple’s introduction of foldable screens has pushed its flagship pricing further from the $1,000 range toward the $2,000 range, pulling this ratio back up slightly.

This is why Duo, despite being released in 2026, requires approximately 0.025 BTC—more than last year’s 17 Pro Max and this year’s 18 Pro Max. It’s not that Bitcoin’s long-term purchasing power trend has suddenly reversed; rather, Apple has directly adjusted its product pricing range this time.

From another perspective, what Apple is doing aligns with the broader consumer electronics industry’s trend over the past decade: smartphone sales in mature markets have become difficult to sustain at high growth rates, and manufacturers are increasingly relying on premiumization, storage upgrades, service revenue, and new product categories to increase per-user value. Foldable screens matter not just because the display can bend, but because they provide a compelling reason for consumers to discuss prices of $1,500 or even $2,000 for smartphones again.

From 0.169 to 0.025, what’s most noteworthy is the divergence between the two assets.

Putting an iPhone and Bitcoin together is essentially comparing two entirely different economic objects.

The iPhone is a typical high-end consumer electronic product. It is updated annually with continuously improving performance, but its hardware eventually depreciates, and the price of older models declines as new releases emerge. Apple maintains strong pricing power through its brand, chips, operating system, and ecosystem, yet it still faces challenges from technological iteration, component costs, and consumer demand.

Bitcoin is fundamentally different. Its supply rules are predetermined, with a hard cap of 21 million coins, and new supply continuously decreases with each halving event. It has no built-in mechanism to increase its price through performance upgrades. Its market value is primarily determined by perceptions of scarcity, liquidity, macroeconomic conditions, regulatory frameworks, institutional participation, and investor expectations about future demand.

Given their differing characteristics, it is not surprising that their prices have diverged over the long term. What is truly worth observing is the extent of this divergence: Apple has become one of the companies with the strongest pricing power in the global consumer electronics industry, yet the dollar price of its flagship phones has only risen gradually over eight years; in contrast, Bitcoin’s market price has caused the BTC price of a top-tier iPhone to shrink from a few tenths to a few hundredths.

This may also be what makes the "iPhone/BTC index" more interesting than simply discussing coin prices. $78,000, $100,000, or $150,000 are abstract financial figures, but when converted into a product whose value everyone understands, asset price changes gain a tangible point of reference.

However, this benchmark is better suited for observing history than predicting the future. Today, a Duo is roughly equivalent to 0.025 BTC, but this does not prove that it will be worth only 0.01 BTC in a few years, nor does it prove that Bitcoin will continue appreciating at the same rate as over the past eight years. Both the long-term trend and the sharp fluctuations in between are valid: Bitcoin’s purchasing power relative to the iPhone has significantly increased, but this purchasing power has never grown along a smooth curve.

If a conclusion must be drawn from this data, the most accurate statement is neither “Bitcoin is becoming more valuable, so don’t buy an iPhone,” nor “iPhones are becoming less valuable.” More notably, over the past eight years, even in the face of consumer goods like Apple—with its strong brand premium and pricing power—Bitcoin’s asset price growth has far outpaced the rate of commodity price increases.

In 2018, owning 1 BTC would have allowed you to purchase fewer than six top-tier iPhones at the prevailing price; by the time of the 2025 release window, it could theoretically cover approximately 100 Pro Max models. Even after this year’s Bitcoin correction, with Apple’s first foldable phone priced at $1,999, 1 BTC still equates to nearly 40 Duo units at their U.S. starting price.

This is the most compelling part of the 0.025 BTC. It’s not about whether a phone is expensive or not, but rather a highly intuitive snapshot of asset price changes over eight years: consumer electronics have slowly increased in price on the scale of hundreds to thousands of dollars, while Bitcoin has shifted its price scale from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. The two curves occasionally draw closer, then periodically diverge, but after eight years, they now exist on entirely different scales.

References

1. Apple (Mainland China), "Purchase iPhone Duo," Starting Price and Product Information for iPhone Duo in Mainland China, September 2026.
2. Apple (Mainland China), "Apple Releases iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max," September 9, 2026.
3. Apple, Apple unveils iPhone Duo, September 9, 2026, featuring a starting price of $1,999 in the U.S. market and product specifications.
4. Reuters, Apple joins foldable phone race with $1,999 passport-shaped iPhone Duo, September 9, 2026.
5. CoinGecko, BTC to CNY: Bitcoin Price in Chinese Yuan, accessed September 10, 2026, the BTC to CNY rate is approximately RMB 529,500.
6. CoinGecko, Bitcoin Price History, historical market price data for Bitcoin.
7. Apple (Mainland China), "Apple Releases iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max," September 2025.
8. Apple, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, September 2021; the US starting price for the iPhone 13 Pro Max is $1,099.