iPhone 17 Now Nearly 50% Cheaper in Bitcoin and Ethereum After Crypto Price Surge

Tech buyers are scoring massive discounts—if they pay with digital assets.

The Crypto Discount Effect

Apple's latest iPhone 17 has effectively slashed its price tag by nearly half for cryptocurrency holders. Bitcoin and Ethereum's recent rally means fewer coins now cover the full retail cost.

Timing Beats Traditional Finance

While fiat prices remain static, crypto volatility works in shoppers' favor during bull markets. Early adopters who held through downturns now watch their digital wallets stretch further than ever.

Finance traditionalists, of course, still call it speculative gambling—right before checking their outdated stock portfolios.

The price of bitcoin almost doubled at that time, climbing from $57,049 during last year’s release to $111,033 during this launch cycle. That surge, not a price cut from Apple, explains the drop in crypto terms.

Notably, the trend extends across Apple’s lineup. The new iPhone Air costs 0.0090 BTC, while the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max require 0.0099 BTC and 0.0108 BTC, respectively.

Interestingly, Ethereum tells a similar story.

iPhone buyers need only 0.1866 ETH for an iPhone 17, down from 0.3386 ETH for the iPhone 16. ETH’s price has jumped from $2,359.57 to $4,282.40 in the past year, a gain of more than 80%.

Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time crypto gains have reshaped iPhone affordability.

When Apple released the iPhone 4S at $649 in 2011, the equivalent cost in Bitcoin was more than 162 BTC, which was then trading around $4 each.

Today, despite a higher $799 price tag, the iPhone 17 requires less than 0.008 BTC. That’s a 99.9% reduction in Bitcoin needed to buy a flagship iPhone over 14 years.

Ethereum’s trajectory is just as dramatic. In 2015, an iPhone priced at $649 translated to roughly 876 ETH. Ten years later, the new iPhone can be bought for less than a fifth of a single ETH.