iPhone 18 Launch Today: Here’s How Much Bitcoin and Ethereum It Actually Costs Today

Apple unveils its iPhone 18 lineup today, September 9, at its “Surprise and Shine” event. The Wall Street Journal reports the iPhone 18 Pro is expected to start around $1,299, with the Pro Max around $1,399 in the US, both above last year’s Pro-tier pricing. Apple hasn’t confirmed official prices yet.

What That Costs in Crypto Today

With Bitcoin trading at $79,196.62 and Ethereum at $2,500.09, an estimated $1,299 iPhone 18 Pro would run about 0.0164 $BTC or 0.52 $ETH. The Pro Max, at an estimated $1,399, comes to roughly 0.0177 $BTC or 0.56 $ETH.

Breaking a Multi-Year Trend

According to CoinGecko research tracking iPhone launch prices against $BTC and $ETH since 2011, the amount of crypto needed to buy each new iPhone has fallen almost every year. The iPhone 4S required a staggering 162.25 $BTC back in 2011. By last year’s iPhone 17, that number had shrunk to just 0.007 $BTC, an almost uninterrupted decade-and-a-half decline as Bitcoin’s price climbed. Ethereum tells the same story: an iPhone cost 876.4 $ETH in 2015, falling to just 0.18 $ETH for the iPhone 17 last year.

This year looks different. Bitcoin’s price today sits well below where it was at last September’s iPhone launch, while Apple appears set to raise Pro-tier pricing by $150 to $200. Put those two forces together and the iPhone 18 Pro could require noticeably more Bitcoin than the iPhone 17 Pro did a year ago, a rare reversal after years of iPhones getting steadily cheaper in crypto terms.