Swiss: one year of work on bitcoin. Pole: 4 years. Ukrainian: 13th. Ranking of 41 European countries – Bitcoin.pl

One bitcoin costs the same in Zurich, Warsaw and Kiev. Stock exchanges do not offer discounts for a passport. But when you compare this price with the average salary – the map of Europe looks completely different than on a daily basis.

We mapped 39 countries and checked how many years of average work it takes to make 1 BTC in each of them. The results are striking.

A map worth remembering

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Switzerland: 0.9 years. Luxembourg: 1.0. Germany: 1.6. Poland: 3.6. Bulgaria: 4.7. Ukraine: 13.2.

Bright countries – Western Europe – are places where bitcoin is relatively available. Dark places – eastern Europe – are places where buying one coin is a project for many years.

The difference between Switzerland and Ukraine is exactly 15x. The price of bitcoin is the same in both countries. Earnings – not anymore.

How we counted it

The formula is simple: years = BTC price in euros ÷ annual net salary. At the BTC rate of ~€52,000 in June 2026.

Two caveats worth knowing before interpreting the results.

Average vs. median. We use average earnings, not the median. This is an important difference. The median is the middle value – half of the employees earn more, half earn less. The average is inflated by the highest salaries: a few people earning a lot of money push it up. In Poland, the Central Statistical Office estimates that the median is approximately 15% lower than the average – which means that a typical Pole would work on BTC longer than the map shows. Eurostat’s median data is less complete and more difficult to compare between countries, so we chose the average – fully aware of this simplification.

100% of the salary. The map assumes that you put your entire net salary into Bitcoin. Nobody does that. Below we show what the numbers look like in a more realistic scenario.

Realistic scenario: you save 20% of your salary

Economists often point to 20% as a healthy savings rate. In Polish realities, this sounds abstract – but let’s take it as a reference point and multiply the map results by 5:

For a Ukrainian or Moldovan saving 20% ​​of his salary – one bitcoin is a retirement project, not an investment. For a Pole – 18 years of patience. For the Swiss – 4.5 years, which, given the rising BTC prices, may fit in one market cycle.

When was the right time

The price of BTC has changed dramatically in recent years. Polish earnings have also changed – but much more slowly. What would the result look like for a Pole in key moments of the last decade?

• January 2020: BTC ~€6,800, Polish net salary ~€13,000/year → 0.5 years
• January 2021: BTC ~€23,000, Polish net salary ~€13,500/year → 1.7 years
• January 2023: BTC ~€16,500, Polish net salary ~€14,000/year → 1.2 years
• June 2026: BTC ~€52,000, Polish net salary ~€14,500/year → 3.6 years

In 2020, a Pole would work for one bitcoin for half a year. Today – over 7x longer. This is not an abstract price chart. It is a specific change in accessibility expressed in human work time.

Will the window open again? It is unknown. But it has already opened several times. January 2023 – 1.2 years of work on BTC – it looked as unattractive then as 3.6 years today. For someone who bought at that low point, today it is 3x ahead.

What does this map really measure?

Bitcoin is one of the few assets that has the same price everywhere in the world at the same time. Gold – different commissions, different taxes, different access. Real estate – local market, local loan. Bitcoin has one rate, available to anyone with internet access.

This makes this map more than just a curiosity. This measure of wage inequality in Europeexpressed in one global unit. The 15x spread between Switzerland and Ukraine is not a cryptocurrency anomaly – it is simply Europe, photographed through the prism of BTC.

A Pole needs 3.6 years where a Swiss needs a year. It’s not because bitcoin is more expensive for them. Because they earn differently.