
Depending on where you were born, Thanksgiving is either the most exciting and cherished day of the year or simply the fourth Thursday of November. The American holiday is a feast for the senses, imbued with dreamy wafts of turkey, pumpkin pie, and a pinch of good, old-fashioned gratitude.
While Thanksgiving Day has been a consistent and reliable staple of North American culture, Bitcoin has been much more volatile. Outrageous claim here, but Bitcoin (BTC) and its financial rollercoaster have probably caused more Thanksgiving arguments than any other financial asset over the last 10 years.
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Need proof? Just ask someone who convinced their parents to put their retirement savings into BTC in November 2021.
Needless to say, the BTC/THANKSGIVING chart looks pretty favorable for Bitcoin over time. While Thanksgiving seems to get more expensive every year, food prices and inflation havenโt quite been able to keep up with Bitcoin over the last decade.
This begs the question. How much has Thanksgiving dinner cost in BTC over the last decade?
Table of Contents
Our Bitcoin/Thanksgiving Pricing Strategy
A word to the wise: Iโm not a genius mathematician. Calculating the cost of a standard Thanksgiving meal comes with more variables than a pilgrim could shake a stuffing-filled turkey leg at. Not every family eats the same way, has access to the same ingredients, or invites every member of the extended family.
For the sake of simplicity, letโs assume that every single Thanksgiving dinner over the last decade has consisted of the same dishes and the same number of people. Then, weโll take the price of those ingredients and compare them against the price of Bitcoin on the fourth Thursday of November every year.
โBut what about inflation?! The USD isnโt worth anywhere near as much as it was 10 years ago!โ
Donโt worry, Iโve thought of that too.
Letโs break down the individual pieces of the DailyCoin Thanksgiving formula.
Average Cost of Thanksgiving
Plot twist, Iโm not from North America. Apart from roast turkey and pumpkin pie, I canโt tell you what to expect to see on a Thanksgiving table. Sorry George Washington.
Fortunately, the American Farm Bureau Federation has done the heavy lifting and given the uninitiated (me) a comprehensive list of what a group of 10 would normally eat during this beloved national holiday.
Letโs take a look at our ingredients list:
Again, I have to thank the American Farm Bureau for compiling a list of what all these ingredients have cost the average consumer every year since 1986. Going forward, the Farm Bureauโs pricing will be used for each yearโs BTC pricing analysis.
Price of Bitcoin
Perhaps the easiest part of this formula is finding the price of BTC. While every crypto exchange generally trades BTC at a slightly different price, aggregators like CoinMarketCap give us historical records for every day of the year, all the way back to 2010.
This makes finding the price of Thanksgiving dinner in BTC rather simple. Weโll take Farm Bureauโs estimated cost of Thanksgiving each year and divide it by the opening price of Bitcoin on the fourth Thursday of November of that same year.
Adjusted for Inflation
This is where things get a bit more tricky. As we know all too well, inflation rates in the US have exploded since 2020, going from a steady 0.5-1.5% rate to over 7%.
To factor the rate of inflation into our formula, weโll simply add each yearโs inflation rate to the price of Thanksgiving dinner from the previous year. This way, weโll be able to compare the โtrue valueโ of each meal against the year before it using a CPI Inflation Calculator.
The Perfect Formula?
This leaves us with a relatively simple formula.
The price of Thanksgiving Dinner in BTC =
(Farm Bureauโs Average 10-Person Meal Each Year X That Yearโs Inflation Rate) / Price of BTC on the 4th Thursday of November.
Is this a perfect metric for measuring the value of Thanksgiving? Absolutely not! As mentioned, not everyone eats the same generic meal. There are a lot more dietary requirements that need to be factored in that Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Abraham Lincoln, and the gang didnโt need to think about.
While the formula isnโt perfect, it works off what the average Thanksgiving dinner looks like across the United States.
A Decade of Bitcoin Thanksgivings
Enough pleasantries around the table. Letโs dig in!
Year | Avg Price ($) | โTrue Valueโ ($) | Price of BTC | BTC per Thanksgiving |
2013 | 49.04 | 49.76 | $1,003.38 | 0.049 BTC |
2014 | 49.41 | 50.21 | $370.50 | 0.133 BTC |
2015 | 50.11 | 50.17 | $328.30 | 0.152 BTC |
2016 | 49.87 | 50.50 | $744.62 | 0.067 BTC |
2017 | 49.12 | 50.17 | $8,232.38 | 0.006 BTC |
2018 | 48.90 | 50.12 | $4,611.57 | 0.010 BTC |
2019 | 48.91 | 49.77 | $7,536.82 | 0.006 BTC |
2020 | 46.90 | 47.48 | $18,729.84 | 0.002 BTC |
2021 | 53.31 | 55.81 | $57,165.42 | 0.0009 BTC |
2022 | 64.05 | 69.18 | $16,611.64 | 0.004 BTC |
2023 | 61.17 | 64.31 | $36,284 | 0.0017 BTC |
In a shocking twist, the American Farm Bureau estimates that the price of Thanksgiving is actually down from last year’s. At the time of writing, BTC is valued at around $36,284, meaning that you can feed the family this year for as little as 0.0017 BTC.
To no oneโs great surprise, the best year to fund your Thanksgiving dinner with Bitcoin was 2021. In fact, 2021 was also the best year to use BTC for your Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas shopping.
It was something of a double-edged sword however, given that 2021 was also the year that you were most likely to convince your whole family to go all in on Bitcoin. I hope your loved ones forgave you in time for Thanksgiving 2022 after BTC plunged back to $16,000 and lost 70% of its value.
On the Flipside
- Amidst the complexity and noise of financial markets, inflation, and the rising cost of food prices around the world, donโt forget that Thanksgiving is a national holiday built around gratitude.
- Just like the pilgrims and native Americans did during the first Thanksgiving, make peace with the fact that youโll need to take a day away from the charts and enjoy a Thanksgiving feast with your loved ones.
Why This Matters
Holidays throughout the year give us timely reminders of the things that are truly important in our lives. As the holiday season gets into swing, remember that Bitcoin will still be there when you get back.
Donโt go scurrying off to check crypto market prices in secret while everyone else is sharing a moment together.
FAQs
Historically, BTC price moves very little on national holidays like Thanksgiving due to the fact that fewer people are actively trading the asset.
Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October.
Every year, a slew of Thanksgiving-themed meme coins are launched to celebrate the holiday. All are exceptionally short-lived.