Crypto glossary
Stacking sats
Stacking sats means regularly buying small amounts of bitcoin, measured in satoshis, to build a position over time regardless of price.
A satoshi is one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin, and sats are the unit many bitcoiners prefer for everyday amounts. Stacking them is a form of dollar-cost averaging: buying a fixed amount every day, week or month, often through apps with automatic purchases, round-ups on card payments or salary splits. Some people also earn sats through cashback, work paid in bitcoin or Lightning Network apps.
The habit is central to bitcoin culture because it removes the pressure of timing the market and makes ownership accessible to people who could never buy a whole coin. Thinking in sats rather than fractions of a bitcoin also has a psychological effect, since holding 500,000 sats feels more tangible than 0.005 BTC.
Stacking sats still carries the risks of any bitcoin investment, including long drawdowns. Many recurring-buy apps charge spreads and fees that are large relative to small purchases, so costs matter, and most stackers withdraw periodically to self-custody to avoid keeping savings on a platform.
Example
A user sets up an automatic purchase of 10 euros of bitcoin every week and withdraws the accumulated sats to his hardware wallet once a quarter, without checking the price.