Ask a long-time Bitcoin holder how much they have and you’ll usually get an answer in coins. Half a coin. Point two. A few hundred thousand sats (satoshis).
That’s a good answer to the wrong question. Coins tell you quantity. They don’t tell you proportion, whether Bitcoin is a tenth of what you own or most of it. And proportion is the part that actually matters when you’re deciding anything.
It’s also the answer the apps train us to give. Every one of them shows your Bitcoin in coins and at today’s price. None of them show it next to your savings account.
Let’s take Radu, an invented example but a familiar one. He bought his first fraction of a coin in 2017 and has held some ever since. His other money is spread around in the usual way: a current account, a savings account, a stocks app he opens a few times a year, and a small silver bar from a coin fair.
He decided to start with the thing he was surest of, the Bitcoin, and add one more holding each day until nothing was left out.
Day three went sideways. Clearing out an old laptop, he found a wallet he hadn’t opened since 2019. It held a bit of Bitcoin he’d completely forgotten. So the one number he’d have sworn was exact had been wrong for years. He’d never have noticed if he hadn’t been writing everything down.
That’s the part people underestimate. Writing it down isn’t only about adding up what you know. It’s about finding what you’d forgotten: an old wallet, a small exchange balance, an account from a job you left. Those never show up in the apps you open every day, so they quietly drop out of the picture in your head.
By the end of the week the list was done: the Bitcoin, old wallet included, the two bank balances, the stocks and the silver. And his Bitcoin finally showed up as what it is, a share of a whole. Whether it’s the right share is his call. But now he’s making it with real numbers.
Nothing about the list was clever. It was just complete, which none of his apps had ever been.
Doing it one holding a day also took the pressure off. Nobody wants to spend a whole evening auditing their finances. Five minutes a day, starting from what you’re surest of, is a habit you can actually keep, and by the time you reach the awkward items you’ve already got most of the picture.
Radu used the Portfolio tool on TOKERO, a social network about money. Bitcoin and listed shares are priced automatically; the silver is priced from its weight; anything without a market price you value yourself. It all converts into one currency and shows up as a single chart, biggest holdings first.
If you talk about this with friends, you can share the percentages without the amounts. Visitors only see amounts if you choose to show them. It doesn’t buy, sell or move anything, and it won’t predict prices. The free plan tracks up to 20 assets across crypto, cash and stocks/ETFs; paid plans raise that and add categories, and metals like Radu’s silver are on the higher plans. No price calls here, sorry.
Next time someone asks how much Bitcoin you hold, try answering with a percentage. See how the Portfolio works.
Octavia Mateescu is a software developer at TOKERO, where she builds the tools creators use to publish and share their work across networks.
Summary for the listing: Bitcoin holders count in coins, not in shares of what they own. Adding one holding a day shows what part of your money Bitcoin is.
