Short answer: Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency with its own Unicode character — ₿ U+20BF, added in 2017. Every other crypto symbol is a letter borrowed from another alphabet: Ethereum’s Ξ is Greek, Litecoin’s Ł is Polish, Dogecoin’s Ð is Icelandic. Copy them below, or type the hex code then Alt + X in Word.
Tap to copy
Pasted a symbol from an exchange and want to know what it really is? The Symbol Identifier names the code point and the block it came from.
The set
| Symbol | Used for | Official Unicode name | Code point | Really is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ₿ | Bitcoin | Bitcoin sign | U+20BF | A genuine currency sign |
| Ξ | Ethereum | Greek capital letter xi | U+039E | A Greek letter |
| Ł | Litecoin | Latin capital letter l with stroke | U+0141 | A Polish letter |
| Ð | Dogecoin | Latin capital letter eth | U+00D0 | An Icelandic letter |
| ₮ | Tether | Tugrik sign | U+20AE | Mongolia’s currency sign |
| ɱ | Monero | Latin small letter m with hook | U+0271 | A phonetic symbol |
| ◎ | Solana | Bullseye | U+25CE | A geometric shape |
| Ƀ | Bitcoin (older) | Latin capital letter b with stroke | U+0243 | A Latin letter |
Only one of these was created for the currency it represents. That’s the whole story of this page, and it explains nearly every problem people have with these characters.
Bitcoin is the exception
₿ U+20BF BITCOIN SIGN is a real currency sign, sitting in the Currency Symbols block alongside €, £ and ₹. It was added to Unicode in 2017 — which means Bitcoin existed for eight years without a character of its own.
During those years the community used Ƀ U+0243, a Latin capital B with a stroke through it, because it looked approximately right. You’ll still find it in older documents and forum posts. It isn’t wrong exactly, but ₿ is the correct character now and the one that will keep working. Full detail on it is in the bitcoin symbol.
That eight-year gap is worth understanding, because every other cryptocurrency is still living in it.
The rest are borrowed letters
None of these has a Unicode character of its own, so each project adopted something that resembled its initial:
- Ethereum’s Ξ is GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI, chosen because it looks like a stylised E. It’s a letter of the Greek alphabet with a completely unrelated meaning in mathematics.
- Litecoin’s Ł is LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH STROKE — a Polish letter, pronounced like an English w.
- Dogecoin’s Ð is LATIN CAPITAL LETTER ETH, from Icelandic and Faroese, where it represents a th sound.
- Monero’s ɱ is LATIN SMALL LETTER M WITH HOOK, an International Phonetic Alphabet character for a specific consonant sound.
- Solana’s ◎ is BULLSEYE, a geometric shape with no linguistic meaning at all.
- Tether’s ₮ is the odd one: it’s a genuine currency sign, but it belongs to Mongolia’s tugrik. Borrowing a live national currency’s symbol is the most collision-prone choice on this list.
XRP has no established symbol. Various characters get used informally, none consistently. Where a page needs to be unambiguous, the ISO-style code is the safer choice.
Why “borrowed” causes real problems
This isn’t pedantry — each of these has a practical cost.
Search and matching fail quietly. Searching a document for Ethereum’s Ξ also finds every mathematical use of Greek xi. Filtering a spreadsheet for Ł catches Polish surnames. Nothing errors; the results are just wrong.
Sorting scatters them. Ð sorts with the Icelandic letters, Ξ with the Greek block, ₿ with the currency signs. A column mixing them has no sensible order.
Screen readers say the wrong thing. Ð is announced as “latin capital letter eth”, ɱ as a phonetic symbol, ◎ as “bullseye”. A price list read aloud becomes nonsense.
Autocorrect and spell-check interfere. Word treats Ł and Ð as letters in words, not as symbols, so they trigger language detection and capitalisation rules that a currency sign never would.
Fonts are inconsistent. ₿ is young enough that older fonts lack it, and ɱ lives in the IPA block, which many display fonts skip entirely. If a symbol shows as an empty box, that’s a font gap rather than a wrong character — see symbols showing as boxes.
The practical rule: use the symbol for display, and the ticker code — BTC, ETH, LTC — for anything a machine reads, sorts or matches. The same reasoning applies to national currencies in invoice currency symbols.
Windows
- Dogecoin’s Ð is the only one with an Alt code: hold Alt and type 0208 on the numeric keypad. It works because Ð is in the Latin-1 range that legacy Alt codes reach — an accident of it being an Icelandic letter.
- Everything else: in Word, type the hex code then Alt + X —
20BFgives ₿,039Egives Ξ,0141gives Ł. Alt + X is a Word feature, not a Windows-wide shortcut. - Anywhere else: copy from the tool above, or use Character Map (
charmap, Advanced view, Go to Unicode).
There are no Alt codes for ₿, Ξ, Ł, ₮, ɱ or ◎ — they all sit above 255. Alt codes vs Unicode vs HTML explains the boundary.
Mac
No Option shortcut exists for any crypto symbol.
- Unicode Hex Input: add it in System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources, then hold Option and type 20BF. All of these are in the Basic Multilingual Plane, so this covers the set.
- Character Viewer: Control + Command + Space, then search “bitcoin” or the Unicode name. Searching by name works better than browsing, since these are scattered across six different blocks.
Linux
Ctrl + Shift + U, type 20bf, then Enter or Space — the GNOME-documented sequence. More in typing symbols on Linux.
iPhone and Android
No crypto symbol is on either keyboard. Two options:
- Copy once, save a shortcut. iOS: Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement, paste ₿ and set a shortcut like
btcs. Android: Gboard’s personal dictionary. - Paste from this page. Tap any key above.
Press-and-hold won’t help here — holding b offers accented b variants, not the bitcoin sign.
Spreadsheets and code
In Excel or Sheets, the formula route avoids typing entirely: =UNICHAR(8383) gives ₿, 926 gives Ξ, 321 gives Ł, 208 gives Ð. For a whole price column, a custom number format is cleaner than putting the character in every cell — see symbols in Excel.
In HTML, use numeric references: ₿ (₿), Ξ (Ξ), Ł (Ł), Ð (Ð), ₮ (₮).
css
.price::before{ content:"\20BF"; }A warning for anything programmatic. Because most of these are letters, they behave like letters. Case conversion changes them — Ð lowercases to ð, Ł to ł, Ξ to ξ — so a price string that gets lowercased somewhere in your pipeline silently changes its symbol. A real currency sign like ₿ or € has no case and is immune. If you’re storing prices, store the ticker code and the number, and add the symbol at display time.
Accessibility
This is where borrowed letters hurt most. A screen reader announces each character by its Unicode name, so a crypto price list is read as a string of unrelated letters: “latin capital letter eth 0.5”, “greek capital letter xi 2.3”.
Write the currency name or ticker in the text and let the symbol be decoration — 0.5 DOGE rather than Ð0.5 alone. For a table, put the ticker in the column header so the symbol never has to carry the meaning by itself. How screen readers pronounce symbols covers the pattern.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| ₿ shows as an empty box | Font gap — it was only added in 2017. Use a current system font, or fall back to BTC. |
| Alt code doesn’t work | Only Ð has one (Alt + 0208). Use 20BF + Alt + X in Word, or copy. |
| Search finds unrelated results | Expected. Ξ is a Greek letter and Ł is Polish — search the ticker instead. |
| The symbol changed after processing | Case conversion. Ð → ð, Ł → ł, Ξ → ξ. Store the ticker, not the symbol. |
| Word keeps capitalising around Ł | It’s a letter, so language rules apply. Turn off autocorrect for that text. |
| Old documents show Ƀ instead of ₿ | Pre-2017 convention. Ƀ U+0243 is a Latin B with stroke; ₿ U+20BF is correct now. |
| ɱ renders but looks wrong | It’s an IPA character; many display fonts approximate it. Use the ticker in body text. |
Recap
| Situation | Do this |
|---|---|
| Bitcoin | ₿ U+20BF — the only real crypto currency sign |
| Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin | Copy above — no Alt codes |
| Dogecoin on Windows | Alt + 0208 |
| In Word | Hex code + Alt + X |
| In a spreadsheet | =UNICHAR(8383) |
| Anything sorted, searched or stored | The ticker — BTC, ETH, LTC |
Frequently asked questions
Does Ethereum have its own Unicode symbol?
No. The Ξ used for Ethereum is U+039E, the Greek capital letter xi, borrowed because it resembles a stylised E. Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency with a character created for it.
How do I type the bitcoin symbol ₿?
In Word, type 20BF and press Alt + X. On a Mac, enable Unicode Hex Input and press Option + 20BF. There’s no Windows Alt code — it sits above the range legacy Alt codes reach — so elsewhere, copy it.
Why does the Dogecoin symbol have an Alt code when the others don’t?
Because Ð is an Icelandic letter that happens to fall inside the Latin-1 range Windows Alt codes cover, at Alt + 0208. It’s an accident of the letter’s origin, not something specific to Dogecoin.
Why does my crypto symbol change when the text is processed?
Most crypto symbols are letters, so case conversion alters them — Ð becomes ð, Ł becomes ł, Ξ becomes ξ. True currency signs like ₿ and € have no case. Store the ticker code and add the symbol at display time.
What symbol does XRP use?
There’s no established one. Several characters get used informally and none consistently, so the ticker code is the reliable choice wherever the text has to be unambiguous.
Why do some old posts show Ƀ instead of ₿?
Bitcoin had no Unicode character until 2017, so the community used Ƀ U+0243, a Latin capital B with a stroke. ₿ U+20BF is the correct character now.
Written by Igor R. Tested on Windows 11, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Word and Excel. Last updated September 2026. Symbol code points follow the Unicode Standard.