The color code most people mean by bitcoin orange is #F7931A, which is RGB 247, 147, 26. It is the fill of the round orange disc in the widely used bitcoin logo files, including the version hosted on bitcoin.org.
There is a catch worth knowing: bitcoin has no company behind it and no official brand manual, so #F7931A is a convention rather than a rule. It has stuck because everyone copies it from the same logo.
The value, in every format you will need
Here is the same orange written the ways designers and developers ask for it:
- Hex: #F7931A
- RGB: 247, 147, 26
- HSL: about 33 degrees hue, 93 percent saturation, 54 percent lightness
In CSS you would set the color or background-color property to #F7931A. In design tools, paste the six characters without the hash sign if the field asks for it.
Print is a different matter. Hex and RGB describe light on a screen, and a printer converts that to ink, so the result depends on the printer and the color profile. If a color match matters, ask the printer for a proof instead of trusting a conversion chart.
Where the value comes from
The number is not invented by a style guide. You can check it yourself: open the bitcoin logo SVG file from bitcoin.org and look at the fill of the circle, and it reads #f7931a. The same value appears in the widely used bitcoin logo file on Wikimedia Commons, which many sites copy.
The orange itself came from the community. A forum member named bitboy posted an orange-disc version of Satoshi's B in November 2010, and it spread because it was free to use and easy to spot at small sizes. The full story is in our bitcoin symbol and logo guide, which covers the designer and the date.
The same bitcoin.org logo file also uses a dark grey, #4D4D4D, alongside the orange. That is the natural partner if you are building a palette.
The Bitcoin Wiki lists the orange logo graphics as public domain, which is why you see them on so many sites. The wiki's Promotional graphics page is a good place to download clean originals rather than screenshots. That is background, not legal advice.
How to use bitcoin orange well
A color code is easy. Using it so people can read your page takes a little more care.
On a dark background
Orange works best on black or very dark grey. Measured against pure black, #F7931A has a contrast ratio of about 9.1 to 1, which is plenty for headings and body text. This is why so many bitcoin shirts, posters and dashboards are orange on black.
On a light background
Be more careful here. Against white, the same orange has a contrast ratio of only about 2.3 to 1, which is below the 3 to 1 minimum the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) set for large text. Use the orange for icons, borders and big shapes on white, and set your actual words in a dark grey such as #4D4D4D, which reaches about 8.5 to 1.
As a button color
Orange buttons are common, but white text on #F7931A has that same 2.3 to 1 ratio. Black or very dark text on an orange button reads far better.
Keep it as an accent
The strongest bitcoin designs use orange sparingly: one logo, one rule, one highlight. If the whole page is orange, the eye has nowhere to land. Treat it like a single bright spice, not the whole dish.
Matching the orange in your own project
If you are building a page, a slide deck or a sticker sheet, a few habits keep the color consistent:
- Save it once. Put #F7931A in a single variable or style swatch and reuse it, so you never end up with three slightly different oranges.
- Do not substitute the CSS word. The built-in color name "orange" in CSS is #FFA500, which is lighter and yellower than bitcoin orange. If you type the word, you get a different color.
- Add a darker shade for text. When you need orange words on a white background, pick a deeper orange of your own and check its contrast, rather than stretching the logo color past what it can do.
- Prefer the vector logo. Copy the color from the original SVG instead of sampling a compressed screenshot, which can shift a shade or two.
Orange as bitcoin culture
The color has taken on a life of its own. Bitcoiners talk about being "orange pilled" for the moment someone gets it, and the color shows up on hats, stickers and avatars as shorthand for membership. If you want to see how a slogan got attached to a color, read our orange pill meaning guide.
Bitcoin orange on a shirt
Black cotton is the natural home for this color, since orange on black is the high-contrast pairing from earlier. Our tees use an orange line-art accent on black, kept to one element so the print stays easy to read.
A few that put the orange front and center:
- The Bitcoin Logo tee puts one small orange B on the left chest.
- The Bitcoin B, Center tee is the same idea at the middle of the chest, just below the collar.
- The Orange Pilled tee draws a two-tone orange capsule above the words.
- The Stack Sats tee is an orange outline piggy bank with the slogan on its belly.
More options live on the bitcoin logo shirts page.
Sources: the bitcoin logo SVG hosted on bitcoin.org, the Bitcoin Wiki's Promotional graphics page and the community history in our own logo guide.
