Bitcoin is getting its own Unicode symbol

A Bitcoin symbol is getting added to a future version of Unicode, a global standard for text on the Web.

U+20BF BITCOIN SIGN was just accepted at #UTC145, to be included in a future version of the standard → https://t.co/B9hWLds9HK @kenshirriff

— Ken Lunde 小林剣 (@ken_lunde) November 3, 2015

The announcement comes as the digital currency is seeing a rise in value. The symbol will be added to Unicode in its next update, which will likely come out next year. When it does, coders will be able to use the new symbol as they would a U.S. dollar symbol ($) or U.K. pound (£).

Last year, the Bitcoin Foundation put together a volunteer committee to design and submit a symbol for consideration by the Unicode Consortium. The team has been working on developing the symbol and getting it adopted for well over a year. A Google software engineer named Ken Shirriff submitted the proposal that was ultimately accepted into Unicode. According to his Twitter, this is the second time he has contributed a symbol to the Web standard.

The #Bitcoin sign is accepted by Unicode. My second addition to Unicode, probably more useful than the group mark. https://t.co/ZOoBGGMmX3

— Ken Shirriff (@kenshirriff) November 3, 2015