The Bitcoin network has reached a massive milestone: the 20 millionth BTC has been officially mined. With its total supply permanently capped at 21 million, this moment marks a monumental step toward its permanent scarcity.
Moreover, the event highlights one of the network’s defining features: its transparency and predictability. Unlike traditional fiat currencies, which can be pretty much printed at will and indefinitely, BTC follows a very strict issuance schedule, hardcoded into its protocol. With Bitcoin, code is law, and this code cannot be changed (at least not without massive market turbulence and seismic shifts in the entire industry), and can be publicly verified by anyone interested.
Digital Scarcity, but at a New Level
Data from BiTBO shows that 95.2% of Bitcoin’s total supply, representing exactly 20,000,018.75 BTC, has been mined at the time of this writing.
The remaining one million coins will be increasingly difficult to mine because of how the network is structured to function. Halvings take place roughly every four years, which slashes the rewards miners receive for adding new blocks to the network by 50%. In essence, this reduces the fresh supply by half, hence the name. In other words, the more time passes, the harder it will become to mine BTC. In fact, some estimates predict that the last BTC will be mined in 2140.
All of this highlights one of Bitcoin’s core concepts – digital scarcity. That’s why many investors have been comparing it to gold – because of its limited and ever-decreasing supply.
But one thing that many tend to forget is that millions of BTC are believed to be permanently lost due to forgotten phrases, lost wallets, and more. this makes the situation even more constrained, putting the effective circulating supply significantly lower than 21,000,000.
What the Final Million Means
The last Bitcoin halving occurred in 2024, reducing the block reward from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC. The next one should take place in two years, effectively making BTC even scarcer.
To put matters in perspective, only about 450 BTC (roughly) is mined daily, meaning that by 2030, only a tiny fraction of the remaining BTC will be in circulation.
This also means that miners, who secure the network and validate blocks, will be relying increasingly on the fees as the block reward continues to decline.
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