The Bitcoin network has reached one of the most important milestones today.
The Bitcoin network has reached a huge milestone: the 20 millionth BTC has been officially mined. With its total supply permanently at 21 million, this moment is a big step towards its permanent shortage.
Moreover, the event highlights one of the defining characteristics of the network: its transparency and predictability. Unlike traditional fiat currencies, which can be printed at will and indefinitely, BTC follows a very strict emission schedule encoded in its protocol. With Bitcoin, the code is law, and that code cannot be changed (at least not without massive market turmoil and seismic shifts throughout the industry), and it can be publicly verified by anyone interested.
Digital deprivation, but on a new level
Data from BiTBO shows that 95.2% of the total Bitcoin supply, which is exactly 20,000,018.75 BTC, has been mined at the time of writing.
The remaining one million coins will be harder to mine because of how the network is structured to work. A halving occurs approximately every four years, which reduces miners’ rewards for adding new blocks to the network by 50%. Essentially, this cuts the fresh supply in half, hence the name. In other words, the more time passes, the harder it is to mine BTC. In fact, some estimates predict that the last BTC will be mined in 2140.
All this emphasizes one of the main concepts of Bitcoin – digital scarcity. Therefore, many investors compare it to gold because of its limited and ever-decreasing supply.
But one thing many people forget is that millions of BTC are permanently lost due to forgotten passwords, lost wallets, etc. this makes the situation even more restrictive and reduces the effective trading volume significantly below 21,000,000.
What does the ultimate millions mean?
The last Bitcoin halving happened in 2024, which reduced the block reward from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC. The next one should happen in two years, effectively making BTC even rarer.
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To put things into perspective, about 450 BTC (roughly) are mined every day, meaning that by 2030 only a small fraction of the remaining BTC will be in circulation.
This also means that miners who secure the network and validate blocks will rely more on payments as the block reward falls.
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