How many bitcoins have mine remain?

The total supply of Bitcoin is used at the level of 21 million BTC, which is a constant upper limit that cannot be changed without a breakthrough change in the protocol. This completed limit is enforced at the protocol level and is crucial for the proposal of Bitcoin values ​​as a deflation resource.

From May 2025, about 19.6 million Bitcoins (BTC), or about 93.3% of the total supply, were mined. This leaves about 1.4 million BTC, which have not yet been created, and the other coins will be extracted very slowly.

The reason for this uneven distribution is the exponential Bitcoin emission schedule, managed by a half -called event. When Bitcoin started in 2009, the block award was 50 BTC. Every 210,000 blocks – or about four years – this award is reduced by half.

Because the early prizes were so enormous, by the end of 2020 over 87% of the total supply was extracted. Each subsequent half reduces the rate of modern emissions, which means that the release of the remaining 6.7% will take over a hundred years 6.7%.

According to current estimates, 99% of all Bitcoins will be extracted by 2035, but the final fraction – the last Satoshis – will not be produced until around 2140 due to the nature of the geometric reward of the prize.

This designed deficiency, combined with a unchanging supply cap, attracts comparisons between bitcoins and physical goods such as gold. But Bitcoin is even more predictable: gold is growing About 1.7% per year, while the Bitcoin emission rate is limpid.

Do you know? Bitcoin supply curve is not terminal in a established sense. This is due to the asymptotic trajectory – the type of Zeno economic paradox – in which the prizes are decreased forever, but never reach zero. The mining will last until around 2140, and until then over 99.999% of the total 21 million BTC was issued.

Beyond the Supply Cap: Like lost coins, Bitcoin is not sporadic than you think

While over 93% of the total Bitcoin supply has been extracted, this does not mean that everything is available. A significant part is permanently beyond circulation, lost due to forgotten slogans, improper wallets, damaged tough disks or the first users who have never affected their coins again.

Estimates from companies such as chains and glass suggest that from 3.0 million to 3.8 million BTC-football 14% -18% of the total supply-probably disappeared for good. This includes raucous dormant addresses, such as the one that is considered to be Satoshi Nakamoto, which himself has over 1.1 million BTC.

This means that the real supply of Bitcoin can be closer to 16 million-17 million, not 21 million. And because bitcoins cannot be reached by the project, all lost coins remain lost-perverse reduces supply over time.

Now compare it with gold. About 85% of the total gold supply in the world was extracted – about 216 265 metric tons, according to the World Gold Council – but almost all of them remain in circulation or taking place in the treasures, jewelry, ETFs and central banks. Gold can be supported and reused; Bitcoin cannot be resurrected after losing access.

This distinction gives Bitcoin a kind of hardening deficiency, stocks, which not only stops growing over time, but quietly shrinks.

As Bitcoin matures, it introduces a gold -like financial phase: low emissions, high branch concentration and growing sensitivity of demand. But Bitcoin goes on; Its capitalization is challenging, the loss indicator is constant and its distribution is publicly controlled.

This can lead to several results:

• Increased price variability as available supply becomes more confined and sensitive to market demand
• Higher concentration of long -term value in the hands of those who remain energetic and unthreatening in their key management
• Bonus for liquidity, in which BTC actually issued trad up with a higher effective value than sleeping supply.

In extreme cases, this may cause a fork between “circulating BTC” and “unattainable BTC”, with the first to gain greater economic importance, especially in times of confined fluidity of exchange or macroeconomic stress.

What happens when Bitcoin is fully extracted?

It is popular to assume that when Bitcoin block prizes are shrinking, network security eventually suffers. But in practice, the mining economy is much more adaptive – and much more resistant – than that.

The incentives to extract Bitcoin are subject to a self -stimulated feedback loop: if mining becomes unprofitable, miners drop the network, which in turn causes regulation of difficulties. Each 2,016 blocks (approximately every two weeks), the network reality is released using a parameter known as NBITS. The goal is to keep the blocking time after about 10 minutes, regardless of how many miners compete.

So, if the price of Bitcoin drops or the prize becomes too petite in relation to operating costs, unproductive miners simply leave. This causes the difficulty of falling, reducing the costs for those who remained. The result is a system that constantly balances, adapting the share of the network to available incentives.

This mechanism has already been tested on a scale. After China banned mining in mid -2012, the Global Hashrate Bitcoin fell by more than 50% in a few weeks. However, the network continued to work without interruption, and in a few months Hashrate fully regained, because miners will resume activity in jurisdictions with lower energy costs and more favorable regulations.

Critically the idea that lower prizes inherently threaten network security, omits how mining is associated with profit margins, and not the nominal amounts of BTC. As long as the market price supports the cost of the abbreviation-nave at 0.78125 BTC per block (half after 2028) or lower, the mountaineers will continue to secure the network.

In other words, the absolute reward does not matter, but whether mining remains profitable in relation to costs. And thanks to the built -in regulation of Bitcoin difficulty, this is usually the case.

Even a hundred years, when the block prize is approaching zero, the network will probably continue to be protected by any combination of fees, base incentives and infrastructure efficiency at this time. But that’s distant care. In the meantime, the current system – Hashrate adapts, difficulties with balance, miners adapt – remains one of the most solid elements of the Bitcoin project.

Do you know? On April 20, 2024, after launching the RUNS protocol, Bitcoin Miners earned over $ 80 million transaction fees in one day, exceeding $ 26 million earned from Block awards. This meant for the first time in the history of Bitcoin that the transaction fees themselves exceeded the block subsidy in the daily revenues of Górnik.

The future of Bitcoins extracting: energy consumption

This is a widespread misunderstanding that the rising bitcoins prices will boost endless energy consumption. In fact, mining is confined by profitability, not the price itself.

When the block prizes are shrinking, miners are pushed towards thinner margins, which means racing the cheapest, purest available energy. Since the ban on mining in 2021, Hashrate has migrated to regions such as North America and North Europe, where operators employ the hydro surplus, wind and unused network energy.

According to Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, from 52% to 59% Bitcoins mining he takes on renewable sources or low emission sources.

The regulations strengthen this trend, and several jurisdictions offer incentives to extract immaculate or punish fossil fuel operations.

In addition, the idea that higher BTC prices always mean higher energy consumption, does not affect independent regulations: more miners boost the difficulty that compresses margins, limiting energy expansion.

Renewable extraction creates its own challenges, but the dystopian future of the infinitely expanding fossil for force is increasingly unlikely.