19 million bitcoins are now “in circulation”
It was written by Satoshi Nakamoto in the Bitcoin (BTC) white paper, there will be no more 21 million BTC in circulation. More precisely, it is the maximum number of coins that it will be possible to mine, before production stops completely and permanently.
Some thirteen years after the mining of the first block in its history, nicknamed “Genesis Block”, the network just passed the 19 million mark of BTC created. In other words, more than 90% of bitcoins are already “in circulation”.
Here is block 730,000, mined by Binance’s mining pool and which extracted the 19 millionth BTC.
In fact, although 19 million bitcoins have already been mined, they are not all actually in circulation. Indeed, between the bitcoins voluntarily burned or destroyed, the addresses lost or not having moved since 2010 and especially the 1,125,150 BTC of Satoshi Nakamoto, it is estimated that almost 3.7 million BTC are losti.e. 20% of the currently existing quantity.
Still, at the time of writing these lines, there are now less than 2 million bitcoins left to mine.
? Find our complete guide to buy Bitcoin in 2022
Bitcoins increasingly inaccessible and rare
In just 13 years since its creation, more than 90% of bitcoins have already been mined, or 19 million units. Nevertheless, you’ll have to wait until 2140or 118 more years, to see the 21 millionth and final bitcoin mined.
It is the principle of halving, implemented in the code of the Bitcoin protocol, which makes it possible to slow down the production of coins over time. Every 210,000 blocks, or approximately every four years, the production of BTC per mined block is halved. Originally, a mined block allowed to extract 50 bitcoins. Today, after 4 halvings, this figure has been reduced to 6.25 bitcoins per block.
The exponential decrease in the number of bitcoins mined over time aims to to increase their rarity and therefore their value. Unlike fiat currencies, such as the dollar or the euro, who see their values diminish because of central bank money printing, Bitcoin has a deflationary characterwhich increases every four years.
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Sources: ChainAnalysis, Blockchain.com
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About the Author : Lilian Aliaga
Freelance writer located between Paris and Toulouse. I want to share my passion for the world of cryptocurrencies to as many people as possible. I am also interested in technical analysis and trading.
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