18.9 Million BTC, 90% of All 21 Million Bitcoin, Has Now Been Mined

The majority of all Bitcoin has now been mined, as of Monday, according to on-chain data.

This means a total of nearly 18.9 million BTC of the fixed 21 million supply are now in the market.

However, not all of them are available in the market either. An estimated 20% of Bitcoin supply is actually categorized as lost. According to Chainalysis, a mere 3.5 million Bitcoin, 19% of all mined BTC, are used for trading.

It took Bitcoin more than a decade, almost 12 years, to reach this milestone since the first Bitcoin was mined on January 9, 2009. Interestingly, the remaining 10% of supply would take more than 100 years as it is not expected to be mined till early 2140.

This is based on the leading cryptocurrency’s halving schedule. Currently, miners are getting 6.25 BTC for each block they mine. These block rewards got halved in May this year on its third halving. After the next halving in 2024, this would further drop to just 3.125 BTC.

In line with the increase in Bitcoins’ supply available in the market, the price of the digital asset has also been increasing. In early 2010, it was worth a few cents, in the 2017 bull market peak, it went on as high as $20,000, and in early November 2021, we hit $69,000.

As of writing, the largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of nearly $900 billion is trading around $47.2k.