Santiment Blockchain Data: Nearly A Third Of All Bitcoins (5 Million) Mined Might Be Gone Indefinitely

We are told that when all the 21 million Bitcoins will be mined, there will be a far lower number in circulation. Just as gold bars are lost at sea or $100 bills can burn, bitcoins can disappear from the Internet forever.

Digital forensic firm Chainalysis that specializes in Blockchain technology had earlier published a study which claimed that 3.79 million bitcoins are already gone for good. However, there are estimates now that claim that the number can be as high as 5 million.

Prominent instances of lost coins

Satoshi’s coins, though not lost yet could be seen as either lost or on the way to being lost. Nakamoto’s wallet has been inactive since 2009 and his identity is something many have lost hope in trying to figure out. The wallet is said to contain over 1,000,000 Bitcoins and could be on the way to being lost if the wallet stays inactive or if Satoshi himself dies without handing over the keys.

This is the most recent incident still fresh in the mind of crypto traders and investors in Canada who happened to have used the QuadrigaCX exchange. According to reports, 26,488 Bitcoins are said to be held in cold storage and might never have another owner again.

Final take

In the future, more bitcoins will be lost. But the rate at which they disappear will be much lower than in the past since, now that they’re so valuable, people will be more vigilant about keeping track of them.

Meanwhile, there is a question that this situation brings. Bitcoin is more scarce than people assume—or if the market has already priced the missing coins into the currency’s current value.

On the one hand, direct calculations about market cap do not take lost coins into consideration. Considering how highly speculative this field is, those market cap calculations may make it into economic models of the market that impact spending activity. Yet the market has adapted to the actual demand and supply available.

Furthermore, it is a well known monetary policy procedure to lower or increase fiat reserves to impact exchange rates. So the answer is yes and no.