Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

90% of Bitcoin’s 21 Million Total Supply Has Already Been Mined

Published 12/13/2021, 08:05 AM
Updated 12/13/2021, 08:31 AM
90% of Bitcoin’s 21 Million Total Supply Has Already Been Mined

90% of Bitcoin’s 21 Million Total Supply Has Already Been Mined

When Bitcoin launched in 2009, its developer, Satoshi, envisioned that there would be 21 million coins, which now forms the total expected supply of Bitcoin. These coins were to be gradually released until February 2140 via mining on the network.

The rationale for pegging Bitcoin to a fixed supply was to create a mechanism to consistently drive the price of Bitcoin. However, as Bitcoin gained more popularity, there was a surge in the number of miners, leading to the faster than anticipated mining of Bitcoin.

90% of Bitcoin Mined in Nearly 13 Years On Monday, December 13th, Bitcoin reached a milestone. At the time of writing, 90% of Bitcoin’s capped supply of 21,000,000 coins has already been mined – Bitcoin now has a total supply of 18,899,675 BTC.

With the first being Bitcoin mined on January 9, 2009, it has taken Bitcoin miners one month short of 13 years to mine 90% of the asset’s total supply. When all of the Bitcoins have eventually been mined, miners will depend on fees from the transactions occurring on the cryptocurrency’s network for revenue.

Validating the scarcity theory, when only 10% of the supply had been mined in early 2010, the price of Bitcoin was at $0.10. However, when 50% of Bitcoin’s total supply had been mined, it hovered over $7.50. Now, Bitcoin is trading at the $48.6k mark at the time of writing.

On the Flipside

  • Despite the increasing scarcity of Bitcoin, the price of BTC remains short of price predictions for 2021, in which it was expected to hit $100k.
In addition, the number of unique addresses holding Bitcoin has also reached a new all-time high, suggesting that, more people than ever are holding Bitcoin.

Why You Should Care

Bitcoin’s limited supply will create scarcity, which is expected to drive the price of BTC to higher heights.

EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Join to get the flipside of crypto

Upgrade your inbox and get our DailyCoin editors’ picks 1x a week delivered straight to your inbox.

[contact-form-7] You can always unsubscribe with just 1 click.

Continue reading on DailyCoin

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.