Over 90% of Bitcoin has already been mined. When will new coins stop being created?
Bitcoin miners have only 6% of all coins left to mine.
By December 2034, 99% of all Bitcoin will have been mined. How many coins are currently on the open market, and why do investors view Bitcoin as a long-term hold asset?
More than 94% of all Bitcoin, or 19.742 million BTC ($1.145 trillion), has been mined, meaning only 6%, or 1.258 million coins ($73 billion at the August 2024 rate), are left to be created, according to the Clarkmoody dashboard.
Bitcoin’s supply is capped at 21 million BTC by its code, ensuring it cannot exceed that amount. Since the blockchain is a digital ledger recording all cryptocurrency transactions, including newly created (mined) Bitcoins, it allows real-time tracking of all coins.
Bitcoin's issuance mechanism is predictable, allowing for accurate predictions of how much and when BTC will be created, with minor timing variations. For example, 95% of coins will be mined by November 2025, and 99% by December 2034.
Recall that 90% of BTC was mined by December 2021. This gradual slowdown in new Bitcoin creation is built into its code and is known as halving.
What is Bitcoin Halving?
Halving is a programmed reduction in the reward that miners receive for adding a block of transactions to the blockchain. Bitcoin halvings occur approximately every four years, or more precisely, every 210,000 blocks mined. With each halving, the number of Bitcoins miners receive as a reward is cut in half.
When Bitcoin launched in 2009, miners earned 50 Bitcoins per block, but this reward was reduced to 25 BTC after the first halving in 2012, 12.5 BTC in 2016, 6.25 BTC in 2020, and to 3.125 coins in 2024. The next halving is expected in 2028.
Mining is a complex computational process that verifies Bitcoin transactions. Miners confirm transaction blocks and are rewarded with new Bitcoins for their work.
Limited Supply
Beyond Bitcoin's fixed supply, many investors and market participants follow the Hodl strategy. Hodl refers to a long-term passive investment strategy where investors maintain a relatively stable portfolio over time, regardless of short-term price fluctuations.
Hodl, a cryptocurrency term, is similar to the "buy and hold" strategy in traditional finance.
For example, around 74% of all Bitcoins remained inactive for most of 2024, despite the asset dropping 21% from its all-time high in March 2024, according to Cointelegraph, citing analytics firm Glassnode.
Glassnode is a leading analytics firm specializing in on-chain data, which involves researching information from public blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Blockchain technology is an open ledger of information with a complete history of transactions, allowing anyone to "view" these operations and make their own conclusions.
Researchers have started using on-chain data to observe user transaction behavior, predict prices, and compare data from other sources for deeper analysis.
The fact that such a large portion of BTC (74%) hasn’t moved for over six months suggests that long-term investors increasingly view Bitcoin as a store of value, possibly anticipating future price growth.
This sentiment was echoed by BlackRock. Speaking at Bitcoin 2024, Robert Mitchnick, Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock, mentioned that holders of Bitcoin ETF shares tend to follow a "buy and hold" strategy.
If this trend continues, it could reduce the overall supply of Bitcoin available for trading, potentially driving up the price as demand increases and supply diminishes, according to Cointelegraph.
However, this behavior also introduces additional risks. If investors panic, it could put downward pressure on the price of the leading cryptocurrency. The fact that 74% of coins haven’t moved in over six months doesn’t mean all investors are in profit, and investor sentiment could change.
