BITCOIN’S inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, created the virtual currency in 2008 with a supply cap to ensure BTC was a currency without inflation.
As Bitcoin is intended for transactional use, too many Bitcoins in the market could generate wild price swings.
But how many Bitcoins are there and how many are left to mine?
How many Bitcoins are there?
There are currently 19,122,556 Bitcoins in existence (August, 15, 2022) but that number changes every 10 minutes when new blocks are mined.
Right now, each new block adds 6.25 Bitcoins into circulation.
The total amount of Bitcoins that can ever be created is 21 million.
The remaining Bitcoins not in circulation will be rewarded to miners for maintaining the network.
As miners validate transactions and create new blocks, they receive Bitcoins as a reward.
The reward for mining each block started at 50 Bitcoins and has since halved three times to 6.25.
How many Bitcoins are left to mine?
There are currently 1,877,443 Bitcoins left to be mined (August, 15, 2022).
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How many Bitcoins are lost?
The answer to how many Bitcoins are lost is unknown.
One recent estimate is that about 3-4 million have been lost forever.
A lost Bitcoin looks exactly the same as one that is not lost on the blockchain.
Some educated guesses can be made based on how long a Bitcoin has sat in a wallet unmoved.
How many Bitcoins have been stolen?
Again it is unclear exactly how many Bitcoins have been stolen.
In the Mt. Gox hack, which so far has been the largest Bitcoin hack on record, 850,000 BTC were stolen.
Another 120,000 Bitcoins were stolen from Bitfinex in 2016.
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However, stolen Bitcoin doesn’t mean lost Bitcoin.
It’s likely stolen Bitcoins are still circulating.
How many Bitcoins are mined everyday?
Each day 144 blocks are mined on average, and there are 6.25 per block meaning around 900 Bitcoins are mined daily.
When will the last Bitcoin be mined?
The mining reward halving occurs every 210,000 blocks.
Blocks take on average around 10 minutes to mine, meaning halving occurs around every 4 years.
After 64 total halvings, there will be no more Bitcoins left to reward miners meaning all 21 million Bitcoins will be in circulation.
This will occur sometime in 2140.
What incentive will miners have to validate transactions when all 21 million Bitcoins are in circulation?
Miners receive more than just the block rewards when they create new blocks.
They also earn fees with each transaction.
Transaction fees vary with the amount of network congestion and size of the transaction.
Miners usually prioritise transactions by the highest fee.
The higher the transaction fee, the more likely a miner will process your transaction.