The next Bitcoin halving event is about to come in 2024 and due to its limited supply of 21 million tokens, it is the talk of the town. A total of 19,588,193 BTC (93.28%) has been mined but the last Bitcoin will not be mined until 2140. Keep reading to find out how the last 6% can take a century and more details on Bitcoin in present day.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin has been among us since early 2009 and from its time of popularity, the top-ranking cryptocurrency has held its spot. And by a huge margin as well, maintaining a dominance of 51% in early 2024. By now, most of us have heard that Bitcoin is a digital currency, the first ever cryptocurrency and highest value as well; presently around $45,000. What you might not have heard is what exactly makes Bitcoin a digital currency? The Bitcoin ecosystem uses a digital ledger where these tokens can be verified and processed with a little help from your computer at home.
This interconnection of data throughout various personal computers makes Bitcoin a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. As a result, there is no need for a central authority and users can use this digital ledger, also commonly known as Blockchain, to make a transparent and secure transaction.
Historical Timeline of Bitcoin
- 2009: Bitcoin was created by an anonymous entity named Satoshi Nakamoto.
- 2010: Having almost no face value, Bitcoin was traded only among early enthusiasts.
- 2011: Using Bitcoin’s open-source, other cryptocurrencies emerge.
- 2012: Bitcoin payment processor named BitPay revealed over 1,000 merchants accepting BTC.
- 2013: Bitcoin gains popularity and reaches a value of $1,000 only to crash to double digits.
- 2014: Microsoft began accepting Bitcoin for Windows and Xbox platforms.
- 2015: 100,000 businesses across the globe accept Bitcoin.
- Cryptocurrency exchange platform Bitfinex got hacked and lost 120,000 BTC.
- 2017: Bitcoin Cash hard fork takes place, splitting the token into BTC (Bitcoin) and BCH (Bitcoin Cash).
- 2018: South Korea bans Bitcoin and prices crash once again from $20,000 to $4,000.
- 2019: Bitcoin prices recover only till $12,000.
- 2020: PayPal begins to allow users to buy and sell Bitcoin on the platform.
- 2021: Bitcoin Law is passed making cryptocurrency legal tender alongside US dollars.
- 2022: SEC regulations begin to hunt unregulated cryptocurrencies affecting the prices of BTC.
- 2023: Cryptocurrency prices recover to $45,000 as market stabilizes.
How Many Bitcoins Can There Be?
Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto built this digital currency with a limited supply of 21 million BTC. And that’s all there’s gonna be. Among these 21 million tokens, several of them have left circulation due to theft, fraud, or similar occurrences. Estimations show that 3-4 million Bitcoins have been lost in such ways, leaving the rest with public investors.
How Many Bitcoins Mined in 2023?
It is estimated that in every 10 minutes one Bitcoin is mined which is close to the time it takes to create a new block. The Bitcoin blockchain has blocks storing the data of multiple Bitcoins and its value is halved after mining of 210,000 blocks. It takes approximately four years for miners to mine this many blocks, giving us the Bitcoin halving event.
There is no exact value of how many Bitcoins were mined in 2023, but from its early days, 93.28% Bitcoins have already been mined.
What Happens After 21 million Bitcoins are Mined?
After all 21 million Bitcoins are mined, there will be no further supply in the market. However, such is not expected soon as the final Bitcoin halving event is estimated around 2140. Thereafter, the Bitcoin ecosystem has little to no threat but rather could complement it due to limited supply of tokens. Being the largest cryptocurrency, demand is expected and transaction volume is also expected to rise.
Since Bitcoin transactions are on the rise, it is entirely possible that cryptocurrency miners in 2140 could profit from processing fees only. However, it is completely situational and if there’s anything we can assure, it is the limited supply of Bitcoin.
What Factors Affect Bitcoin Supply?
Bitcoin supply is entirely supported by Bitcoin miners who create a network of computers to solve mathematical problems. A necessary step also known as ‘proof-of-work’ which basically verifies transactions and introduces them to the Bitcoin blockchain. Due to this a reward is given to the user who takes the responsibility of mining Bitcoin.
Even though it is a repetitive process, it is not exactly the same since something called mining difficulty steps in. As more and more Bitcoins are being mined, the difficulty is only increasing as the ‘proof-of-work’ mechanism requires miners to match a 256-bit algorithm. However, this difficulty is adjusted in various ways. One of which includes network hash rate since an increase results in higher mining difficulty. An increase of miners has also resulted in higher difficulty which was evident as in 2022, after the massive price surge, mining difficulty of Bitcoin increased by 5.56% to a record high of 30 trillion. The mining difficulty is estimated to continue growing as gaining balance is attempted through various methods.
In brief, the following factors play an essential role in the supply of Bitcoin:
- Mining Rewards
- Mining Difficulty
- Transaction Fees
- Lost Tokens
- Network Forks
Bitcoin Distribution in 2024
Top 1000 Holders: Bitcoin Whales
The wealth distribution of Bitcoin includes only 5.92% of circulating supply with top 10 wallet addresses. For top 100 addresses, 14.82% Bitcoins are distributed with 32.86% among the top 1,000. Several Bitcoin whales exist in this list as just this small population holds almost 52% of total Bitcoins. There are certain exchanges like Binance as well and even enthusiastic individuals and due to the lack of governance, their identities are unknown. However, it is believed that the creator of Bitcoin owns the most number of Bitcoins in the world (approximately 1.1 million BTC).
Regular Bitcoin Investors
Over 200 million people have active investments in Bitcoin and only the top 1,000 wallet addresses have control over half of Bitcoin supply. This is a much more decentralized scenario as 55.51% of Bitcoins are distributed over millions of cryptocurrency wallets.
Bottom Line
Bitcoin is not something new at this point and the concept has only developed with time and influenced millions of people. Without it, we probably would not have stepped into the Web3 era and by 2140 further evolution is expected. After 21 million Bitcoins are mined, there will be no more supply but Bitcoin has a very strong chance of growing. It is difficult for us to accurately predict the outcome when limits are reached. Yet, looking back at the revolutionary path so far, there are chances of greatness.
