20 million BTC in circulation: what’s next for mining and the market

On March 9, a significant event took place on the Bitcoin network: PoW miners mined the 20 millionth BTC out of the possible 21 million — more than 95% of the total supply of the first cryptocurrency. This means an important milestone has been passed, and only 1 million bitcoins, or less than 5% of the total supply, remain to be mined, after which BTC mining will cease.

The road to 20 million bitcoins: how long did it take the first cryptocurrency?

It is worth noting that the first 10 million bitcoins were mined within the first three years after the network's launch in 2009. After that, it took miners 14 years to mine the same amount of BTC — almost five times longer. In total, it took miners more than 17 years to bring 20 million bitcoins into circulation. Meanwhile, in 2012, exactly half of all possible bitcoins were mined — 10.5 million BTC.

The slowdown in Bitcoin mining is linked to the increasing network difficulty and the halving mechanism, which cuts miners' rewards in half every four years. At the launch of the Bitcoin network, miners received 50 BTC per block, with each block taking about 10 minutes to mine. This meant that 7,200 BTC could be mined per day. At the current stage, after surpassing the 20 million BTC milestone, miners produce only about 450 BTC per day.

20 million out of 21 million bitcoins have already been mined: what's next for the cryptocurrency?

According to expert estimates, the last bitcoin will be mined in 2140. This means that mining the remaining one million bitcoins will take about 114 years — almost seven times longer than it took to mine the first 20 million bitcoins.

At the same time, the issuance rate of the leading cryptocurrency will continue to gradually decrease regardless of adjustments to the hashrate* and network difficulty. For example, in 2064, after another halving, the reward per mined block will drop to approximately 0.003 BTC, or 305,176 satoshis*.

* Hashrate — a measure of the total computational power of the Bitcoin network, meaning the overall amount of calculations miners perform to find a new block. It is measured in hashes per second (H/s). An increase in hashrate indicates greater competition among miners and improved network security, as more computational resources are required to attack it.

* Satoshi — the smallest unit of bitcoin, named after Bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. One satoshi equals 0.00000001 BTC (one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin).

As early as 2032, the block reward for miners will fall below one bitcoin, while slightly more than 20 million BTC will already have been mined. Experts estimate that 99% of all bitcoins will be mined by January 2035, and by 2047, 99.9% of the total BTC supply will be in circulation.

20 million bitcoins is not the end. What will happen to the cryptocurrency when all bitcoins are mined?

As mentioned earlier, once all BTC are mined, bitcoin mining will stop. However, this does not mean miners will begin shutting down operations en masse and selling off assets, which would crash the price of the leading cryptocurrency.

It is important to remember that miners' rewards also include Bitcoin network transaction fees, which are expected to increase as the number of Bitcoin users grows — this mechanism is built into the "digital gold" protocol.

Therefore, whether 20 million or 21 million bitcoins have been mined, miners will continue to support the network and earn income from it. It should also be considered that the price of Bitcoin by the time mining ends could rise significantly.

According to The Block data for 2025, when 20 million bitcoins had not yet been mined, network fees were generating about $300,000 per day for miners. For example, if in 2140 bitcoin is worth 100 times what it is today, miners' daily revenue would reach $30,000,000 at the same level of Bitcoin network activity. This is approximately equal to what miners currently earn from block rewards, considering bitcoin's price at the time of writing (~$66,000).

It is also possible that by 2140, mining Bitcoin will use completely different equipment, such as quantum computers or neuromorphic chips, with significantly greater computational power and lower energy consumption.