Bitcoin surpasses 20 million mined, reaching 95% of total supply

Bitcoin just crossed a milestone that puts its scarcity model into sharp relief. More than 20 million BTC have now been mined, representing over 95% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist. The remaining supply, fewer than 1 million coins, will trickle out over the next century-plus thanks to the protocol’s built-in halving mechanism. The 20 millionth coin was minted on approximately March 9, near block height 940,000, by the Foundry USA mining pool. It arrived roughly 17 years and 6,267 days after Satoshi Nakamoto produced the genesis block in January 2009. The math of engineered scarcity Bitcoin’s supply schedule is one of the few things in crypto that has worked exactly as advertised since day one. The protocol caps total issuance at 21 million coins, with mining rewards cut in half roughly every four years. Following the April 2024 halving, the current issuance rate sits at approximately 450 BTC per day. To put the remaining timeline in perspective: it took less than two decades to produce 95% of all Bitcoin. The final 5% will take until approximately 2140 to fully mine. What this means for miners Bitcoin miners currently earn revenue from two sources: block rewards (newly minted B...