Bitcoin Celebrates Milestone of 90% Total Supply Mined

Another milestone for Bitcoin as on Monday 90% of all Bitcoins had been mined according to data from blockchain tracker Blockchain.com. This means out of the maximum of 21 million, 18.89 million Bitcoins have been on the market since twelve years ago when the first coins were mined on January 9,2009.

Bitcoin’s remaining supply is not expected to be fully mined before February 2140, based on network activity estimates and Bitcoin’s halving schedules.

Interestingly though, it is estimated that roughly 3.7 million Bitcoin got ‘lost’ over the years, according to analytics firm Chainalysis, for reasons ranging from losing private keys to even death of persons holding coins. Another 1 million Bitcoin has remained untouched as they belong to Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakomoto, who mined them in the early days and since ‘vanished’.

Bitcoin’s proof-of-work network relies on the network participants called ‘miners’ who process transactions and validate blocks in a continuous process broadly referred to as ‘mining.’ They do so by having their computing power solve millions of complex calculations and receiving Bitcoin as a reward.

Bitcoin’s price has developed significantly over the last twelve years. Where a Bitcoin first moved hands for less than ten cents in 2009, it has steadily grown to an all-time high of $69,000 a few weeks ago.