On April 1, 2022, Bitcoin reached a new milestone. As an analysis of the blockchain shows, the network has just passed 19 million cryptocurrency signs. The 730,000 blocks of the blockchain resulted in the mining of the 19 millionth Bitcoin.
Becomes the queen of digital currencies an increasingly rare currency. Now, more than 90% of bitcoins are already circulating in the market. As soon as the currency was created, Satoshi Nakamoto decided to limit the amount of bitcoin to 21 million.
20% of circulating bitcoins are inaccessible
One time 21 million bitcoins will be mined, it will no longer be possible to mine new currencies. As explained in the cryptocurrency whitepaper, the Bitcoin code does not allow new tokens to be added when this threshold is exceeded. According to experts, it will be necessary to wait until 2140 for the final Bitcoin to be mined by a mining farm.
“Once a predetermined number of coins are in circulation, the incentive can be financed entirely by transaction fees and no longer require inflation.” He describes Satoshi Nakamoto, whose identity is still unknown, in the whitepaper. In an email exchanged with other prominent players in the Bitcoin network, he later explained:the total amount in circulation will be 21,000,000 coins”.
In reality, there aren’t really 19 million bitcoins in circulation in the market. According to a study by Chainalysis, a company specializing in blockchain analytics, More than 20% of 19 million existing bitcoins are also blocked in lost wallets. Many investors have indeed lost access to their cryptocurrency reserves. Other owners carefully kept their currency in their wallets for several years. This is the case of Nakamoto, whose bitcoins have not moved since 2010.
Reflecting the limited amount of gold, Bitcoin appears to be on its way to establishing itself as a store of value. Gradual decrease in Bitcoin supply accompanied by a wild increase in value. For this reason, many analysts believe that the price of Bitcoin will continue to rise in the coming years.
