The last Bitcoin is expected to be mined by 2140, marking the culmination of a carefully designed process governed by 28 more Bitcoin halvings, which occur roughly every four years. As these halvings continue, block mining rewards will become so small that mining the final Bitcoin could take around 40 years.
Bitcoin, the world's most recognized cryptocurrency, relies on its mining process to maintain a decentralized network. A cornerstone of Bitcoin’s design is its limited supply of 21 million BTC, a feature that drives its scarcity and value. Currently, approximately 19.8 million BTC have been mined, leaving an estimated 1.2 million that have yet to enter circulation.
Key highlights:
The last Bitcoin is expected to be mined in 2140, after 28 remaining halvings that will halve block rewards approximately every four years.
Bitcoin’s total supply is capped at 21 million, with 19.8 million BTC already mined and 1.2 million yet to enter circulation.
Halvings significantly lower mining rewards over time, with the current 3.125 BTC reward set to drop to 1.5625 BTC in April 2028.
By 2050, 99.8% of all Bitcoin will be in circulation, leaving miners to rely increasingly on transaction fees to sustain the network.
Bitcoin supply dynamics & halving
At the moment, there exist about 19.8 million BTC, meaning that there are approximately 1.2 million BTC left to be mined before the maximum supply of 21 million BTC is reached. The actual supply of Bitcoin in circulation is likely substantially lower than 19.8 million though, as millions of coins have been lost over the years due to forgotten wallet passwords, hardware failures, and incorrect transactions.
Bitcoin miners are incentivized to provide their hashpower to the network with BTC that is created to reward whoever places the next block on the Bitcoin blockchain. Right now, the block reward is 3.125 BTC, and this amount is set to drop to 1.5625 BTC with the next halving, which is expected to occur in April 2028.
The Bitcoin halving is eagerly anticipated by those who speculate on the price of Bitcoin, as it lowers the supply of fresh BTC entering the market – the increased scarcity is a beneficial factor on the value of BTC. Miners have to sell a portion of the mined BTC to cover operating costs (electricity, hardware, employees...).
The halving of block rewards occurs every 210,000 blocks, and the time of future halvings can be calculated as a new block is added to the Bitcoin blockchain at an average rate of one every 10 minutes.
The next Bitcoin halving is expected in April 2028
The next Bitcoin halving, which is expected to happen in April of 2028, will be the fifth Bitcoin halving. Here are the halvings that have happened so far and the associated block reward reductions. In total, there will be 32 Bitcoin halvings before the last BTC is mined.
First Bitcoin halving: November 28, 2012 (from 50 BTC to 25 BTC)
Second Bitcoin halving: July 6, 2016 (from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC)
Third Bitcoin halving: May 11, 2020 (12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC)
Fourth Bitcoin halving: April 19, 2024 (6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC)
So far, Bitcoin halvings have positively impacted its price, as a new ATH followed shortly after each halving event. (Source: TradingView)
As we can see in the chart above, Bitcoin halving events bring about new ATH for the cryptocurrency. In fact, bitcoin reached it's most recent all-time high of $99,575 just a few months after the 4th halving. It remains to be seen whether this trend will continue for future halvings as well.
It's going to take a while to mine the last Bitcoin
The last Bitcoin is estimated to be mined in 2140, when the block reward would drop below 1 satoshi (the smallest denomination of BTC). Of course, this would require Bitcoin miners to be around 122 years from now, which is far from a certainty. At that point, miners would be incentivized to maintain the network because they would still collect fees for securing transactions even though there would be no more block rewards. The very last Bitcoin could take nearly 40 years to be mined, which is incredibly hard to imagine, especially when considering how long it takes to mine 1 Bitcoin today, which is around 10 minutes.
After the year 2050, Bitcoin mining rewards will be incredibly small, and 99.8% of all Bitcoin will already be in circulation. (Source: Bitcoin Visuals)
After several more halvings, the mining rewards will become exponentially smaller, and they will continue to do so until the last Bitcoin is mined. There is no reliable way to predict Bitcoin's price by then, as it's too far in the future. However, if we are to believe our Bitcoin price prediction algorithm, Bitcoin could reach $1,5 million by 2050.
What will happen when the last Bitcoin is mined?
Unless a protocol change is enacted that will raise the maximum amount of Bitcoins that can exist (a very unlikely scenario), the supply of new BTC will eventually run out permanently. When that happens, miners will only be compensated with transaction fees and stop receiving block rewards. So, we should hope that Bitcoin is heavily adopted and commonly used by 2140, otherwise, we could see miners abandoning ship.
When there's no Bitcoin left to mine, there's also the chance that transaction fees would increase sharply to account for the fact that there will be no more block rewards. However, a lot of things could change between now and 2140 and there's no guarantee that the Bitcoin network will survive for more than a century.
The bottom line
Bitcoin's fixed supply and halving mechanism ensure its scarcity and long-term value proposition, but predicting the state of the network in 2140 is virtually impossible. While the mining process is expected to transition from block rewards to transaction fees as the primary incentive, the success of this model hinges on widespread adoption and continued network security. With 28 halvings remaining and more than a century to go, the evolution of technology, regulation, and market dynamics could reshape Bitcoin's trajectory in ways we can't foresee.
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