No. 1 Around 20% of Bitcoin has been lost forever
According to crypto data firm Chainalysis, around 20% of Bitcoin has been lost or is stuck in wallets that can't be accessed. Today that equates to 3.76 million BTC (worth about $190 billion).
No. 2 The last Bitcoin will be mined in 2140 Only 21 million Bitcoin can ever be produced. It's built into the coin's code or DNA. Right now, about 18.8 million have been mined, though as we saw above, some of them are already lost. The way Bitcoin mining works, the number of Bitcoins that can be mined gets halved every four years. This means that although almost 90% of the total possible Bitcoin is already in circulation, it will take another 120 years or so to produce the remaining 2.2 million coins.
No. 3 A pizza purchase was the first commercial Bitcoin transaction
On May 22, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for two Papa John's pizzas -- worth about $41 at the time. This was the first commercial Bitcoin transaction and is now commemorated through Bitcoin Pizza day each year.
At today's prices, that 10,000 BTC would be worth over $500 million -- which is perhaps the real reason the story has become part of Bitcoin folklore.
No. 4 There are almost 100,000 Bitcoin millionaires
It's difficult to know for sure how many Bitcoin millionaires -- or billionaires -- there are because wallets are anonymous and the price of Bitcoin fluctuates, sometimes wildly. But according to BitInfoCharts, there are currently 98,180 addresses with BTC worth $1 million or more in them.
Forbes included 19 cryptocurrency billionaires on its 2023 Billionaires List, including the Winklevoss twins and Tim Draper
If these fun facts have tempted you to dip your toes into the Bitcoin waters, check out our list of top cryptocurrency exchanges. But make sure you do your own research and only invest money you can afford to lose. The price of Bitcoin can be extremely volatile; it may have made some people into millionaires, but a lot of people have also lost money through cryptocurrency investments.
