The milestone was reached at block height 939,999, based on the current 3.125 BTC block subsidy reward, after previously crossing exactly 95% of the total supply in November. The block was mined by Foundry USA pool, per Mempool data. Amid the gradual deceleration of new issuance as the network advances through successive halvings, less than 1 million BTC are now left to be mined as block subsidy rewards until miners become solely reliant on transaction fees.

Notably, 230.09 BTC remains unspendable due to the genesis block subsidy and other outputs that were created with scripts that make them impossible to spend. Bitcoin's circulating supply does not take into account other coins that may have been lost by users who have misplaced their private keys.

The event highlights the front-loaded nature of Bitcoin's issuance schedule. While it took roughly 17 years since the network launched for miners to produce the first 20 million coins, the final one million will emerge far more slowly due to the protocol's halving mechanism.

The final 1 million BTC

Bitcoin's supply schedule is embedded in the software created by its pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, which caps total issuance at 21 million coins. New bitcoins are introduced as block subsidy rewards paid to miners who validate transactions and add blocks to the blockchain.

The subsidy reward started at 50 BTC per block in 2009 and is cut in half every 210,000 blocks — roughly every four years. The fourth and most recent halving on April 20, 2024, reduced the subsidy from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, sharply slowing the pace of new supply entering the market and meaning that, on average, miners produce around 450 BTC in total per day compared to 900 BTC previously. However, they continue to earn additional transaction fee rewards for each block mined as normal.

The next halving is currently estimated for April 11, 2028, according to The Block's Bitcoin Halving Countdown page.

Because each halving further reduces issuance, the remaining supply will be released at an increasingly slow rate. Analysts estimate that the final one million coins will take more than a century to mine, with the smallest fractions, measured in satoshis, expected to be issued around 2140, when the protocol reaches its hard cap — roughly 114 years from today.

Kraken Global Economist Thomas Perfumo previously told The Block that Bitcoin's predictable and declining issuance is a defining characteristic distinguishing it from traditional monetary systems.

"This programmable scarcity, coupled with predictable issuance and decentralized design, is what sets Bitcoin apart from competing forms of money and asset classes," he said. "In the short term, bitcoin's market price fluctuates with macro conditions that drive global markets, business cycles, liquidity trends, and investor sentiment. Over the long term, we believe bitcoin's hard money design, coupled with permissionless access and growing adoption, drive value accrual to the network."

'Something to think about'

Early Bitcoin developer Hal Finney also speculated on the implications of the network's fixed supply shortly after the software was released. Writing on the cryptography mailing list in January 2009, Finney discussed the challenge of valuing a new digital currency with a predetermined issuance schedule.

He noted that determining a starting value for bitcoin would be difficult given that "virtually no one will accept it at first," but argued that a successful global system could eventually command significant economic value.

As a thought experiment, Finney imagined a scenario in which Bitcoin became the dominant payment network worldwide, suggesting the currency's value could theoretically mirror global household wealth.

"Current estimates of total worldwide household wealth that I have found range from $100 trillion to $300 trillion," Finney wrote. "With 20 million coins, that gives each coin a value of about $10 million."

Even if such an outcome appeared unlikely at the time, Finney suggested the asymmetric potential of early mining made participation worthwhile, describing it as "something to think about."

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source: https://www.tradingview.com/news/the_block:8d3f7c21f094b:0-bitcoin-s-mined-supply-hits-20-million-milestone-leaving-final-1-million-btc-to-be-issued-over-next-114-years/