Have you ever wondered how many Bitcoins are out there in existence? Bitcoin is currently the top value crypto asset with around 46 million Bitcoin wallets holding a minimum of 1 USD equivalent Bitcoin.
A total of around 460 Bitcoin wallets have been created so far, with the majority of them having no Bitcoin holdings at all. As of the latest data of 2024, there are approximately 106 million BTC owners all over the world.
Here we are about to explore the total number of Bitcoins in circulation, the maximum that circulation can ever reach, and more.
Bitcoins Currently In Existence
There are around 19,647,050 Bitcoins out there in circulation. The number of Bitcoins available for mining is 1,352,950 with a 93.56% percentage of total supply already mined. The 24-hour trading volume is $60.5 billion with a 51.91% percentage of Bitcoin dominance in the market.
The maximum supply of Bitcoin is capped at 21 million tokens. Crypto investors may want to know the number of Bitcoins in existence because it will help them analyze the future of crypto.
When you know details about a particular cryptocurrency such as its total amount in circulation, the total crypto available for mining, and more. Also, you need to be aware of the Bitcoin mining events.
The Maximum Number of Bitcoins That Can Ever Exist
The Bitcoin ecosystem is designed in a way that the supply of the crypto keeps on going. This is because the Bitcoin mining process takes place every 10 minutes. Therefore, more and more Bitcoins come into existence in the blockchain. However, note that this process can only go until the supply reaches a total of 21 million tokens. This is a threshold where more than 93.56% of the crypto has undergone mining.
What Happens When The Total Supply Of Bitcoin Is Increasing?
We already said that every ten minutes, the Bitcoin mining process takes place which will lead to an increase in the total number of Bitcoins. This means that with each mining process, the number of bitcoins entering the blockchain decreases every four years. 21 million tonnes, the capped supply of BTC has the potential to impact the value of the crypto. It may also change the overall dynamics of the market.
Are There Any Lost Bitcoins?
Do you think that will happen? Can Bitcoin get lost just like the way we lose the traditional tangible currencies that we hold onto? When you walk on the road with a wallet in your pocket or bag which has around 200 USD and if someone steals, you will lose that money forever, unless you manage to catch the thief. This is something all of you know.
But how can someone steal Bitcoin? Well, that happens. Someone may steal your Bitcoin, you may lose Bitcoin or it can turn unrecoverable. In all these 3 cases, you will not be able to access Bitcoin anymore. Let us see how:
As an investor, you may store your Bitcoin in an external crypto wallet. There are private keys and passwords for this wallet, right? If you forget the password or if you lose access to the password, you will not be able to use that Bitcoin. Nobody will be able to open the wallet and you will have to consider the amount of Bitcoin in the wallet to have lost forever.
Even if you do not have access to that particular amount of Bitcoin, the BTC still remains in the total supply of BTC in the blockchain and the market. This happens because the Bitcoin that you have lost access to was minted and introduced to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Bitcoin also gets stolen. When bad actors and hackers break into an exchange or when you get cheated by an exchange scam, you can lose the Bitcoin that you have. Certain instances have happened before where millions worth of Bitcoin has gotten stolen. However, this stolen amount of Bitcoin also remains in the circulating supply of the crypto.
The Bottom Line
Now you know the necessary details about Bitcoin in existence. The mining process will keep on going increasing the number of the crypot until it reaches a capped amount of 21 million f tokens.
