When All Bitcoin Is Mined

Bitcoin’s total supply is limited to 21 million coins. That built-in scarcity shapes its economics, affects miner incentives, and will change how transaction fees and network security operate once no new coins are issued.

The Power of Programmed Scarcity

The protocol was coded to limit total issuance to 21,000,000 BTC. Bitcoin's supply is predictable. This concept, known as digital scarcity, is a primary reason why investors and savers view Bitcoin as a unique digital asset. It guarantees that new coins cannot be created endlessly, protecting the asset from inflation.

How Many Bitcoins Exist and When the Last One Will Be Mined

By August 2025, miners had created about 19.91 million BTC, or roughly 94.8% of the total supply. Because reward amounts are reduced periodically through scheduled halvings, only a bit more than one million coins remain to be produced. At the current issuance schedule, the final coin is expected to appear around the year 2140.

Why Halvings Slow New Supply

The Bitcoin protocol uses a built-in mechanism called "halving" to gradually reduce the rate of new coin creation. Roughly every four years, the reward that miners receive for adding a new block of transactions is cut in half. This process stretches the issuance of the remaining bitcoins over many decades, making each new coin progressively harder to earn and increasing the asset's scarcity.

How Mining Stays Stable Despite Changing Hardware

The network is designed to produce a new block every 10 minutes. To maintain this consistent pace, the protocol automatically adjusts the difficulty of mining.

• If more computing power joins the network, making mining faster, the difficulty increases.

• If miners leave the network, making mining slower, the difficulty decreases.

This self-regulating system ensures a steady and predictable flow of new bitcoins, regardless of technological advancements or changes in the number of miners.

What is the Current Mining Rate?

The block reward determines how many new bitcoins enter circulation. With the current reward at 3.125 BTC per block, miners collectively earn this amount approximately every 10 minutes. Aggregated across the network, that equals 0.3125 BTC per minute, or about one whole bitcoin produced every 3.2 minutes.

How Much of the Mined Supply Is Actually Usable?

The number of coins created is not the same as the number available for spending. Researchers estimate that up to 20% of mined bitcoins may be permanently inaccessible because private keys were lost, storage devices were discarded, or wallets were forgotten. That invisible supply shortage increases effective scarcity.

What Changes When the Last Bitcoin Is Mined

Once the last bitcoin is mined, miners will need to earn income solely from transaction fees. This will mark a major transition for the network's security model. Here are a few possible outcomes:

• Higher transaction fees: If fees must cover all mining costs, users could pay more to move BTC.
• Greater use of scaling solutions: Off-chain and layer-2 networks can reduce on-chain demand and keep fees manageable for many users.
• Mining consolidation risk: If fees are insufficient, some miners may shut down, which could raise short-term security concerns until the market rebalances.

History shows the ecosystem adapts: fee markets, wallet software, and layer-2 protocols can evolve to balance user costs against incentives that keep the network secure.

What This Means for You

The end of new issuance is a long-term milestone rather than an immediate crisis. Bitcoin's fixed supply remains central to its value proposition as a scarce, decentralized asset. Over time, fee markets, technological scaling, and shifting miner economics will determine transaction costs and network resilience.

Combined with self-regulating mechanisms like the difficulty adjustment, the protocol is designed to evolve. Over the next century, the network will slowly transit from relying on block rewards to a security model funded entirely by transaction fees, paving the way for new economic models and technologies.