Bitcoin has had a tough time lately, and the price of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency is currently slightly below $10,000.
However, now comes news that may change this. It has to do with how many bitcoin is left to mine before all units of the cryptocurrency are out on the market.
17.85 million bitcoin mined
Earlier on Thursday, reports surfaced that 85 percent of all bitcoin is now mined.
Right now, 17.85 million units of the cryptocurrency have been put on the market through mining. This means that only 3.15 million coins that are not mined remain. This is because bitcoin has a specific number of coins which is 21 million.
However, it will take a while before the last bitcoin has been mined. This is expected to happen in 2140, ie in 121 years. The reason for this is that the number of bitcoin miners receive in reward for solving blocks on the bitcoin blockchain decreases once every four years in a so-called halving, Cointelegraph reports.
Bitcoin shortage strikes
On Twitter, bitcoin enthusiasts are now speculating if the fact that 85 percent of all bitcoin has been mined will lead to a price increase.
“Scarcity is about to kick in”, writes user Rhythm.
The cryptocurrency analyst Filb Filb belongs to those who agree with this analysis. He has previously claimed that the bitcoin price will never again fall below $6,500 as a result of the diminishing number of non-mined coins.
Another thing that may be interesting to speculate on is how many bitcoin is actually available to trade. In 2017, the analysis company Chainalysis did a study that showed that four million bitcoin is gone forever because they are stored in wallets whose keys were stolen.
