According to Mining News Pro - The 19th millionth Bitcoin (BTC) was mined on Friday, a landmark occasion for the number one cryptocurrency. Nineteen million Bitcoin are now in circulation, with just 2 million Bitcoin yet to be minted (or mined) until roughly the year 2140.
In block 730002, mined by SBI Crypto, the 19 millionth Bitcoin entered circulation. SBI Crypto earned 6.32 BTC, roughly $293,000 for the trouble in transaction fees and block reward.
A momentous occasion, the Bitcoin community was quick to celebrate the milestone event.
The CEO of possibly one of the world’s most ESGfriendly Bitcoin miners, Kjetil Hove Pettersen of Kryptovault, told Cointelegraph "we have only two million Bitcoin—less than 10% of the total—left to mine." He continued:
Bert de Groot, founder of a Bitcoin flower come mining company, Bitcoin Bloem, told Cointelegraph the “19th million Bitcoin being mined today marks a historical moment.” He concluded that it “makes us realize once more how important the work was that Satoshi Nakamoto,” joking that “we wish we could have sent flowers to show our gratitude.”
According to Vlad Costea, founder of Bitcoin Takeover, there are “only 2 million BTC left to mine in the next 118 years!” Over the past 13 years since the inception of Bitcoin, miners have uncovered 19 million Bitcoin; the last Bitcoin is expected to be mined in the year 2140.
The 18,500,000 millionth Bitcoin was mined in September 2020, as the current issuance rate is 6.25 Bitcoin per block. The next halving, where the issuance rate is cut in half, is scheduled for 2024.
For the Bitcoin community, the 19 millionth Bitcoin mined highlights the scarcity of Bitcoin. According to Human Rights Foundation chief strategy officer Alex Gladstein, the scarcity is even more prominent, given how early the world is on the route to adopting Bitcoin:
To date, El Salvador is the only nation-state to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, now issuing Bitcoin-backed “Volcano Bonds” to raise money. However, several other countries including Brazil showed promising signs of Bitcoin adoption in 2021.
With less than 10% of the Bitcoin left to be mined, the most aggressive Bitcoin buyers—such as Do Kwon's Luna Foundation Guard—face an uphill battle if they want to continue stacking Sats.
Bitcoin network difficulty reaches all-time high as miners pursue 2M BTC
Just when the Bitcoin (BTC) miners helped release the 19th millionth BTC in circulation on Friday, the BTC network’s mining difficulty reciprocated by reaching an all-time high of 28.587 trillion.
Bitcoin’s network difficulty correlates to the computational power required to mine BTC blocks, which currently demands an estimated hash rate of 201.84 exahash per second (EH/s), according to data from Blockchain.com.
Supporting the spike in the network difficulty, Bitcoin’s hash rate maintained a stronghold throughout the year while breaking into an all-time high of 248.11 EH/s on Feb. 13.
A higher hash rate ensures resilience against double-spending attacks, which is the process of reversing BTC transactions over the blockchain by contributing to at least 51% of the Bitcoin hash rate.
Back on Mar. 4, roughly a month before reaching an all-time high, the BTC network difficulty experienced a slight decline from 27.96 trillion to 27.55 trillion, which eventually fell down to 27.45 trillion until Mar. 30. Prior to that, the resilient Bitcoin network grew consistently since July 2021.
With just 2 million BTC left to mine as rewards and an influx of Bitcoin miners from across the world, the BTC network is expected to increasingly grow stronger as it supports the thriving community. it is estimated that the remaining 2 million BTC (out of the total supply of 21 million) will be eventually mined roughly by the year 2140 owing to factors including halving.
On Mar. 30, a Terra wallet belonging to LFG (Luna Foundation Guard) amassed $139 million in BTC, bringing its total coffers up to 31,000 BTC or $1.47 billion.
As Cointelegraph reported, the wallet began amassing colossal amounts of BTC on Jan. 2021 and has not sold a single satoshi to date.