Just saw the latest data—bitcoin has surpassed the milestone of 20 million BTC in circulation. This is a significant moment to understand how bitcoin's scarcity truly works in practice.

Out of the total 21 million BTC that will ever exist, more than 95% are now in circulation. This means only about 1 million coins remain to be mined, and the process will take more than a century to complete. Imagine—mining the last 1 million BTC will take another 114 years.

What’s interesting is how bitcoin reached this point. Satoshi Nakamoto designed the protocol with a hard cap of 21 million, unlike fiat currencies that can be printed endlessly. But how does this system maintain its scarcity? The answer lies in bitcoin’s halving mechanism.

Every four years, the miner reward is cut in half through bitcoin halving—this is a feature that causes bitcoin’s inflation to continually decrease. Currently, about 450 BTC are mined per day. At this rate, 99% of the total supply will be mined by January 2035. After that, mining will continue but at a very slow pace, until around 2140 when the last bitcoin is finally mined.

For miners, this is a major transition. Block rewards will keep decreasing, so they will increasingly rely on transaction fees as a source of income. This economic model will ultimately determine how the security and stability of the bitcoin network are maintained.

For investors and bitcoin maximalists, reaching 20 million reinforces the narrative of absolute scarcity. Unlike gold or oil, which can be found or produced more when prices rise, bitcoin’s supply curve is transparent and unchangeable. This is a commitment embedded in the code from the very beginning.

While new supply continues to shrink, demand keeps growing. That’s why many see bitcoin halving not just as a technical mechanism, but as the foundation of bitcoin’s value proposition as true hard money.