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Since its launch in 2009, Bitcoin has gone from being a technological curiosity to a global asset that regularly makes headlines in financial news. Its price can be extremely volatile, but one thing remains constant: the supply of Bitcoin is limited by protocol to 21,000,000 BTC.
How many bitcoins are in circulation today? How quickly will new coins be added after the 2024 halving? And what will happen when the last satoshi is mined? I explain this step by step, using current figures.
As of January 15, 2026 (according to Blockchain.com network data), the total number of bitcoins that have already been "issued" (mined) is:
For market context: on the same date, the BTC price is around $96,636, but remember—the price changes all the time.
The limit of 21 million bitcoins is not a marketing ploy or a promise made by exchanges or cryptocurrency companies. It is a hard rule written into the Bitcoin protocol itself—something that simply cannot be changed without the consent of the entire network.
In practice, this means that new bitcoins are not "printed" whenever someone decides to do so. They only appear as a reward for miners for adding a new block to the blockchain. What's more, the rate at which they are created decreases over time - and this happens automatically.
Approximately every four years, or every 210,000 blocks, the mining reward is halved. This mechanism is called halving, and it is what makes Bitcoin increasingly difficult to obtain each year, with new coins arriving at a slower and slower rate.
Bitcoin (BTC) is a decentralized cryptocurrency operating on a peer-to-peer network. It has no central bank or single administrator. Instead, it uses a Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism, in which miners:
Important update regarding older descriptions: today, BTC mining is mainly the domain of ASICs and specialized mining farms/pools. "Mining on a laptop" no longer makes practical economic sense in the reality of 2026.
Halving is a mechanism that makes Bitcoin increasingly scarce over time. To put it simply: new Bitcoins are being created at a slower rate, and their issuance is steadily decreasing.
The last halving took place on April 20, 2024, when the network reached block 840,000. From that point on , the reward for mining one block dropped from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
The next reduction in emissions is expected around April 17, 2028, at block 1,050,000. At that point, the reward will be cut in half again and will amount to only 1.5625 BTC per block.
It is this regular rhythm of halvings that makes Bitcoin work completely differently from traditional currencies—instead of an ever-increasing supply, we are dealing with ever-increasing scarcity.
After the 2024 halving , the reward will be 3.125 BTC per block.
Since the network aims for an average of ~1 block every 10 minutes, this gives an approximate:
This is a significant difference compared to older articles, which reported a value of around 900 BTC per day. These figures were valid before the halving, when the reward was 6.25 BTC. Today, Bitcoin issuance is already half that amount and will continue to decline steadily in the coming years.
It is estimated that the "last bitcoin" (in practice: the last satoshi) will be mined around 2140.
Why so late? Because the emission does not end "suddenly"—it slows down exponentially with each subsequent halving. Over time, the block reward becomes so small that new coins appear more and more slowly.
This question comes up regularly and sounds alarming, but the truth is much simpler: nothing will "shut down" and nothing will crash.
When the network reaches the point where it is no longer possible to mine new bitcoins, miners will simply stop receiving rewards in the form of new coins. That's all. They will continue to process transactions and ensure network security, but instead of "fresh" BTC, they will earn money from transaction fees paid by users.
From the very beginning, Bitcoin was designed to transition to this model at some point. This is not a failure or a risk—it is a planned stage that will allow the network to continue operating even after the last satoshi enters circulation.
The fee market is not a theory of the future. Already today, periods of increased network usage can drive up fees and the share of fees in miners' revenues. A good example of this is ordinal inscriptions (Ordinals) - research indicates that an increase in inscriptions may correlate with an increase in fees and total fees in blocks.
In the long term, a very likely scenario looks like this:
No. And this is an important element of "today's reality."
In the statistics, you can see the number of coins mined, but some of them are most likely:
Blockchain.com explicitly states that some of the BTC in circulation is likely lost or unrecoverable.
CoinGecko even mentions estimates of millions of lost BTC (e.g., approx. 3 million), although this should be treated as an approximation rather than "hard accounting."
Conclusion? The nominal supply is limited to 21 million, but the actual liquid supply may be significantly lower.
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The supply limit does not cause Bitcoin ATMs to Bitcoin ATMs stop working. Bitcoin ATMs Bitcoin ATM depend on miners issuing new coins—they function as exchange points (on-ramps/off-ramps), utilizing market liquidity and operators.
What will really influence the future of Bitcoin ATMs 2026 and beyond is more often:
In Europe, MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) is a major context: ESMA indicates that the MiCA regime will apply from December 30, 2024, which will regulate the crypto services market in the EU.
At the same time, specific deadlines and licensing pressure are emerging—for example, Reuters reported that companies in the EU are required to have the necessary licenses (within transition periods) by June 30, 2026.
In recent years, the Bitcoin market has become highly institutionalized. For example, in the US, the listing and trading of selected spot Bitcoin ETPs was approved in January 2024 (the SEC emphasized that this was not an endorsement, but it is a milestone for access by traditional markets).
The result? More and more people are looking at Bitcoin as an asset with a predictable supply—not just "a cryptocurrency from the internet." And that's why the question "how many Bitcoins are there?" is more important today than ever before.
There can be a maximum of 21,000,000 BTC.
As of January 15, 2026, 19,976,162.5 BTC had been mined.
Approximately 1,023,837.5 BTC (as of January 15, 2026).
3,125 BTC (after halving in 2024), plus transaction fees.
Approximately 450 BTC per day from the block reward alone (excluding fees), with an average of 144 blocks/day.
Estimated in 2028 (around April 17, 2028) at block 1,050,000.
Around 2140.
Bitcoin is divided into 8 decimal places: 1 satoshi = 0.00000001 BTC.
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