Only 2.5 million BTC available

If you’re a Bitcoin (BTC) holder, and a crypto fan generally, you’ll know that there was only ever 21 million Bitcoin are available to be mined. At the moment, there are just under 2.5 million BTC left. What does that mean for the price?

A Twitter post by ChartBTC revealed the Bitcoin network had already passed 18.5 million BTC in circulation, leaving 2.5 million, or 11.9% of the total, left for mining.

According to ChartBTC, these will be mined over the next four years. Since its inception in 2009, BTC has gone through three halvings, with the most recent occurring in May this year. Furthermore, as Cointelegraph points out: “As the issuance of new coins is halved every four years, the last Bitcoin is not expected to be mined until 2140. No new Bitcoin can be mined after that year.”

It also reminded us that a group of eight Crypto Valley experts thought the last halving was different from those in the past because more people are considering storing their life savings in BTC. One of the group said, “The power has shifted away from miners. They’re not in the same position as they used to be ten years ago or even five years ago […]. The stock is already so big and because today there is a lot of Bitcoin in circulation people are willing to trade and exchange.”

We have also witnessed a rise in institutional demand in 2020. For example, crypto asset fund Grayscale, recorded an inflow of $1.4 billion in capital, and the assets under management of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust rose from $1.577 billion to $3 billion, from March 17 to May 13.

New survey data showed that institutional investors intend to increase their Bitcoin allocations regardless of short-term dips in price. That is why the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund — the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, also known as the Oil Fund — now owns 577.6 BTC.