On Thursday, 26th April, the 17 millionth bitcoin was officially mined representing nearly 81 percent of all bitcoins that will ever exist. With just 4 million Bitcoins left to be mined, the cryptocurrency should increase its value as the demand grows but the offer is more limited each year.
The first bitcoins were mined in January 2009. Blockchain.info data shows it took about 200 days to reach the first 1 million coins, but the run to 17 million has taken more than 500 days, the number of bitcoins topped 16 million in November 2016. The remaining 4 million coins aren’t expected to be mined completely for another 122 years.
Ansel Lindner, a bitcoin investor and host of the “Bitcoin & Markets” podcast, said,
“It’s an event that makes the market more aware of the scarcity of bitcoin. It will eventually turn into higher prices,”
The last time bitcoin mining reached a pivotal breakthrough was in November 2016 when the amount of bitcoins mined into existence crossed the 16 million threshold. That said, the last bitcoin to be mined isn’t expected to happen until 2140 thanks to the “halving” system bitcoin’s founder Satoshi Nakamoto invented back in 2009.
The next bitcoin halving will take place on May the 29 2020. We are almost at half way from there. Since that moment, each bitcoin block mined will reward with 6.25 BTC to the miner that is able to find it.
Bitcoin’s had a rough go so far in 2018, dropping nearly 35 percent since early this year and more than double since its high of $19,200 at the end of December. Bitcoin reached an over month-high on Tuesday (April 24) when it clocked in at $9,745.02.
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