1. How much BTC is lost in total?
It is estimated that between 3 and 4 million BTC have been permanently lost. This represents approximately 15% - 20% of all the supply that has been mined to date.
Total supply mined (2026): ~19.94 million BTC.
Estimated lost BTC: ~3.7 million BTC.
Actual effective circulation: Only between 15.9 and 16.5 million BTC would remain available.
Most of these losses occurred in the early years (2009-2012), when Bitcoin had no market value and people did not protect their private keys with the same rigor as today. The most famous case is that of Satoshi Nakamoto, whose million BTC (~5% of the total supply) has not moved in over a decade and is largely considered "lost" or out of the market.
2. How much is lost annually?
Estimates of annual loss vary by analyst, but the trend is downward thanks to better education and the use of cold wallets.
Estimated loss rate: Between 0.5% and 1% of the circulating supply each year.
Amount in tokens: This amounts to approximately 95,000 - 190,000 BTC that disappear annually.
Main reasons: Death of the owner without an inheritance plan, loss of seed phrases, physical failures in old hardware, or sending funds to wrong/nonexistent addresses.
Fun fact: Currently, more Bitcoins are lost each year than are created through mining (especially after the halving of 2024), which accentuates the real deflation of the asset.#btc
It is estimated that between 3 and 4 million BTC have been permanently lost. This represents approximately 15% - 20% of all the supply that has been mined to date.
Total supply mined (2026): ~19.94 million BTC.
Estimated lost BTC: ~3.7 million BTC.
Actual effective circulation: Only between 15.9 and 16.5 million BTC would remain available.
Most of these losses occurred in the early years (2009-2012), when Bitcoin had no market value and people did not protect their private keys with the same rigor as today. The most famous case is that of Satoshi Nakamoto, whose million BTC (~5% of the total supply) has not moved in over a decade and is largely considered "lost" or out of the market.
2. How much is lost annually?
Estimates of annual loss vary by analyst, but the trend is downward thanks to better education and the use of cold wallets.
Estimated loss rate: Between 0.5% and 1% of the circulating supply each year.
Amount in tokens: This amounts to approximately 95,000 - 190,000 BTC that disappear annually.
Main reasons: Death of the owner without an inheritance plan, loss of seed phrases, physical failures in old hardware, or sending funds to wrong/nonexistent addresses.
Fun fact: Currently, more Bitcoins are lost each year than are created through mining (especially after the halving of 2024), which accentuates the real deflation of the asset.#btc