Only a few percent of Bitcoin coins remain to be mined. How much cryptocurrency is on the open market?
By mid-November 2025, miners had mined 95% of all bitcoins that will ever be in circulation. That's about 19.95 million coins, or $1.9 trillion at the time of publication. This percentage was already recorded in the summer, but now the calculations have been adjusted to take into account coins that are considered “unspendable,” such as those that have been lost or are in technically inaccessible wallets.
Thus, miners have 1.05 million left to mine out of the 21 million bitcoins originally provided for in the algorithm. As of November 17, just over 230,000 coins fall into the “unspendable” category.
The mechanism for the emergence of new bitcoins is predictable and based on a gradual decrease in issuance (halving). It is known in advance when and how many coins will be created, with possible minor deviations in time, but not in volume. Thus, 99% of all bitcoins will be mined by January 2035, and 99.9% by 2047.
Bitcoin passed the 94% mark in mid-2024 and 90% at the end of 2021. Bitcoin crossed the 80% mark in early 2018, 70% in late 2016, 60% in early 2014, and 50% in late 2012.
The rate of new Bitcoin issuance continues to slow down, as provided for by the cryptocurrency algorithm, in which a so-called halving occurs every four years. This mechanism halves the reward in the form of new Bitcoins that miners receive for adding another block of transactions to the blockchain, thereby reducing the rate at which new coins appear in circulation.
For comparison: when the network was launched in 2009, miners received 50 BTC for each block, or about 2.6 million bitcoins per year. After the first halving in 2012, the reward was reduced to 25 BTC (approximately 1.3 million coins per year), in 2016 — to 12.5 BTC (750,000 coins per year), in 2020 — to 6.25 BTC (325,000 coins per year), and in 2024 — to 3.125 BTC, which corresponds to approximately 160,000 coins per year.
After the next halving in 2028, the annual increase in supply will be about 80,000 BTC, and in another four years, it will decrease to about 40,000 coins.
The income of miners who receive rewards in bitcoins decreases over time. In dollar terms, the situation depends on the exchange rate, but in fact, the amount of cryptocurrency received is decreasing. As the next planned reduction in emissions approaches, market participants are increasingly raising questions about the sustainability of the business and the need to adapt to new conditions.
In a recent interview with CoinDesk, Fred Tille, head of the largest US mining company MARA Holdings, said that the industry is facing a major transformation in the coming years. According to him, outdated and inefficient business models will cease to be profitable, and only companies with access to cheap energy or those that have managed to diversify their activities beyond mining (for example, into artificial intelligence) will be able to survive.
Competition is intensifying as new players enter the market, including equipment manufacturers and companies with large budgets such as Tether. Thiel noted that without a significant increase in the price of Bitcoin, the situation after the halving in 2028 could become critical.
If we convert the estimated total income of miners into dollar equivalent, at a Bitcoin price of around $95,000 (as of mid-November 2025), it amounts to approximately $40 million per day. For comparison, similar figures were observed in 2021 and 2022, when the Bitcoin price ranged from $30,000 to $60,000.
This indicates that with a decrease in emissions and the current number of participants remaining unchanged, mining may cease to be an economically viable way to ensure the network's operation if the price of Bitcoin does not grow at a faster rate.
