How many Bitcoins are there?

Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s oldest, largest and best-known cryptocurrency, was valued at over $1.2 billion at its peak in November 2021.

The peer-to-peer currency’s permission-free and censorship-resistant property makes bitcoin an attractive draw for many. Others boast about the bellwether cryptocurrency’s sound monetary policy.

Cryptocurrency proponents see bitcoin as a revolutionary currency with the potential to correct monetary policy errors that have plagued fiat currencies due to its fixed hard cap and ever-decreasing rate of inflation.

How many bitcoins are there? In this article, we answer this question and find out who owns the most bitcoins.

Hard cap: How many bitcoins are there?

Bitcoin has a hard cap which means that only a certain number of bitcoins can ever be mined. Bitcoin’s hard cap is one of the main differences that separate monetary policy from fiat currencies.

Maximum access to bitcoin is limited to 21 million. Furthermore, the emission rate of bitcoin is designed to decrease over time in a process known as halving.

The halving event happens every 210,000 blocks, which is about four years, after which mining rewards are halved. As of July 22, 2022, the last halving event occurred in May 2021 when mining rewards dropped from 12.5 BTC per block to 6.25 BTC per block.

The next halving event is expected to occur in 2024, after which BTC emissions will drop further to 3,125 BTC per block.

How many bitcoins are there in the world? As of July 22, 2022, around 19.09 million bitcoins have been mined representing 91% of the maximum supply, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

How many bitcoins are available for mining? Less than 2 million bitcoins are left to be mined. The last bitcoin is expected to be mined in the year 2140.

As of July 22, 2022, the market capitalization of BTC was over $444.8 billion at current prices of $23,298. Bitcoin’s fully diluted market capitalization was over $489.4 billion.

Who owns the most bitcoins?

According to the bitcoin-focused asset manager River FinancialSatoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous inventor of Bitcoin, is estimated to be the largest BTC holder in possession of over 1 million BTC stored in approximately 22,00 addresses.

None of Nakamoto’s estimated BTC holdings have been moved besides some test transactions, according to River Financial.

If we look at public on-chain data compiled by Bitinfochartsthe two richest bitcoin addresses were identified as those belonging to the crypto exchanges Binance and Bitfinex.

How many total bitcoins are there in the richest bitcoin address?

The Binance wallet held around 252,597 BTC worth over $5.8 billion, representing 1.3% of the circulating supply, as of July 22, 2022.

The third richest bitcoin address remained anonymous. It had 132,878 BTC worth over $3 billion as of July 22, 2022.

Several companies have accumulated BTC over the years.

US-based software company MicroStrategy (MSTR) is the world’s largest publicly traded bitcoin owner with holdings of about 129,218 BTC, according to its Q1 2022 earnings report. MicroStrategy’s BTC holdings are worth over $3 billion as of July 22, 2022.

Tesla is also known to be a holder of bitcoin. However, on July 20, 2022, the company announced that it had sold 75% of its bitcoin holdings by the end of the second quarter of 2022.

The electric car maker did not disclose how much bitcoin it had. The company reported “digital assets” worth $218 million as of June 30, 2022 on its balance sheet, down from $1.26 billion held as of March 31, 2022.

Meanwhile, the total number of bitcoins held by early BTC adopter El Salvador was about 2,301, as of June 15, 2022, according to the news agency Fortune.

Bitcoin lost: Millions of BTC unrecoverable

According to a report from 2020 by Cane Island Digital Researchthere will never be more than 14 million total bitcoins available, as many will be irretrievably lost due to various factors, including:

• User who accidentally throws keys. British newspaper The Telegraph reported in 2017 that an early bitcoin miner from Wales named James Howell lost keys to 7,500 BTC stored on a hard drive after he mistakenly threw it away. Howell’s BTC holdings would be worth $175.75 million as of July 22, 2022.

• Loss of keys.

• Died without arranging to transfer keys.

• Sending BTC to wrong or defunct addresses.

Bitcoin Future: What’s Next for the Top Crypto?

Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of MicroStrategy, highlighted that the cryptocurrency became more “clean and efficient”, after improving the sustainable power mix. according to Bitcoin Mining Councilincreased the electricity mix for bitcoin mining to 59.5% sustainable in Q2 2022.

“Stay with bitcoin,” Saylor said in a recent chirpingconfirming his positive view of bitcoin’s future.

What is your view on bitcoin? Do you prefer to buy, “hold” or stay away from the volatile cryptocurrency?

If you are considering investing in bitcoin, we recommend that you do your own research to develop an informed view of what is a realistic market outlook. View the latest market trends, news, technical and fundamental analysis and expert opinions before making any investment decision. Remember that past performance is no guarantee of future returns. And never trade money you can’t afford to lose.

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