Written by: Maher, Foresight News

On March 10 at around 9 PM, the 20 millionth Bitcoin was mined. This indicates that 95.2% of the total supply of 21 million BTC has been mined, leaving only 1 million BTC to be mined over the next 114 years.

On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the genesis block of the Bitcoin network (Genesis Block, also known as Block 0), marking the official launch of the Bitcoin blockchain, and it has now been 17 years.

Over the course of time, BTC has risen from $0.06 to $126,000 in 2025, transforming from a niche hobby into a massive cryptocurrency with a market value once exceeding $2.5 trillion, demonstrating its strong vitality to everyone.

Aside from the crazy return multiples, there are still some noteworthy data points in BTC's development history.

The horizontal axis of the chart covers 2010 to 2026, with each bar corresponding to a specific metric, labeled from left to right with the required number of days. The shortest is "The transaction volume exceeding 20 million BTC," which took only 729 days, roughly corresponding to early 2011. At that time, Bitcoin was still in its early stages, with a low price, but significant liquidity accumulation was already evident on-chain.

Subsequently, it took 830 days for BTC's total transaction amount to exceed $20 million, 841 days for its market capitalization to surpass $20 million, and 880 days for daily transaction volume to exceed $20 million. These early indicators mark Bitcoin's transition from an experimental protocol to an asset form with actual value.

As time progresses, the time required for on-chain activity metrics has gradually lengthened. It took 1,336 days for daily transaction volume to exceed 20 million BTC, 1,398 days to create 20 million UTXOs, 1,436 days to spend 20 million UTXOs, 1,636 days for Bitcoin to achieve 20 million transactions, and about 1,756 days to reach 20 million addresses.

Most of this data was concentrated between 2013 and 2014, just after Bitcoin experienced its first halving (in November 2012, the block reward dropped from 50 BTC to 25 BTC), during which the network ecosystem began to enter a significant expansion phase.

It took 2,906 days for total payment fees for BTC to exceed $20 million, nearly 8 years, reflecting that early transaction fees were extremely low and only accumulated gradually after network demand increased and congestion intensified. The 20 million non-zero balance addresses, 20 million profitable addresses, and 20 million active addresses were reached in 3,197 days, 3,198 days, and 3,248 days respectively, roughly corresponding to the 2017 bull market. During this period, Bitcoin gradually entered the public eye, and the number of holding addresses increased significantly.

The longest bar corresponds to "20 million BTC mined," which took a total of 6,267 days, about 17 years and 2 months.

The total supply limit of Bitcoin is 21 million, issued via block rewards, halving every 210,000 blocks (approximately 4 years). The initial reward was 50 BTC/block, reduced to 25 BTC/block after halving, then to 6.25 BTC/block after the 2020 halving, totaling approximately 19,687,500 BTC; in April 2024, the fourth halving will reduce it to 3.125 BTC/block, currently in this cycle, with each halving reducing the rate of new coin issuance, reinforcing asset scarcity, and creating a link with the price cycle.

Currently, the estimated mining time for the remaining approximately 1 million BTC, based on current block rewards and halving rhythms, is about 114 years. The current reward is 3.125 BTC/block, adding about 164,000 BTC annually; after the 2028 halving it will drop to 1.5625 BTC/block and will continue to decline thereafter. In the final phase, issuance will slow down to the unit of satoshis, completing around 2140.

This is the core logic of Bitcoin's design: a rapid distribution in the early stage lays the foundation, while a very low rate in the later stage reinforces its "digital gold" attributes. Future miner income will rely more on transaction fees to maintain network security.

The 20 million milestone is not an endpoint, but the starting point of a new phase. With the slow release of remaining supply, the narrative of Bitcoin as digital gold will be further strengthened.

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