95% has been mined out: What does it mean that only the last 5% of Bitcoin remains?

When Bitcoin was created, the protocol strictly limited the total supply to 21 million coins. This rule was embedded into the consensus mechanism, making it impossible for anyone to arbitrarily change or increase the supply. As a result, Bitcoin is regarded as an asset with strong scarcity, often called "digital gold." As of November 2025, on-chain data shows that approximately 19.949 million BTC have been mined, accounting for about 95%. On paper, about 5% (more than one million coins) are still unreleased, but this new supply will enter the market at an increasingly slow pace over time.

This "slowing down" is due to Bitcoin's unique halving mechanism. According to the protocol, every 210,000 blocks, the block reward is automatically halved, and the network produces a new block approximately every 10 minutes. Because the rewards decrease geometrically, Bitcoin's issuance curve gradually slows down. Current estimates suggest that this remaining small portion of block rewards will continue until the mid-21st century, with the "last Bitcoin" expected to be mined around 2138-2140. This means that although new coins will continue to be released from now until 2140, the annual increase will be minimal compared to early days, and the marginal impact on the overall supply will diminish.

Under the current mechanism, miners' economic incentives to maintain network security mainly come from two sources:
1. The block rewards for mining new blocks, i.e., newly issued Bitcoin;
2. Transaction fees paid by users when initiating on-chain transfers.
At certain historical points, such as just before a halving, the global output might be around 900 BTC; after halving, this number is halved directly. Currently, transaction fees constitute only a small part of miners' total income, serving mainly as a supplement to the block rewards. Therefore, once all Bitcoin has been mined in the future, the miners' revenue structure will fundamentally change: the block reward will disappear entirely, and miners will rely solely on transaction fees to cover their costs of computing power and equipment operation. If fee income is insufficient to cover electricity, equipment depreciation, and operational costs, it could lead to a decline in the number of miners, a shrinking of the network's total hash rate, and potentially raise concerns about Bitcoin's long-term security and decentralization. In other words, after the cap on Bitcoin's total supply is reached, whether the system can maintain stable operation solely through the "fee market" will be a long-term issue to observe and discuss.

The above content is only an educational explanation of Bitcoin's mechanism and potential impacts and does not constitute any investment advice or decision-making basis. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile, and you may lose your entire principal. This is not investment advice, not investment advice, not investment advice. $BTC