At block height 714,000, the Bitcoin network reached a point where 2.1 million BTC, or 10% of the available supply, remains to be mined.
However, according to Jameson Lopp, CTO of Casa, the 18.9 million mined coin milestone was reached only after 32 blocks. This is because some early miners did not claim the rewards.
For this reason, the total supply of Bitcoin will not reach 21 million BTC, as the protocol envisages.
Additionally, Chainalysis researchers previously estimated that 3.79 million BTC may be permanently lost. The coins theoretically exist, but do not participate in circulation.
Also around 1 million BTC are held at addresses that are linked to the creator of the first cryptocurrency, Satoshi Nakamoto. The BTC were mined in the early stages of the network’s development and have not moved since.
Nakamoto posted the last public message on the BitcoinTalk forum 11 years ago.
It is expected that the emission cap for digital gold will be reached around 2140, as regular halvings gradually push the pace of coin issuance toward zero.
As noted, following the May 2020 halving, the block reward stands at 6.25 BTC.