Bitcoin's pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, determined in 2008 that the total Bitcoin supply cap would always be pegged at 21 million, ensuring a virtual currency without inflation.
Currently, miners are rewarded with newly minted Bitcoins for their computational work in the mining process. However, once the 21 million caps is reached, the mining reward will no longer exist. Instead, miners will rely on transaction fees as their primary source of income.
What is the maximum amount of Bitcoin I can buy? There is no legal maximum to the amount of Bitcoins you can buy. If your country will allow you to buy any Bitcoin, you can buy as many as you want.
It has a stipulation built into its source code that it must have a finite supply, which means both Bitcoin and gold are limited resources. For this reason, only 21 million Bitcoin can ever be in circulation. Also, like gold, Bitcoin cannot be created out of the blue. It takes some work to extract.
When Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, he installed a strict limit on the number of Bitcoin that could ever exist. There will never be more than 21 million bitcoin. This limit, known as the hard cap, is encoded in Bitcoin's source code and enforced by nodes on the network.
According to Satoshi, his choice for the number of coins was an “educated guess” with practicality in mind. He aimed for a number that would produce price tags similar to other, already existing currencies. But without knowing Bitcoin's future value this proved to be an impossible task.
The largest holder of Bitcoin is believed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous founder of Bitcoin. Nakamoto is estimated to own approximately 1,000,000 BTC, worth around $27.13 billion.
The firm expects Bitcoin to hit $1.48 million in 2030, its most bullish outlook, while $258,500 is the bear case and $682,800 the base.
Crypto winter is finally over and bitcoin (BTC), the world's largest cryptocurrency, has the potential to reach $100,000 by the end of 2024, according to a research report by Standard Chartered Bank.
Ethereum, however, has an infinite supply. In January 2021, there were 113.5 million tokens in circulation. As of April 2022, there are roughly 120 million. There are some predictions that after shifting the Ethereum process from PoW to PoS, the supply of Ethereum may be reduced.
The Bottom Line
But however Bitcoin evolves, no new bitcoins will be released after the 21-million coin limit is reached. Reaching this supply limit is likely to have the most significant impact on Bitcoin miners, but it's possible that Bitcoin investors could also experience adverse effects.
When all bitcoin have been mined, miner revenue will depend entirely on transaction fees. The price and purchasing power of bitcoin will adjust to the lack of new supply. The scarcity of Bitcoin will make it more attractive to investors and users.
The maximum number of bitcoins that can ever exist is 21 million, and as of March 2023, over 19 million bitcoins have already been mined. This means that there are only around 2 million bitcoins left to be mined, and once that limit is reached, no more bitcoins will be created.
Based on the current schedule, all Bitcoin will be mined and in circulation by the year 2140, which leaves a significant amount of time ahead for the network to grow and become more globalized.
Once the Bitcoin network's supply runs out, miners will still be incentivized to support it. Miners already get paid in transaction fees and Bitcoins. Transaction fees comprise only about 6% of a miner's income. Transaction fee returns are expected to increase exponentially before Bitcoin's supply limit is reached.
Apparently It Only Takes 0.28 bitcoin
There's no need to despair if you haven't been able to acquire (or keep) a full BTC, though. Jake Levison says that all it takes is 0.28 BTC: If you own 0.28 BTC, you're statistically guaranteed to be in the richest 1% of the world in BTC terms.
Bitcoin Price Prediction 2023-2030
Based on our analysis, Bitcoin's price will fall to $21,525 by the end of 2023. This is a potential loss of 17% by the end of the year. By the end of 2025, we expect BTC to rise to $45,200, a gain of 74.3% from today's price.
Taking a longer-term outlook, we expect the price of Ethereum to reach $3,200 by 2024.
The MNC bank forecasted BTC to reach $50,000 by the end of this current year. The Chinese-Canadian Bitcoin entrepreneur and CEO of crypto firm, JAN3, Samson Mow, believes the cryptocurrency will reach $1 million in the next five years.
But practically speaking, the probability that Bitcoin would ever abruptly crash in this manner is very low. Even if several factors may cause Bitcoin's value to decline over time, it would need significant changes in the economic model and the network itself for Bitcoin to drastically go down to zero.
In 2040, we can expect an average price of Ethereum (ETH) around $23,000 – $25,000, depending on market trends. More positive forecasts predict Ether's coin to be around $40,000.
Bitcoin Price Prediction 2050
By the year 2050, Bitcoin's average price could reach approximately $646,200. The minimum value of a Bitcoin during this period is estimated to be around $609,315. These figures indicate the potential for substantial growth over the long term.
Tesla announced in an SEC filing Monday that it has bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. The company also said it would start accepting bitcoin as a payment method for its products. CEO Elon Musk has been credited for raising the prices of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, through his messages on Twitter.
Forbes releases its billionaire list annually and this time there are 19 people out of the list who have made their fortunes out of crypto. Cryptocurrencies have had a wild year in 2021. Popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, etc. reached their all-time high in 2021.