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The Bitcoin network automatically releases newly minted bitcoin to miners when they find and add new blocks to the blockchain. The total supply of bitcoin has a cap of 21 million coins, meaning once the number of coins in circulation reaches 21 million, the protocol will stop minting new coins. In a way, Bitcoin mining doubles as both the transaction validation and the bitcoin issuance process (until all the coins are mined, then it will only function as the transaction validation process.)

Importantly, increasing the amount of computing power dedicated to bitcoin mining will not mean more bitcoins are mined. Miners with more computing power only increase their chances of being rewarded with the next block, so the amount of bitcoin mined remains relatively stable over time.

The Bitcoin network uses a coin distribution strategy known as “bitcoin halving” that ensures the amount of bitcoin distributed to miners reduces over time. By gradually decreasing the supply of new bitcoin entering circulation, the idea is it will help support the asset’s price (based on the fundamental principles of supply and demand.)

A bitcoin halving (sometimes called a “halvenings”) happens every 210,000 blocks or roughly four years. When the bitcoin protocol first launched in 2009, each successful miner received 50 bitcoin (BTC) as a block reward. Fast forward to 2021: Block rewards are now 6.25 BTC, a reduction from 12.5 BTC prior to the bitcoin halving in May 2020.

The next halving is expected to take place sometime in 2024 and will see block rewards drop again, to 3.125 BTC. This process will continue until eventually there are no more coins left to be mined.

Today, there are over 18.7 million BTC in circulation meaning there are just 2.25 million BTC left to enter circulation. However, taking into consideration the halving principle and other network factors like mining difficulty, it’s estimated the last bitcoin will be mined sometime around the year 2140.