21M Supply Limit: How Transaction Fees Will Power Bitcoin's Future

Bitcoin's protocol includes a 21 million supply cap, which will eventually bring an end to new issuance. However, this does not mean the network itself will come to a halt.

The final Bitcoin is expected to be mined around 2140. Miners will no longer receive newly created BTC and will instead rely on transaction fees for revenue. The block subsidy, which currently stands at 3.125 BTC per block, will continue to decline through successive halvings until it reaches zero.

The fixed supply was embedded in Bitcoin's protocol by its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, when the network launched in January 2009. New coins enter circulation through mining, with the block subsidy cut in half every 210,000 blocks. The number of mined Bitcoin also differs from the amount that is actually available to the market.