As of March 9, the number of unmined coins of the first cryptocurrency has reached 1 million.

Source: BitBo.

Currently, over 95% of the maximum supply of 21 million BTC is available. The blockchain continues to operate under a fixed issuance schedule:

  • On average, miners add 144 blocks per day;
  • Approximately every 2016 units are formed in about two weeks.

The reward for mining a block halves every 210,000 blocks. Halving occurs roughly every four years. Following the next event in 2024, the reward will be 3.125 BTC per block. The network has entered its fifth issuance epoch.

The next halving is expected in April-May 2028, after which the reward will drop to 1.5625 BTC.

Upcoming halving schedule. Source: CoinGecko.

The remaining bitcoins will be mined only by the year 2140.

Challenging Times

Each new halving reduces miners' income and increases pressure on their economics. Over time, transaction fees are expected to become the main source of revenue. However, they currently represent a relatively small portion of the reward.

According to CryptoSlate, using the example of bitcoin miner Riot Platforms, the breakeven point considering only electricity costs is around $74,000 per coin. When factoring in expenses for equipment, infrastructure, cooling, maintenance, and financing, the actual figure can exceed $100,000 per BTC.

A significant portion of miners are already "underwater"—operating with minimal margins or at a loss.

Source: TheMinerMag.

Infrastructure Risks

Researchers from the University of Cambridge analyzed 11 years of data and 68 accidents involving underwater communication lines and concluded that physical breaks have little impact on the Bitcoin network.

Just published: first study of Bitcoin's resilience to submarine cable failures, using 11 years of P2P network data & 68 cable fault events. Random cable failures are mostly harmless, but targeted attacks on 5 hosting providers could take out 95% of clearnet nodes. Authors…

— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) March 6, 2026

The average drop in the number of nodes is 1.5%, with zero correlation to price. To disable 10% of nodes, it would require taking out between 72% and 92% of all intercontinental lines.

The vulnerability has shifted to another area. A targeted attack on the five largest hosting providers—Hetzner, OVHcloud, Comcast, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud—could disable up to 95% of visible nodes while removing only 5% of capacity.

However, even a complete shutdown of the clearnet would leave the network operational. The structural layer of resilience has become Tor. The share of the anonymous browser has grown from zero in 2024 to 63% today (14,602 nodes).

Experts also pointed out the paradoxical nature of repressive measures in China. The 2021 mining ban spread hashrate across the globe, while increased censorship pushed operators to switch to Tor. As a result, the critical vulnerability score of the network rose from 0.72 to 0.88.

As a reminder, in March 2026, the startup Starcloud announced plans to mine bitcoin in space. The project aims to launch a satellite with ASIC miners on board by the end of the year.