What Happens to Bitcoin When the Block Rewards Run Out?

Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) pays miners in two ways, and one of them is running out. Miners collect 3.125 BTC for every block they add to the chain, and that reward halves every four years until it disappears around 2140, leaving them with nothing but the fees people pay to use the network.

However, those fees are going backwards. They now make up 0.69% of what miners earn, the lowest share in ten years, and they have stayed under 1% since the last halving in April 2024. That raises the obvious question of what happens to Bitcoin once the block rewards run out entirely.

When Bitcoin’s Block Rewards Actually Run Out

Roughly 95.5% of all the Bitcoin that will ever exist has already been mined, and the remaining 950,000 coins will take another 114 years to arrive. Those coins are worth around $60 billion at today’s Bitcoin price, but they trickle out so slowly that Bitcoin is already about as scarce as it will ever get.

Miners collect 3.125 bitcoin for every block, worth about $200,000 at current prices, and that figure halves roughly every four years. The next cut arrives around April 2028 and takes it to 1.5625 coins. Each halving after that cuts it in half again, until the reward reaches a single satoshi and rounds down to nothing around 2140.