By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
The Bitcoin blockchain network has added 100,000 blocks in the last two years. Miners continue to remain active despite several attacks of environmental concerns.
The Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain network has attained a major milestone last week on September 11. Last Saturday, Bitcoin, the world’s largest crypto network, produced its 700,000th block that processed nearly 1,276 transactions.
As the Bitcoin blockchain continues to add more and more blocks, the total number of Bitcoin in circulation increases. As of now, the total circulating supply for Bitcoin stands at 18,812,950. This is nearly 89% of the maximum Bitcoin supply of 21 million.
Every two years, the Bitcoin blockchain has been adding 100,000 blocks to the network. This rate will certainly reduce with time as it gets more and more complex to block the remaining blocks. It is because of the inherent Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm of the Bitcoin blockchain that increases the mining difficulty.
On average, new blocks to the Bitcoin network are added every ten minutes. Thus, with the current pace, the final Bitcoin block mining will happen by 2140.
The latest development comes at a time when the Bitcoin network has been facing several attacks with environmental concerns. Earlier this year, even billionaires like Elon Musk have criticized Bitcoin for its high energy consumption.
We have seen China entirely banning Bitcoin mining activities resulting in a massive relocation of Bitcoin miners to overseas locations. As a result, a large part of the industry has moved to green mining solutions.
Several Bitcoin miners in North America are now adopting renewable energy solutions. this is just the beginning of a long-term shift in the Bitcoin mining industry.
Bitcoin (BTC) Whales Adding
Over the last week, Bitcoin (BTC) has continued to trade under pressure. after a strong rally in August. As of press time, BTC is trading 0.81% down just under $45,000 levels. Historically, the month of September has been a month of subdued performance for the crypto space.
Citing data from Santiment, crypto analyst Ali Martinez noted that Bitcoin whales have added 50,000 BTC in just the last four days.
Whales are buying #Bitcoin! 💎🙌
Addresses with 10,000 to 100,000 $BTC have purchased roughly 50,000 #BTC in the last four days.
This significant number of tokens have been removed from known cryptocurrency exchange wallets, reducing the selling pressure behind Bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/BDM01SfJwN
— Ali (@ali_charts) September 12, 2021
Furthermore, Glassnode shows some interesting trends among short-term and long-term holders. In the last five months, nearly 17% of the Bitcoin supply was spent while returning to profit at the recent BTC price rally.
Furthermore, long-term holders (LTHs) currently hold 80% of the Bitcoin supply, last seen in October 2020. The data provider further adds:
“This suggests that many coins changed hands during the recent consolidation in $29k to $40k range. It also indicates $BTC purchased in Q1 to Q2 2021 remain tightly held, with investors unshaken by a 50%+ drawdown. Note, some of these coins are likely held by GBTC and custodians”.
Furthermore, the institutional interest in Bitcoin remains at a peak. Blackrock CIO Rick Rieder recently disclosed that he owns a small piece of Bitcoin.