As of July 2018, approximately 4 million BTC are lost, and another 2 million are stolen. This means that, in general, 28.5% of all bitcoins are lost for the community.

Thus, out of 17,13 million BTC, which are currently in circulation, only 11 million can be used in transactions and investments, told Jameson Lopp, a former leading developer of BitGo, currently employed in the CasaHODL project, speaking at the Building on Bitcoin conference.

Earlier, Chainalysis analized the bitcoin network activity and concluded that 3.79 million BTC are lost.

The current situation makes it extremely difficult to assess the fair price of bitcoins and its capitalization, as the current models take into account all the coins, including lost and stolen ones.

Currently, the price of bitcoin fluctuates around $6,700, but the real number of bitcoins in circulation (11 million BTC) is much less than the theoretical (17.13 million). According to CCN, investors' awareness of the fact that only 75% of BTC from the maximum issue volume (21 million BTC) is really available, can raise the price of bitcoins.