Bitcoin is edging closer to reaching its finite, maximum supply, pushing its price up and making it harder to mine. As a rule of thumb, the fewer coins available to the general audience, the higher the value of the cryptocurrency becomes. No more mining is possible when a cryptocurrency reaches its maximum supply. The market price then reflects supply and demand. Bitcoin has a set limit of 21 million coins, the last of which is to be mined around the year 2140 according to a 2017 forecast - with the assumption that the rate of Bitcoin mining halves every 4 years. Why are there so many differences in crypto supply? Cryptocurrency developers can determine whether a coin should have a fixed limit, depending on the blockchain it utilizes or monetary strategies. Ethereum has no maximum supply, meaning miners can create and indefinitely extract this cryptocurrency. This is called an inflationary cryptocurrency, one that continuously inflates the supply. The idea is that the number of tokens in circulation keeps outpacing demand, decreasing overall value. Some coins limit the release of their (indefinite) supply or even destroy (burn) tokens. Such deflationary events took place with LUNA in 2022. The appeal of low-supply cryptocurrency for investors Crypto investors tend to be on the lookout for crypto with limited supply, ideally with low levels. After a token reaches maximum supply, the argument goes, the coin's supply becomes static - miners can no longer create new coins. The demand should continue to grow. A maximum cap, they hope, guarantees value gains. Not many such coins exist. DeFi platform AAVE is an example of a cryptocurrency with a max supply smaller than *** million. Additionally, First Digital USD (FDUSD) currently has a supply of 1296.33 million, but it also has an unlimited supply.

Bitcoin's circulating supply has grown steadily since its inception in 2009, reaching over **** million coins by late July 2025. This gradual increase reflects the cryptocurrency's design, which put a limit of ** million on the total number of bitcoins that can ever exist. This impacts the Bitcoin price somewhat, as its scarcity can lead to volatility on the market. Maximum supply and scarcity Bitcoin is unusual from other cryptocurrencies in that its maximum supply is getting closer. By July 2025, more than ** percent of all possible Bitcoin had been created. That said, Bitcoin's circulating supply is expected to reach its maximum around the year 2140. Meanwhile, mining becomes exponentially more difficult and energy-intensive.

Institutional investors

In 2025, countries like the United States openly started discussion the possibility of buying bitcoins to hold in reserve. By the time of writing, it was unclear whether this would happen. Nevertheless, institutional investors displayed more interest in the cryptocurrency than before. Certain companies owned several thousands of Bitcoin tokens in 2025, for example. This and the limited number of Bitcoin may further fuel price volatility.

By March 2022, over *** million Ethereum tokens were issued and in active circulation - but it is expected new coins will not arrive at a fast pace. Although the cryptocurrency has an unlimited supply - unlike Bitcoin, of which there can only be ** million tokens and not a single more - the Ethereum blockchain received an update in August 2021, EIP-1559, that both increased the block size needed to create new coins and destroyed (“burned”) any transactions fees, rather than send them to the original miners. This led to a decline in issuance, as mining Ethereum essentially was made less profitable. Issuance is expected to decline further when Ethereum *** arrives.

Ethereum: a counter to inflation?

In a time when inflation rates became a big talking point, Ethereum received much social media attention in late 2021 for possibly being deflationary. This argument stems from August 2021, or “London Hard Fork”, upgrade in August 2021: Each transaction on the Ethereum network would entirely remove a portion of Ethereum from the total supply in circulation. On days of high transaction activity of Ethereum, for example, after a change in the price of Ethereum, this can effectively mean more coins are being destroyed than there are being created.

Ethereum supply to change after the upgrade to ***?

Experts state burning on a scale that the supply of Ethereum declines only happens on occasion, stating it acts more as a temporary slowdown of growth rather than an active attempt to continuously shrink supply. This could change, however, when Ethereum *** arrives – or when Ethereum switches from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The general assumption for this is that staking rewards are generally lower than rewards for Proof-of-Work (mining), lowering the incentive for the creation of new coins. If usage – which some measure via the Ethereum gas price, or transaction fee per transaction – remains unchanged otherwise, this would lower the threshold for Ethereum to become deflationary.

This horizontal bar chart displays market cap ($) by max supply using the aggregation sum. The data is about cryptos.

Detailed Circulating supply metrics and analytics for Ethereum, including historical data and trends.

Detailed Circulating supply metrics and analytics for Bitcoin, including historical data and trends.

The dataset used in this research is a historical record of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin’s daily trading activity, containing essential financial metrics for each date. This sample includes the following columns: Date: The specific day of each recorded entry, showing a continuous timeline. Open: The price of currencies at the start of the trading day. High: The highest price of currencies reached during the day. Low: The lowest price of currencies traded throughout the day. Close: The closing price of the currencies at the end of the trading day. Volume: The total trading volume, indicating the number of currencies traded that day in units. Market Cap: The total market capitalization of currencies, calculated as the total supply multiplied by the closing price.

Detailed Maximum token supply metrics and analytics for Bitcoin, including historical data and trends.

This horizontal bar chart displays cryptos by max supply using the aggregation count. The data is about cryptos.

Detailed Circulating supply metrics and analytics for Bitcoin Cash, including historical data and trends.

Five cryptocurrencies.

A data-backed Bitcoin Supply Chain Transparency Market report offering growth insights, demand trends, and strategic projections through 2034.

This dataset deals with Top 1000 cryptocurrency historical time series data and other crypto metrics.

Coingecko API is used to extract data, total are 1000 CSV files, 999 files deals with historical data for each project time series data from start date till today with interval of 4 days. Project need to be identify through file name as it is project id.

Last CSV file contains detail related to project rank, ATH, ATL, circulating supply, total supply, max supply etc.

Columns for Top1000_Cryptocurrency_File (1 CSV file):

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Columns for Project_Files (999 CSV files):

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Detailed Circulating supply metrics and analytics for Ethereum Name Service, including historical data and trends.

Bitcoin is edging closer to reaching its finite, maximum supply, pushing its price up and making it harder to mine. As a rule of thumb, the fewer coins available to the general audience, the higher the value of the cryptocurrency becomes. No more mining is possible when a cryptocurrency reaches its maximum supply. The market price then reflects supply and demand. Bitcoin has a set limit of 21 million coins, the last of which is to be mined around the year 2140 according to a 2017 forecast - with the assumption that the rate of Bitcoin mining halves every 4 years. Why are there so many differences in crypto supply? Cryptocurrency developers can determine whether a coin should have a fixed limit, depending on the blockchain it utilizes or monetary strategies. Ethereum has no maximum supply, meaning miners can create and indefinitely extract this cryptocurrency. This is called an inflationary cryptocurrency, one that continuously inflates the supply. The idea is that the number of tokens in circulation keeps outpacing demand, decreasing overall value. Some coins limit the release of their (indefinite) supply or even destroy (burn) tokens. Such deflationary events took place with LUNA in 2022. The appeal of low-supply cryptocurrency for investors Crypto investors tend to be on the lookout for crypto with limited supply, ideally with low levels. After a token reaches maximum supply, the argument goes, the coin's supply becomes static - miners can no longer create new coins. The demand should continue to grow. A maximum cap, they hope, guarantees value gains. Not many such coins exist. DeFi platform AAVE is an example of a cryptocurrency with a max supply smaller than 100 million.

Global Bitcoin Supply Chain Transparency market size 2025 was XX Million. Bitcoin Supply Chain Transparency Industry compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will be XX% from 2025 till 2033.

The global digital and cryptocurrency market is experiencing significant growth, driven by increasing adoption of blockchain technology, rising demand for decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions, and the growing interest in cryptocurrencies as an investment asset. While precise figures for market size and CAGR were not provided, a reasonable estimate based on current market trends and publicly available data from similar reports suggests a 2025 market size in the range of $2 trillion, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 25% projected from 2025 to 2033. This growth is fueled by several key factors including the expansion of blockchain applications beyond cryptocurrencies into areas like supply chain management and digital identity, the development of regulatory frameworks that foster innovation and investor confidence, and the continuous improvement of cryptocurrency infrastructure leading to increased accessibility and usability. Major players like IBM, Ripple, Accenture, and numerous fintech companies are actively contributing to this expansion, driving innovation and competition. The market is segmented by various factors, including technology (public and private blockchains, smart contracts), application (payment systems, decentralized exchanges, supply chain management), and geographic region. North America and Europe currently hold a significant market share, but rapid growth is expected from Asia-Pacific and other emerging regions due to increasing internet penetration and adoption of digital technologies. However, challenges such as regulatory uncertainty, security concerns related to cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets, and the volatility inherent in cryptocurrency markets remain significant hurdles. Overcoming these challenges will require collaboration between governments, industry players, and technology developers to ensure a sustainable and secure digital and cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Stay updated with Market Research Intellect's Bitcoin Supply Chain Transparency Market Report, valued at USD 1.2 billion in 2024, projected to reach USD 4.5 billion by 2033 with a CAGR of 16.5% (2026-2033).

Detailed Supply-side fees metrics and analytics for Ethereum, including historical data and trends.

Correlations between various indicators of the “buzz factor” surrounding cryptocurrencies.