Bitcoin's 21 Million Supply Cap Explained
There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin. This is not a policy decision that can be changed. It is math enforced by code running on thousands of computers worldwide. No government, company, or individual can alter this number.
How Dollar Printing Devalues Your Savings
To understand why this matters, compare it to the dollar. In 2020 alone, the Federal Reserve increased the money supply by roughly 40%. They created more dollars in one year than existed in the first 200 years of American history. Every dollar created makes your existing dollars worth less.
Bitcoin’s supply schedule is completely transparent and predictable. Every 10 minutes, new Bitcoin is created through mining. The amount created halves every 210,000 blocks — roughly every four years. In 2009, miners received 50 Bitcoin per block. Today they receive 3.125. By 2140, the last fraction of a Bitcoin will be mined and no more will ever be created.
Why Predictable Money Supply Matters
This predictability is the point. You can plan around a money supply that follows known rules. You cannot plan around a money supply controlled by people who change the rules whenever it’s politically convenient.
Scarcity drives value. Gold is valuable partly because it’s scarce. But gold’s supply increases by roughly 1.5% per year through mining. Bitcoin’s supply increase is currently under 1% and drops to effectively zero within our lifetimes. Nothing in human history has been this scarce. Compare it to gold.