Is the 21 Million BTC Cap Still That Important in 2025?

[AprilioMP]

But I’ve also seen arguments lately saying that with layer 2s, tokenized assets, and so many altcoins, maybe the hard cap isn't as big a deal anymore. That Bitcoin can evolve beyond just being “digital gold.”

I’d love to hear what others think — do you believe the 21 million cap is still one of Bitcoin’s strongest features? Or has the conversation moved on?

Layer 2 and all things altcoin have nothing to do with Bitcoin. Bitcoin and all altcoin technologies are different. Bitcoin is BTC and altcoins are all types of coins and tokens other than BTC. Obviously.

The limited supply of Bitcoin will make Bitcoin unique. Not to mention its nature.
21 million no longer add up. Anyone who has Bitcoin from the total amount of 21 million is the luckiest person.
Believe me, obviously I believe that Bitcoin is the future of world progress.

[Ishicryptic]

We cannot underestimate the importance of Bitcoin limited supply, it is one of the biggest drivers of it's increasing adoption, the limited supply is the reason why it is a hedge against inflation of fiat currencies. Bitcoin biggest features are it's decentralization and it's limited supply, if you remove one of them from the equation it won't be any different from fiat that are controlled and manipulated governments. Bitcoin will continue to be a store of value as long we know that it's supply remains limited, and I know that it is next to impossible to alter it. Bitcoin is a King and cannot be compared with any altcoins, none comes close to it's market cap, altcoins gets relevance because of Bitcoin.

[EarnOnVictor]

The reason for the 21 million BTC cap is to make BTC scarce, but I tell you, the supply/distribution speed was too fast to the point that 19,869,712.5 BTC has already been mined. Now tell me, what possibly can the remaining (1,130,287.5 BTC) do?

So, for me, the plan is good but has been partially defeated, especially this time that Bitcoin has a lot of rivals that people are turning to. The only condition that can make Bitcoin scarce now is adoption, where people will be desperately striving to own their Bitcoin. But can other coins make that happen? I guess not!

[philipma1957]

The reason for the 21 million BTC cap is to make BTC scarce, but I tell you, the supply/distribution speed was too fast to the point that 19,869,712.5 BTC has already been mined. Now tell me, what possibly can the remaining (1,130,287.5 BTC) do?

So, for me, the plan is good but has been partially defeated, especially this time that Bitcoin has a lot of rivals that people are turning to. The only condition that can make Bitcoin scarce now is adoption, where people will be desperately striving to own their Bitcoin. But can other coins make that happen? I guess not!

Yeah I always felt that it was rushed.

21 million and 3 blocks an hour would have meant.

2014 1st halving 10.5  million left
2020 2nd halving  5.25 million left
2026 3rd halving.  2.625 million left
2032 4th halving.  1.3125 million left   

so our current number of 1,130,000 achieved in 2025 would have been delayed until 2033.  It would have given btc more time to develop rather than the rush.

As it is I see issues by 2050 with mining simply switch to scrypt since Doge has perfectly predictable decreasing inflation rate.

To me the greatest danger to btc is fees replacing block reward by 2050 which makes scrypt look better to miners.

[justdimin]

I’d love to hear what others think — do you believe the 21 million cap is still one of Bitcoin’s strongest features? Or has the conversation moved on?

The 21 million cap will be one of Bitcoin's strongest features, it prevents inflation thus attracting investors from all walks of life.  Aside from that, this fixed amount simply means Bitcoin has scarcity, there will be no more than 21 million that will be produced.  What does this mean?  This means if the supply is fixed and the demand keeps increasing, the price of Bitcoin increase is inevitable.

If people and institutions come to a realization that Bitcoin has only 21m, there is no doubt there will be FOMO in the market thus pushing the price increase of Bitcoin even more.

Price increase is of course inevitable, and there are less than 21 million too, not just 21 million, some are fully gone. It means, we are still not seeing the miners have an impact.

And that is exactly the topic, the topic is that we are not going to see it matter that much in the future, it is not like "oh we mined the last bitcoin" matters, we are already getting very few bitcoins to the market with mining, so if the price is going up, then it doesn't care miners selling, and if it's going down, then miners could hold all they mine and it would all still go down. That means, the whole 21 million cap thing has already been priced in, it is not going to matter in the future, we are not going to see that be a big deal.

[jaberwock]

Price increase is of course inevitable, and there are less than 21 million too, not just 21 million, some are fully gone. It means, we are still not seeing the miners have an impact.

And that is exactly the topic, the topic is that we are not going to see it matter that much in the future, it is not like "oh we mined the last bitcoin" matters, we are already getting very few bitcoins to the market with mining, so if the price is going up, then it doesn't care miners selling, and if it's going down, then miners could hold all they mine and it would all still go down. That means, the whole 21 million cap thing has already been priced in, it is not going to matter in the future, we are not going to see that be a big deal.

Not sure if that is still the case, I know it won't be in the future, but it might mean something today. If I am not wrong, it is a bit over 3 bitcoins per block right now, nearly a thousand bitcoins mined daily if I am not wrong, which means about 100+ million dollars per day. That means, every single day, we could have 100 millions sold if miners didn't want it. That means 1 billion every 10 days, and 3 billion every month. I know it sounds little compared to what we do daily, but it is still something to matter.

I would suggest the best way to move forward would be making sure that we deal with something that actually worths something. Eventually it will not mean anything, and even right now it doesn't mean that much, but it still is not nothing.

[Tonimez]

It's no new fact that the 21 million bitcoin cap has played a big role in assuring the bitcoin investors on the genuity and longevity of bitcoin. The limited nature has made bitcoin a forever asset. As people get to know more about bitcoin and invest, there's a room for every investor at any point in time to still hope to make a profit from his accumulation over a long time holding.

Bitcoin is independent and has nothing to do with the altcoins and shitcoins. It's self sustainable and volatile.

[Odusko]

Layer 2 and others including tokenized bitcoin which are altcoins still make use of bitcoin in one way or the other in a way that they can not create bitcoin but make use of the existing bitcoin. In short, bitcoin supply is still 21 million. Even the bitcoin spot ETFs are still making use of bitcoin.

At least the Blue print and popularity all comes from the fact that they affiliate one way or the others with Bitcoin even though Bitcoin stand independently but yeah layer 2 tokenized Bitcoin are not Bitcoin but altcoins, and the issues with 21 total market is somewhat out of discussion for now at least Bitcoin have increased in value to a level that even without any new Bitcoin to add to the market cap, it still doesn't matter and that make it the real hedge against inflation, unlike the government paper money where tons and billions of money are printed and a wontons of inflation eating up the economy that the value of the currency.

[Liliana1304]

The conversation hasn't moved on. If anything, it is the center of the topic. Bitcoin has been capped at 21 million but instead of sitting back and doing nothing, worrying that if it reaches its limited supply, you'd lose out, why not take advantage of this and make profit. As of May 2025, about 19.6m BTC has been mined while the remaining 1.4 yet to be created would be done at a greatly slow pace.

It's this engineered scarcity of Bitcoin that makes it more interesting for investors and the fact that it has an immutable supply cap also adds to it's appeal and this is the reason Bitcoin draws comparison with physical commodities like Gold from investors and financial analysts alike, so its supply cap is really much a factor to consider.

[JeffBrad12]

The reason for the 21 million BTC cap is to make BTC scarce, but I tell you, the supply/distribution speed was too fast to the point that 19,869,712.5 BTC has already been mined. Now tell me, what possibly can the remaining (1,130,287.5 BTC) do?

So, for me, the plan is good but has been partially defeated, especially this time that Bitcoin has a lot of rivals that people are turning to. The only condition that can make Bitcoin scarce now is adoption, where people will be desperately striving to own their Bitcoin. But can other coins make that happen? I guess not!

The speed of distribution that may look fast is to make the economy of bitcoin run.
Bitcoin isn't some low float high FDV coin that try to keep circulating supply low so that some entity can control it, BTC was created to be a currency that's used by the masses so high circulating supply is needed.
It's not a problem but an intended mechanism, I'm sure satoshi choose this path for a reason.
The remaining bitcoin is there to reward miners and incentivizes participation, the remaining bitcoin right now has value in USD higher than ever, it's still a win win.

[STT]

A few people from general finance would say the hard cap is a negative.  For an active market you have to have good liquidity and accessibility, so BTC is maybe the only commodity which does not create more when prices demand it.   Hence the spikes in price are seen as negative and destructive by more then a few in terms of market or sector creation it might be a fair criticism perhaps.

[tygeade]

A few people from general finance would say the hard cap is a negative.  For an active market you have to have good liquidity and accessibility, so BTC is maybe the only commodity which does not create more when prices demand it.   Hence the spikes in price are seen as negative and destructive by more then a few in terms of market or sector creation it might be a fair criticism perhaps.

Good thing there are only a few of them because it is inappropriate, especially that they are on the finance world. As a person involved there, they must know how important the hard cap is.

A good liquidity or accessibility, is what makes a market active. It is a good thing than compared to the non-active ones. This means that we can sell our assets immediately if we badly needed a money. What do you mean when you say create more? But, this should be a supply according on your next sentence. I think for the many, the spike in the Bitcoin's price is not a negative or a destructive thing, but rather it is a positive one because they know how to utilized it to their advantage.

[OgNasty]

Now that Bitcoin is being sold as a store of value and not a peer to peer currency, the 21 million coin limit is pretty much the only thing that matters. There are lots of other chains who do lots of things better. Without that hard cap, Bitcoin would probably lose 95% of its value. The hard cap is everything.