#ethsupply #eth

why is the supply of etherium unlimited ?

Ethereum’s supply is technically unlimited because its monetary policy does not have a hard cap on the total number of ETH coins that can ever exist — unlike Bitcoin, which is capped at 21 million BTC.

🧩 Why is Ethereum’s supply unlimited?

1️⃣ No hard cap in the protocol

When Ethereum was created in 2015, its design intentionally left the total supply open-ended. The idea was to ensure enough ETH would always be available to pay validators (previously miners) for securing the network.

2️⃣ Focus on security and usability

Ethereum’s founders believed that a small, steady issuance incentivizes people to stake or secure the network. If there were a fixed supply, validators might not have enough reason to keep working for the network in the long term.

3️⃣ Changes with Proof of Stake (PoS)

When Ethereum switched from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) with The Merge in September 2022, its annual issuance dropped significantly. Plus, because of the EIP-1559 upgrade (2021), a portion of ETH fees is burned (permanently removed from circulation).

So although the supply is theoretically unlimited, ETH can actually become deflationary during times of high network activity — meaning more ETH is burned than issued.

📊 Key numbers

Bitcoin supply: capped at 21 million

Ethereum supply: no cap, but net annual inflation rate is now close to 0% or sometimes negative, depending on network usage.

🔑 conclusion

Bitcoin = digital gold, hard cap, store of value.

Ethereum = programmable money, flexible supply, incentives for network security and development.

If you’d like, I can show you some charts on ETH issuance, burn rates, and how they affect its long-term supply — just let me know!

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