- Question ₿
Why doesn't the 21 million limit automatically mean that Bitcoin has a high price?
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Why doesn't the 21 million limit automatically mean that Bitcoin has a high price?
Go ahead ⚡⚡ I hope my initiative is well received by you 🤑
Don’t you think its price has gone up?
We’ve gone from trading at less than $1 to the recent highs of over $100,000.
Everything in life is a process, and Bitcoin is no exception to that.
Bitcoin has been in existence for just under 20 years. Of the 33 halvings that are set to take place, we’ve only seen four so far.
Its limited supply is just one of Bitcoin’s key pillars.
But for us to see its full potential, we’d need to live long enough to see the last block mined.
From my perspective, it’s already doing its job, and Bitcoin is the only option for the masses.
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Because it is an open and free market driven by supply and demand. Something being scarce doesn't automatically make it desirable. People have to want or need it as well.
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The 21 million cap fixes the quantity, not the demand curve. Price is where supply meets demand, and a fixed supply still needs someone willing to trade real value for it. Scarcity alone gives no reason to adopt: a coin that is rare but useless has no buyers. The cap's power is negative — it guarantees no inflationary dilution — but the positive case must come from actual utility, liquidity, and willingness to pay.
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No mass adoption
Governments think in decades and even if a single governement is pro-bitcoin it would make more strategic sense to acquire a non-trivial position in silence rather than publicise and perhaps trigger a devestating panic in the legacy system
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Scarcity and rarity don’t automatically mean something is highly valuable. Everything comes down to supply and demand.
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Thank you for participating @0xbitcoiner apologize, I sent 102 sats to your address. Take your 20 and return the rest. If you are the winner, you will be paid the reward. ⚡
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This one? Never seen this before. I was gonna ask @k00b. Is the fee different for this type of payment?
I'll reintroduce the ability to turn this off in a future release.
Ask him, I really don't know 🤔. But please give me back the rest ⚡
Can you send me an invoice for 91 sats?
Okay, I'll send it now.
lnbc910n1p48kddmsp53kqpmhntep9xghm7djplnhsczar3x4petgzelyg2qmtu9pkkj0rqpp5cg3kw5skhxuplegjea7gp7s99y6gn2zemcyv5xf67z0y2w7stftshp5uwcvgs5clswpfxhm7nyfjmaeysn6us0yvjdexn9yjkv3k7zjhp2sxq9z0rgqcqpnrzjqt0mfswatysklf4z358sztscs5t0vdghmd5vfe9c9sa0gy6r5pdugr5fhvqqm7gqqyqqqqqqqqqq86qq8s9qxpqysgq643ep9qnzck9vqtfr6sytuyspds804v4qr4lkhzr7rrvh8gq66zrsdyrr7u5ezhdfrkndgddg4ke6257xet4deqjf9qeyq9cu9pkqwgp7khqsr
Thank you!
So far no one has found the correct answer. I've decided to split the prize 🏆 equally; those who disagree, please post your comment.
The cap answers “how many units can exist,” not “what one unit is worth.” A market price is an exchange ratio set by the marginal buyer and seller. A fixed supply makes price more sensitive to changes in demand, but if nobody wants an asset, even perfect scarcity can clear near zero.
The number 21 million also depends on denomination: the same network could describe the supply as 2.1 quadrillion smaller units without changing its total value. What supports a price is demand for Bitcoin’s properties—portable settlement, censorship resistance, verifiability, liquidity, and expected future usefulness.
So the cap prevents holders from being diluted once demand exists. It does not create that demand, measure it, or automatically select a “high” price in dollars.
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Why would it mean that?
Price comes from people wanting it and right now there’s not much interest.
Also, “high” is relative. The price is many orders of magnitude higher than it was not that long ago.
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You can just zap it to me. I'm doing an experiment and it's better to receive my SN sats/CCs together.
When I tried to send it to you, that's what came up 👀
That's odd but you can just zap the comment. I'm perfectly happy to get 70%.
Scarcity sets a ceiling on supply, not a floor under price. Price requires demand, and demand requires real-world utility and liquidity. The 21M cap makes Bitcoin's supply the one thing you never have to forecast — but forecasting demand is the whole game. A hard cap with zero demand is just a supply that nobody wants.
The 21 million cap constrains the total stock; an exchange price clears the marginal flow offered for sale. Those are different quantities.
Imagine the highest live bid were only $1. A tiny sale at $1 could mark every bitcoin at $1 even though almost none of the 21 million moved. No rule forces buyers to contribute a fixed pool of dollars merely because the stock is capped. “21 million × last price” is therefore an accounting result called market capitalization, not money stored behind Bitcoin or a price-setting formula.
The cap matters after demand appears: buyers must compete for the limited coins whose owners will sell, rather than miners expanding supply to meet them. It can amplify demand and prevent dilution, but it cannot create a bid. That is why a hard stock ceiling alone sets neither a price floor nor an automatically “high” price.
It doesn't.
Bitcoins price is determined by demand for it and the issuance cap is only one factor in determining demand.
Because 21 million is just the denominator. Absolute scarcity only preserves value, it doesn't create it. If someone forks Bitcoin tomorrow with a 5 million cap, it won't magically be worth 4x more because nobody uses that network. High price requires real demand for the utility of the network, not just a hardcoded limit.
Because it automatically means that it has a low price
Everyone buying Bitcoin thinks its price is too low, which it is, because all wealth can now be divided by 21M as a measuring stick
60k? too low? 600k? too low? 6M? too low. 600M? too low.
This very post proves the theory, you don't think it's high because it is too low.