What is Total Supply?
Let's find out Total Supply meaning, definition in crypto, what is Total Supply, and all other detailed facts.
Total supply refers to the total amount of cryptocurrency coins that have been mined, excluding the coins that were burned. Not all coins included in the total supply are freely available for the holders to use.
Total supply differs from circulating and max supply. Circulating supply encompasses all coins that have been mined and are usable while excluding all coins that have not been created yet. Max supply refers to the overall supply of coins, including assets that can exist throughout the lifespan of the cryptocurrency, such as unmined and burned assets.
Circulating supply is the metric that experts use to determine the market capitalization, or market cap, of different assets, including cryptocurrencies. Since circulating supply excludes non-usable coins, it can reflect the prices of crypto in the market more reliably.
Total supply is used to determine the profitability of a cryptocurrency. Investors can decide whether it’s worth investing in the asset at the given time. A significant gap between circulating and total supply can indicate that the cryptocurrency may be profitable in the future.
Some of the coins included in the total supply are considered locked. These assets are kept out of circulation for a number of reasons, often because they are pre-mined assets or were locked in a smart contract.
Token holders can lock their assets in a smart contract for a specific purpose, such as setting them as collateral or waiting for a certain stage of an initial coin offering (ICO).
Max supply and total supply can differ quite significantly. The max supply of Bitcoin (BTC) is 21 million coins. Roughly 90% of BTC has already been mined and around 4 million assets are considered lost.