Bitcoins are continually being lost. People lose their wallet logins. People die without anybody else holding wallet logins. Bitcoins are burned for any number of reasons. All these things and more are reasons why bitcoins are lost, which all contribute to the value of the bitcoins that remain.
Up To 37% Of Circulating Bitcoin May Be Lost Forever In Silent Supply Shock
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/bitcoins-hidden-scarcity-lost-coins-and-silent-supply-shock
Estimates from on-chain analyses suggest that between 2.3 million and an incredible 7.8 million BTC (roughly between 11—37% of total supply), may have vanished forever, trapped in lost wallets, forgotten keys, or in addresses abandoned due to unexpected deaths. These 'zombie' or 'ghost' coins then effectively reduce Bitcoin's effective circulating supply from the current 19.9 million to as low as a range of 12.1—17.6 million BTC.
A Donation to Everyone
As well as intensifying Bitcoin's existing inherent scarcity, coins that permanently vanish boost the true value of all remaining Bitcoins. As Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator/creators, stated in a foresightful observation in April 2010 in a post on the BitcoinTalk forum: "Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone."
The lost coin range estimate (2.3—7.8 million) also comfortably exceeds the combined total of Bitcoin ETF and corporate treasury holdings which together total approximately 2.2 million BTC, a point rarely highlighted by a mainstream financial media fixated on the latest Blackrock Bitcoin ETF inflows and [Micro]Strategy's latest BTC purchases.
No Keys, No Coins
Bitcoin's rarity is thus magnified by these permanent losses, as the lost coin supply shock increases the value of every remaining coin, in contrast to traditional centralised assets such as stocks or bonds, In Bitcoin, there is no safety net. Once access is gone, the coins are effectively removed from circulation.
With a self-custodial architecture of 'be your own bank' but on an immutable blockchain, any lost and inaccessible coins on the Bitcoin network remain visible but untouchable. There is no bank and no bailout - only the owner and their private keys.
The familiar warning about exchange-held BTC of "not your keys, not your coins" now becomes the even more dramatic "no keys, no coins" in the off-exchange world.
Bitcoin relies on private keys (unique 256-bit cryptographic strings) to control and transfer ownership between addresses. Forgotten passwords, lost seed phrases, overwritten files, corrupted drives, or discarded hardware all result in irreversible inaccessibility.
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Up To 37% Of Circulating Bitcoin May Be Lost Forever In Silent Supply Shock
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/bitcoins-hidden-scarcity-lost-coins-and-silent-supply-shock
Estimates from on-chain analyses suggest that between 2.3 million and an incredible 7.8 million BTC (roughly between 11—37% of total supply), may have vanished forever, trapped in lost wallets, forgotten keys, or in addresses abandoned due to unexpected deaths. These 'zombie' or 'ghost' coins then effectively reduce Bitcoin's effective circulating supply from the current 19.9 million to as low as a range of 12.1—17.6 million BTC.
A Donation to Everyone
As well as intensifying Bitcoin's existing inherent scarcity, coins that permanently vanish boost the true value of all remaining Bitcoins. As Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator/creators, stated in a foresightful observation in April 2010 in a post on the BitcoinTalk forum: "Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone."
The lost coin range estimate (2.3—7.8 million) also comfortably exceeds the combined total of Bitcoin ETF and corporate treasury holdings which together total approximately 2.2 million BTC, a point rarely highlighted by a mainstream financial media fixated on the latest Blackrock Bitcoin ETF inflows and [Micro]Strategy's latest BTC purchases.
No Keys, No Coins
Bitcoin's rarity is thus magnified by these permanent losses, as the lost coin supply shock increases the value of every remaining coin, in contrast to traditional centralised assets such as stocks or bonds, In Bitcoin, there is no safety net. Once access is gone, the coins are effectively removed from circulation.
With a self-custodial architecture of 'be your own bank' but on an immutable blockchain, any lost and inaccessible coins on the Bitcoin network remain visible but untouchable. There is no bank and no bailout - only the owner and their private keys.
The familiar warning about exchange-held BTC of "not your keys, not your coins" now becomes the even more dramatic "no keys, no coins" in the off-exchange world.
Bitcoin relies on private keys (unique 256-bit cryptographic strings) to control and transfer ownership between addresses. Forgotten passwords, lost seed phrases, overwritten files, corrupted drives, or discarded hardware all result in irreversible inaccessibility.
...