StarkWare CEO Proposes Scrapping Bitcoin's 21 Million Supply Cap for a 4% Annual Issuance Rate
The 21 million $BTC supply ceiling came into focus on July 7 when Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO of StarkWare and a co-founder of Zcash, published a proposal to replace the fixed cap with a maximum annual issuance rate of 4%. At…
Key takeaways
- StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson published a proposal on July 7 to replace Bitcoin's fixed 21 million supply cap with a maximum annual issuance rate of 4%.
- At the current circulating supply of roughly 20.1 million coins, a 4% rate would mint 804,000 BTC in the first year and push total supply above 53 million coins within 25 years.
- Ben-Sasson argues the hard cap is less meaningful because up to 4 million BTC are estimated lost, and that perpetual issuance would offset declining miner revenue as the block subsidy heads toward zero around 2140.
- The proposal has no institutional form—it was posted on social media and has not been filed as a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP).
- Adoption would require a hard fork plus backing from miners and core developers, none of whom has indicated support.
The 21 million $BTC supply ceiling came into focus on July 7 when Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO of StarkWare and a co-founder of Zcash, published a proposal to replace the fixed cap with a maximum annual issuance rate of 4%. At the current circulating supply of roughly 20.1 million coins, that rate would mint 804,000 BTC in year one alone. The next confirmable milestone for the tape: whether Ben-Sasson submits the idea as a formal Bitcoin Improvement Proposal, the document the network requires to advance any protocol change.
The numbers behind the proposal
Compounding at 4% annually, Bitcoin's supply would exceed 53 million coins within 25 years. Ben-Sasson's rationale leans on coin loss: hardware wallet maker Ledger estimates up to 4 million BTC are burned or lost for good, and that figure grows over time. He argues that credential losses are already pushing the effective float toward zero on a long enough timeline, making the hard cap less meaningful in practice.
That framing has a real weakness. Lost coins tighten the float permanently because they can never reach the market. New issuance would dilute every holder whose coins remain accessible.
The miner revenue problem
Ben-Sasson's harder-to-dismiss point is about block economics. The current block subsidy stands at 3.125 BTC per new block and halves every four years on a programmed path to zero around 2140. Transaction fees were designed to replace that revenue once the subsidy expires, but fees fell from roughly 7% of miner revenue in 2024 to around 1% in 2025. A durable fee floor that could sustain the mining ecosystem has not materialized. A perpetual issuance mechanism, as Ben-Sasson proposes, would address that gap directly.
What to watch
The proposal has no institutional form. Ben-Sasson posted his idea on social media; it has not been filed as a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal. Any path to adoption would require a hard fork, plus the backing of miners and core developers, neither of whom has indicated any support. Until a formal BIP appears, the setup for $BTC is unchanged. The line to watch: a social media post becoming a numbered BIP document.