Although a maximum of 21 million bitcoins can be minted, it's likely that the number of bitcoins circulating remains substantially below that number. Bitcoin holders can lose access to their bitcoins, such as by losing the private keys to theirBitcoin walletsor passing away without sharing their wallet details. A June 2020 study by the crypto forensics firm Chainalysis estimated that up to 20% of the Bitcoin already issued may be permanently lost.7
