A hard cap is the maximum number of coins or tokens that will ever be issued by a cryptocurrency, enforced by protocol rules.
The hard cap defines a fixed upper bound on total supply. For Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, it is 21 million units. Protocol consensus rules enforce this limit by reducing issuance over time via halvings and eventually reaching zero block subsidy.
"Bitcoin Cash inherits the 21 million hard cap from Bitcoin, with the same block subsidy schedule."
"Projects without a hard cap may rely on alternative monetary policies like steady inflation or fee burns."
A hard cap creates digital scarcity and aligns with a disinflationary policy. It influences valuation models, encourages saving behavior among some users, and interacts with fee markets as block subsidies decline.
"As the subsidy shrinks, transaction fees become a larger share of miner revenue, affecting security assumptions."
"Some investors prefer assets with predictable issuance and a hard cap as a hedge against fiat debasement."
All terms and definitions may update as the Cryptionary improves.