Millionaires May Be Priced Out of Owning a Whole Bitcoin

Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, sparked debate over Bitcoin's scarcity by stating that even millionaires in the US may struggle to afford a single whole coin. He cited the UBS Global Wealth Report 2026, which shows there are approximately 23.6 million millionaires in the US alone, exceeding the total number of Bitcoin that will ever exist.

The protocol has a hard cap of 21 million coins, with about 20.07 million already mined, leaving only 4.4% of the supply left to be mined.

Zhao's estimate is that between 10-20% of all mined Bitcoin is lost or unrecoverable due to forgotten or destroyed private keys. This would put the tradable float closer to 16-17 million coins.