What is crypto issuance?
Issuance in plain words
The word "issuance" comes from the world of ordinary money, where it means putting new banknotes and coins into circulation. A country's cash is issued by its central bank, which decides on its own how much to print. With cryptocurrency, the issuance rules are usually known in advance, and anyone can read them.
There are three main ways to issue cryptocurrency: with a cap, with constant issuance, and against a reserve. With a cap, the rules set in advance how many units there will ever be. With constant issuance, new units keep appearing and their number has no limit. With a reserve, tokens are issued when the issuer receives money, such as dollars, and taken out of circulation when they are exchanged back.
Why does this matter to you? The more new units are issued, the smaller the share of the total each existing unit represents. Think of a meeting that keeps inviting new members: you still have one vote, but its weight among all the votes shrinks.
Who decides how many new coins and tokens appear
The methods are often combined, and even rules written in code change over time.
Issuance on a schedule written in code, with bitcoin as the example
Bitcoin's issuance rules have applied since the network launched in 2009. New coins go to the miner, the participant whose computer added the latest block of records, and every 210,000 blocks this reward is cut in half1. A halving is exactly that: the reward being cut in half. It is like a job whose pay is halved roughly every four years. When the network started, each block produced 50 BTC, and after the halving in April 2024 the reward fell to 3.125 BTC. The next halving is expected around 2028, and the last coins will appear by about 21401.
Most bitcoins have already been issued. A table of every halving is in the Bitcoin profile, and the article miners and validators explains what exactly miners earn new coins for.
Constant issuance and burning, with Ethereum and Dogecoin as examples
Ethereum has no hard cap. New ETH goes to validators, participants who check blocks with their own coins locked up as a deposit, and under the network's rules part of every transfer fee is destroyed for good2. This destruction is called burning. As a result the total amount of ETH sometimes grows and sometimes shrinks, like the water level in a bathtub with the tap running and the drain open at the same time. How much new ETH is issued depends on how many coins participants hold on deposit: the bigger the deposit, the bigger the issuance3. A block explorer shows current ETH issuance and burning.
Dogecoin has no cap either, though its issuance is steady. Each block creates 10,000 DOGE, and a new block appears about once a minute4. That comes to about 5 billion new coins a year, so the share of new coins relative to those already issued keeps getting smaller over time5.
How issuance rules are changed by a vote or a network upgrade
For tokens that run on top of someone else's network, issuance is controlled by a program on the blockchain (a smart contract), and its rules are set by the project's creators, sometimes together with the holders. Holders of the UNI token, for example, vote on the issuance rules themselves6 and have decided to destroy part of the tokens7.
Some networks change their rules by vote too. On the Solana network, new SOL is issued constantly as a reward for validators, and its share shrinks every year8. In August 2026 validators voted to cut issuance faster9, and the new rules will take effect once the network's software is upgraded10.
Elsewhere, the rules change through a software upgrade, provided the network's participants accept it. Ethereum has reduced issuance this way several times, and after the network switched to deposits in 2022 noticeably less new ETH has been issued112. The article hard fork explains what happens when not everyone agrees with the new rules.
Stablecoin issuance against a reserve
Stablecoins backed by a company are issued against the money that company receives. That is how USDC works. A customer sends dollars to Circle's reserve account and receives the same number of new USDC; when they exchange back, the tokens are sent to a special address from which nobody can ever spend them, and they are burned12. This direct exchange is used mainly by Circle's business customers13, and the USDC profile covers who else can use it and on what terms. The number of USDC therefore follows demand and has no cap.
The DAI stablecoin comes into being differently. A program creates it when a person locks up other cryptocurrency in it as collateral, and the collateral is released when the DAI is returned14.
In both cases, honest issuance rests on what sits in the reserve or the collateral. The article what are reserves explains how to check it, and what is a stablecoin covers how stablecoins themselves work.
How issuance differs for bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC and UNI
 Bitcoin |  Ethereum |  USDC | UNI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Is there a hard cap? | yes | no | no | no |
| Do new units appear constantly? | yes | yes | varies | no |
| Is part of it destroyed? | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Does a company decide how much to issue? | no | no | yes | no |
| Is issuance changed by a holder vote? | no | no | no | yes |
| Is the number in 10 years known in advance? | yes | no | no | no |
The three supply numbers (maximum, total and circulating)
A cryptocurrency's description usually shows three different numbers15. A concert is the easiest way to picture them:
- Max supply is how many units can ever exist, like the number of seats in the hall. For bitcoin it is 21 million coins; Ethereum and USDC have no such number.
- Total supply is the number of units created so far minus those burned, like the number of tickets printed.
- Circulating supply counts the units in people's hands, like the tickets already given out to the audience. It leaves out, for example, tokens still waiting to be handed to the project team.
The last two numbers change. Their current values are shown by a block explorer or an aggregator, a website that collects data on many cryptocurrencies.
What is a premine?
A premine is the share of coins created right at launch, before regular issuance began. Part of the ETH, for example, was sold before the network even launched, in a public sale in 201411, and all 100 billion XRP have existed since the network was created16. A premine is neither good nor bad in itself. What matters is who ended up with those coins and whether they could hit the market all at once. The Ethereum and XRP profiles describe how this went for those coins.
What is a token unlock?
A token unlock is the release of tokens created in advance, on a set schedule. A project's creators and investors often receive their share in instalments, like a salary paid month by month instead of a whole year's pay up front. Each unlock puts more tokens into circulation, while the total supply stays the same. For UNI, the shares of the team, investors and advisers were released over four years, and the last of them came out in September 20256. Before a large unlock it helps to know its date, because the people receiving the tokens get a chance to sell them. A project usually publishes its unlock schedule in its documentation.
What issuance tells you about a cryptocurrency and what to check yourself
Price depends on demand, and demand can fall for any cryptocurrency, capped or not. Issuance tells you something else: how predictable the number of coins and tokens is and who can change it. Before buying, try to answer five questions:
- Does issuance have a cap, and who has the power to change it?
- Who receives the new coins and tokens: miners, validators, the project or the issuer?
- Is part of the supply burned, and what does the burning depend on?
- How much has been issued, how much is in circulation, and is the gap large?
- How many tokens do the team and investors hold, and when do they unlock?
For a stablecoin the key question is different: has anyone confirmed that a reserve stands behind every token?
More detail on the issuance figures for bitcoin, Ethereum, UNI and Solana
According to the schedule, the 20-millionth bitcoin appeared in block 940,000, which the network added on 9 March 20261718.
Burning part of the fee has been in effect in Ethereum since 5 August 2021, with the London network upgrade1119. Ethereum's block reward was cut twice by upgrades, from 5 to 3 ETH in October 2017 and to 2 ETH in February 201911. Before the switch to deposits, miners received about 13,000 ETH a day; since then there has been no fixed block reward of the kind bitcoin has. By ethereum.org's calculation, at the time of the switch, with about 14 million ETH on deposit, validators were receiving about 1,700 ETH a day3.
UNI launched in September 2020 with 1 billion tokens created. Holders have the right to vote for issuing up to 2% more a year, yet as of 24.10.2026 they had never used it6. Since December 2025, by their decision, part of the Uniswap exchange's fees has gone to burning UNI, starting with a one-off burn of 100 million tokens7.
On Solana, the annual share of new issuance drops each year by 15% of its previous value until it reaches 1.5%20. Under the August 2026 decision it will fall twice as fast, by 30% a year, by estimates no earlier than the start of 202710.
