Max Supply

Max supply is the maximum number of coins or tokens that the protocol rules allow to exist. Bitcoin's max supply is 21 million, enforced by the halving schedule written into its code. Litecoin's cap is 84 million. Many tokens set a fixed cap at launch, such as 1 billion, and mint the entire amount in a single transaction.

Some assets have no max supply. Ethereum issues new ETH to validators indefinitely, although fee burning can offset or exceed that issuance. Dogecoin adds about 5 billion new coins each year with no ceiling. An uncapped supply is not automatically bad, but it means holders must consider the long-run inflation rate rather than a fixed scarcity story.

A cap only limits quantity; it says nothing about demand. An asset with a max supply of 1 million units can still fall to zero if nobody wants it. Scarcity is one input into value, not a guarantee of it.