What is circulating supply in crypto, and how is it different from total and max supply?

Circulating supply is the number of a crypto asset's tokens that are in public hands and able to trade. It sits beside two other figures on every price page: total supply and max supply. The three numbers come from different rules, and the gaps between them say a lot about a token's design.

What is circulating supply in crypto?

Circulating supply is not read straight off the blockchain. It is an estimate made by data aggregators. CoinGecko describes it as total supply minus "uncirculated wallets," and CoinMarketCap uses the same basic approach, comparing it to the public float of a listed company.

Both sites leave out several kinds of holdings, even when those tokens are technically unlocked:

• Tokens locked in smart contracts, held in escrow or still vesting for the team and investors.
• Foundation, treasury, ecosystem and marketing funds held by the project.
• Team and founder wallets, and large private sale allocations.

CoinMarketCap also excludes tokens a project has bought back on the open market. It says it checks figures through project contact and blockchain analysis rather than taking whitepaper or blog numbers at face value.

What is the difference between circulating supply and total supply?

Total supply is every token minted so far minus tokens that were provably burned, meaning sent to an address nobody can access. It includes the locked and insider holdings that circulating supply leaves out. The gap between the two is roughly the supply waiting in the wings, which is released over time through token unlocks.

Because each site keeps its own list of excluded wallets, the same token can show different circulating figures on different sites. That also changes its market cap, which both sites calculate from circulating supply.

What does max supply mean in crypto?

Max supply is the highest number of tokens that can ever exist, as written into the protocol. CoinGecko notes that some projects have no cap, so their max supply is effectively infinite. CoinMarketCap describes its own figure as a best approximation, minus burned coins. Max supply is the number used for fully diluted value, explained in our guide to FDV in crypto.

What is the circulating supply of bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a simple case because it has no team allocation or treasury. Its circulating supply is essentially the number of coins mined so far. According to The Block, mined supply passed 20 million BTC in March 2026, about 17 years after launch. The last million will be issued slowly over roughly 114 years, ending around 2140, under the cap explained in why there are only 21 million bitcoin.

The Block also notes the figure does not subtract coins lost through misplaced keys, since a lost coin looks the same as an untouched one. Supply figures change constantly, so these numbers reflect the market as of October 2026.