[Data: Up to 37% of Circulating Bitcoin May Be Lost Forever] According to a report by Jinse Finance, although Bitcoin's fixed cap of 21 million is designed to counter fiat currency inflation and mimic the scarcity of gold, a significant amount of permanently lost Bitcoin has further tightened the supply. On-chain analysis estimates that approximately 2.3 million to a staggering 7.8 million Bitcoin (about 11%–37% of the total supply) may have been lost forever, trapped in lost wallets, forgotten private keys, or abandoned addresses due to accidental deaths. These "zombie coins" or "ghost coins" effectively reduce Bitcoin's actual circulating supply from the current 19.9 million to only between 12.1 million and 17.6 million.