How fast is the money being printed?
Since Bitcoin launched in January 2009, the world's major fiat currencies have all expanded. Below, the same time window shown four ways — money supplies side by side, Bitcoin's hard cap approaching, the pound's purchasing power, and Bitcoin's price stripped of inflation.
The race — fiat money supplies since 2009
Each currency's broad money supply is rebased to 100 on January 2009. A line at 200 means the money supply has doubled. Different definitions (USD M2, EUR M3, GBP M4) are roughly comparable measures of "all the money sloshing around" in each economy — including bank deposits and short-term savings.
Sources: —. M2/M3/M4 are not identical definitions but each is the standard "broad money" measure for its currency area.
Bitcoin's supply approaches a hard cap
No central bank can vote to issue more. 94.8% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist has already been mined; the remaining tail of ~5.2% will be released over the next 114 years.
21M cap shown as a dashed line. Derived from the halving schedule.
What £1 from 2009 buys today
Cumulative UK CPI inflation, compounded year on year. The pound saved under the mattress in 2009 has steadily lost real purchasing power — by design, since the Bank of England's mandate is a positive inflation rate.
Source: ONS series D7G7 (annual % change in CPI). Each year compounded with the next.
Bitcoin's price, in real (2009) dollars
Nominal prices include inflation. A "real" price strips that out so you can see actual purchasing power. Below: BTC's nominal USD price next to the same price expressed in 2009 dollars, deflated by US CPI. The real line is always below the nominal — the gap is debasement.
Deflated by US CPI (FRED CPIAUCSL). Values in your selected currency via the live GBP/USD rate.