Hard Cap

Hard cap has two distinct meanings in the context of blockchain. A “hard cap” denotes the absolute maximum supply of a cryptocurrency that can ever be created. Bitcoin, for example, has a hard cap of 21 million bitcoins (BTC). The second definition denotes the maximum amount of a currency available to investors during an initial coin offering (ICO) or funding round. For example, a new blockchain project seeking funding may set a hard cap of 200 million tokens to be sold during the ICO, implying that only 200 million tokens can be sold during the ICO.