Changpeng Zhao warns of Bitcoin scarcity and retires public wallet

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has highlighted the increasing scarcity of Bitcoin, noting that the fixed supply of 21 million coins may soon make owning a full Bitcoin difficult even for millionaires. With over 20.07 million BTC already mined, CZ estimates that between 10% and 20% of the total supply may be permanently lost or inaccessible due to forgotten private keys, potentially reducing the liquid supply to approximately 17 million coins.

This scarcity is compounded by the global number of millionaires. According to UBS Global Wealth Report 2026 data, there are approximately 57.5 million millionaires worldwide, including 23.6 million in the United States. Analysts suggest that if the current supply were distributed equally, each millionaire would receive only about 0.35 BTC.

In a separate development, Zhao announced he is retiring his public BNB Chain wallet after it became difficult to manage due to an influx of unsolicited meme coin spam. Before abandoning the address, he donated approximately $955,000 to Giggle Academy, consisting of BNB and BinanceLife tokens. The decision followed a period of market volatility where traders attempted to front-run his on-chain activities, including token burns intended for routine wallet maintenance.