Does Monero have a maximum supply?
No, Monero does not have a fixed maximum supply. Under its current rules, new XMR will keep being created through tail emission: a continuing reward of 0.6 XMR for each new block, with a block arriving about every two minutes.
What an unlimited supply actually means
You might hear that Monero has an “unlimited supply.” That means there is no final number of coins at which new coin creation stops. It does not mean anyone can create as much XMR as they want.
Monero’s software follows a set issuance schedule—the rules for creating new coins. Computers checking the network reject blocks that try to create more than those rules allow.
A block is a group of transactions added to Monero’s shared transaction history. Miners use computing power to help add these blocks and secure that history. The network rewards them with newly created XMR, along with fees paid by people sending transactions.
So you can think of Monero as having ongoing, controlled issuance, rather than a capped supply.
How much new Monero is created?
Monero’s initial reward schedule gradually reduced the amount of XMR created per block. That main emission phase produced roughly 18.13 million XMR before tail emission began around June 2022.
Since then, the standard new-coin reward has been 0.6 XMR per block. At the target block time, that works out to approximately:
- 0.3 XMR per minute
- 432 XMR per day
- 157,680 XMR per 365-day year
These are schedule-based estimates, not exact calendar totals. Blocks do not arrive at perfectly spaced intervals, and Monero’s rules can reduce the reward for unusually large blocks.
Transaction fees are separate from new coin creation. They move existing XMR from the sender to the miner, so they do not increase the total supply.
Why Monero keeps creating coins
Tail emission gives miners an ongoing reward for helping protect the network, even when transaction fees are low.
On a network with a fixed supply cap, newly created coin rewards eventually end. Miners must then rely on transaction fees or other income. Monero instead keeps a continuing base reward alongside fees.
That is a design trade-off, not a guarantee of security or profitability. New coins keep entering circulation, but miners retain a source of payment that does not depend entirely on transaction activity.
If you mine Monero, the 0.6 XMR block reward is not your personal payout. Your expected share depends on your computing contribution compared with other miners, plus any mining pool or service fees.
Does this mean inflation lasts forever?
Yes, if you mean supply inflation: growth in the number of XMR that exist. But the percentage growth gets smaller over time.
The reason is simple. Roughly the same number of new coins is added each year, while the existing supply keeps growing. That yearly addition becomes a smaller fraction of the total.
This does not tell you whether XMR’s market price will rise or fall. Demand and many other factors also affect price. Neither a fixed cap nor a declining inflation rate guarantees an investment return.
The bottom line
Monero has no maximum supply under its current rules. Instead, it combines a continuing mining reward with a supply growth rate that gradually shrinks in percentage terms.
