New digital coins are generated automatically into the account of the miner that places the next block on the blockchain. For example, with a single bitcoin at $60,000, approximately $27 million worth of new bitcoins are generated every day until 2028 when the number of coins will be reduced (see
Bitcoin halving). The block reward is also augmented by the fees paid by the initiators of the transactions. See
orphan block,
Bitcoin mining and
digital gold.
Bitcoin Is Deflationary
The Bitcoin block subsidy began with 50 bitcoins (BTC) per block and cuts in half every 210,000 blocks, roughly every four years. Designed to end in 2140, it becomes more difficult to reap monetary benefit from the reward as time passes unless the price of one bitcoin rises in concert. After 2140, a miner's reward will be derived only from transaction fees. Because of this cap, Bitcoin is considered a deflationary currency.
Ethereum Is Inflationary
In contrast, Ethereum has no cap. At the time of launch, 72 million ether (ETH) were created, and 60 million were awarded to its founders. Because of its inflationary nature, the block reward was reduced periodically from its original 5 ETH to 2 in 2022. See
Ethereum and
Ethereum 2.0.