Bitcoin and Ethereum Set Different Rules for Blocks and Token Supply

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum take different approaches to producing blocks and managing their native assets, reflecting the networks’ distinct design aims. Bitcoin’s original design focused on peer-to-peer electronic cash. Ethereum was conceived as a programmable platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications.

Bitcoin uses proof-of-work: miners use computing power to produce valid blocks. The network aims for a new block at an average interval of 10 minutes. That is a target pace, not a guarantee that every block will arrive exactly 10 minutes after the last one.

Bitcoin’s protocol caps total issuance at 21 million BTC. At each 210,000-block milestone, the block reward falls by half, an event that occurs about every four years. The reward became 3.125 BTC per block after the Apr. 20, 2024, halving. The next halving is estimated for 2028.

Ethereum switched to proof-of-stake on Sept. 15, 2022. Validators stake Ether (ETH) to help propose blocks, and the direct deposit for a validator is 32 ETH. Ethereum divides time into 12-second slots; each gives a validator a chance to propose a block, though some slots may pass without one. The shift ended mining on Ethereum and substantially reduced the network’s energy use.

Ethereum has no fixed maximum supply for ETH. New issuance adds ETH, while burning transaction fees removes it. The net supply can increase or decrease depending on how issuance compares with the amount burned. Bitcoin’s supply limit and Ethereum’s changing balance of issuance and fee burning therefore work differently.

Block timing does not show how many transactions a network can process per second. Bitcoin’s 10-minute target and Ethereum’s 12-second slots describe different parts of block production, so they do not provide a direct throughput comparison. A consistent comparison must also specify whether it covers only a network’s base layer or includes Layer 2 networks.

Over the 12 months ending March 31, 2025, Bitcoin returned 16%, while Ether fell 50%. Those figures describe that historical period and do not represent 2026 price performance.