[isthatafact]

Given that bitcoin gets unrecoverably lost, and that more than 90% of it has already been mined, is it not inherently deflationary?

20% of all bitcoin made through 2019 had supposedly already been lost: https://www.investopedia.com/news/20-all-btc-lost-unrecovera...

Maybe the loss rate has decreased, but it seems like the amount of circulating bitcoin can only go down over time.

[mteam88]

Lost/burned tokens are not included in deflation calculations. We don't include lost dollars in the USD inflation calculation (afaik). The amount of circulating Bitcoin in circulation increases due to mining rewards.

Losing/burning coins should also become less notable over time as more people use better Bitcoin storage options, it's not built in to the protocol.