51 crypto metrics you MUST know about
Crypto Metrics are numbers that investors use to decide whether to buy, sell or hold a crypto asset.
Crypto Metrics are numbers that investors use to decide whether to buy, sell or hold a crypto asset. These metrics are primarily divided into 10 categories:
Supply Metrics
Capitalization metrics
Volume
Price Metrics
Holders' Statistics
Return on Investment
DeFi metrics
Consensus metrics
Staking metrics
Mining metrics
I. Supply Metrics
The important supply metrics are:
Circulating Supply
Maximum supply
Total supply
Inflation
Stock to Flow
Vladimir Club Cost
1. Circulating Supply
Circulating Supply (CS) is the number of coins/tokens that are circulating in the market and are in public hands. Usually, the lower this number, the higher the prices are likely to be.
Examples: The circulating supply of Bitcoin (BTC) increases approx every 10 minutes as new bitcoins are generated with every block that is mined. The crypto with one of the highest circulating supplies is SHIBA INU with 394,796,000,000,000 SHIB.
2. Maximum Supply
Maximum Supply (MS) is the maximum number of coins/tokens that will ever exist in the lifetime of a crypto asset.
Examples: The maximum supply of Bitcoin (BTC) is 21 million while that of Ether (ETH) is unlimited!
3. Total Supply
Total Supply (TS) is the number of coins/tokens that have been already created, minus coins/tokens that have been "burned".
Examples: In the case of Bitcoin (BTC), the circulating supply is equal to the total supply. Binance Coin (BNB) regularly "burns" coins and this helps maintain its price.
4. Inflation
Inflation is calculated by dividing the projected 12-month increase in Circulating Supply by the current Circulating Supply. Inflation shows how much dilution will occur over the next 12 months. Remember to factor in halvings and vesting expiries.
Inflation = Projected 12-month increase in CS / Current CS
5. Stock to Flow
Stock to Flow is the inverse of Inflation and does not apply to cryptos with fixed or decreasing Circulating Supply.
Stock to Flow = Current CS / Projected 12-month increase in CS
6. Vladimir Club Cost
The Vladimir Club is the cost of owning 1% of 1% of a crypto's eventual supply.
Example: Bitcoin's maximum supply is 21 million coins. To be "in the Vladimir Club" for Bitcoin, you would need 21 million x 0.01 x 0.01 i.e. 2100 BTC.
II. Capitalization Metrics
The important capitalization metrics are:
Market Capitalization
Fully Diluted Market Capitalization
1. Market Capitalization
Market Capitalization (MCap) is the total market value of a crypto's circulating supply.
Market Capitalization = Circulating Supply x Current Price
Historically, Bitcoin (BTC) has always had the highest market capitalization and Ethereum the second highest. If this reverses, it would be called Flippening.
2. Fully Diluted Market Capitalization
Fully Diluted Market Capitalization (FDMC) is the market capitalization if the maximum supply was in circulation.
FDMC = Price x Max Supply
If the maximum supply is unknown or unlimited, like in ETH, then:
FDMC = Price x Total Supply
If the maximum supply and total supply are both unlimited, then we can't calculate the FDMC.
III. Volume
The important volume metrics are:
Volume
Trading volume
Transaction volume
Volume to MarketCap Ratio
Velocity
1. Volume
Volume measures how much of a crypto asset was traded in the last 24 hours.
2. Trading volume
Trading volume is equal to the total value of trades on a trading protocol.
3. Transaction volume
Transaction volume is equal to the total value of transactions on a blockchain.
4. Volume to MarketCap Ratio
Volume to MarketCap Ratio (VMR) is calculated by dividing the 24-hour volume by the Market Capitalization. This is also called Volume Turnover (24H).
VMR = 24-hour volume / Market Capitalization
5. Velocity
Velocity is the product of the VMR and 100.
Velocity = VMR x 100
IV. Price Metrics
The important price metrics are:
Price USD
Price BTC
Open-High-Low-Close prices
All-time-high (ATH)
All-time-low (ATL)
Time from ATH
Percentage down from ATH
Breakeven Multiple
Cycle Low
Time Since Low
Percentage Up Since Low
1. Price USD
Price USD is the crypto's most recent trading price in US Dollars. Ideally, this should be averaged across multiple credible exchanges. Similarly, there can be Price INR, Price EUR, Price SGD, etc.
2. Price BTC
Price BTC is the crypto's most recent trading price in Bitcoin. Cryptos can also be quoted in sats / satoshis which is 0.00000001 BTC.
3. Open-High-Low-Close prices
Open-High-Low-Close prices (OHLC) means the open, high, low, and closing prices for a crypto asset for a particular time period - an hour, a day, or even a year.
4. All-time-high
All-time-high (ATH) is the highest price a crypto asset has ever reached. You should also check out the high prices over the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, and 52 weeks.
5. All-time-low
All-time-low (ATL) is the lowest price a crypto asset has ever reached. You should also check out the low prices over the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, and 52 weeks.
6. Time from ATH
Time from ATH is the number of days that have passed since the crypto had its ATH price in USD.
7. Percentage down from ATH
This measures how far down the crypto is currently trading from its ATH.
8. Breakeven Multiple
This is the multiple by which the current price of the crypto needs to rise to re-gain the ATH.
Example: A crypto's ATH is $100 and the current price is $20. The Breakeven Multiple will be 5x. The crypto's price will need to go up 5 times to regain its ATH.
9. Cycle Low
Cycle Low is the lowest trading price of the crypto since its ATH.
10. Time Since Low
Time Since Low is the number of days since the crypto had its Cycle Low price.
11. Percentage Up Since Low
This is how much the crypto's price has risen from its Cycle Low price.
V. Holders' Statistics
The important holder-related metrics are:
Active Addresses
Whales
1. Active Addresses
Active Addresses is the number of unique addresses that participated in a transaction anytime during the past 24 hours.
2. Whales
Whales are addresses that own more than 1% of the circulating supply of a crypto asset. Whale transfers from cold wallets to exchanges and vice versa are very important to track.
VI. Return on Investment
Return on Investment (ROI) measures the amount of return on a crypto investment, relative to its cost.
ROI = Profit / Cost
The important ROI metrics are:
Short-Term ROI
ROI by Year
1. Short-Term ROI
A crypto's ROI is the percentage return over a specific period - 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 1-year period, etc.
2. ROI by Year
ROIs by Year is the percentage return of a crypto asset from the beginning to the end of a specific year.
VII. DeFi Metrics
The important DeFi metrics are:
Total Value Locked
Borrowing volume
Capital deployed
Protocol revenue
Annualized protocol revenue
Annualized total revenue
Supply-side revenue
Token incentives
Total revenue
Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio
Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio
1. Total Value Locked
Total value locked (TVL) represents the total of all assets deposited in a Decentralised Finance protocol earning rewards, interest, new coins or tokens, fixed income, etc.
2. Borrowing volume
Borrowing volume is the total value of outstanding loans of a lending protocol.
3. Capital deployed
Capital deployed is the total value of funds invested to generate yield by an asset management protocol.
4. Protocol revenue
Protocol revenue is the amount of revenue that is distributed to token holders.
5. Annualized protocol revenue
Annualized protocol revenue is the protocol revenue over the previous 30 days multiplied by 365/30.
6. Annualized total revenue
Annualized total revenue is calculated as the total revenue over the previous 30 days multiplied by 365/30.
7. Supply-side revenue
Supply-side revenue is the amount of revenue the project pays to the supply-side participants e.g. liquidity providers.
8. Token incentives
Token incentives are the value of tokens distributed to the users and supply-side participants as rewards.
9. Total revenue
Total revenue is the total fees paid by the users over a specific time period.
10. Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio
Price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is the fully diluted market cap (FDMC) divided by annualized protocol revenue (APR).
P/E = FDMC / APR
Protocol revenue is the money generated from a protocol's business and then either allocated to its treasury or distributed to token holders. APR is calculated as the protocol revenue over the previous 30 days multiplied by 365/30.
11. Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio
Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio is the fully diluted market cap (FDMC) divided by annualized total revenue (ATR).
P/E = FDMC / ATR
Total revenue is equal to the total fees paid by the users. ATR is calculated as the total revenue over the previous 30 days multiplied by 365/30.
Notes about P/E and P/S ratios:
1. Some protocols have only supply-side revenue and hence their P/E ratio cannot be calculated. Example: In Uniswap (UNI), all the trading fees go to the liquidity providers (supply-side).
2. Some protocols have only protocol revenue and hence their P/S and P/E ratios are the same. Example: In MakerDAO (MKR), all interest payments go to the protocol and are distributed to MKR holders through buybacks.
3. Some protocols have both supply-side & protocol revenue and hence their P/S & P/E ratio are both available. Example: In Compound (COMP), interest payments are divided between lenders (supply-side) & the protocol's treasury which is managed by token holders.
VIII. Consensus Metrics
The important consensus metrics are:
Targeted Block Time
Block Reward
1. Targeted Block Time
Targeted Block Time is the targeted time interval between two blocks. This is usually measured in seconds and is defined by the blockchain's specifications. The actual block time usually differs from this.
2. Block Reward
The block reward is the newly minted coins that are awarded to the miner / validator / creator of a new block. This does not include the transaction fees that are awarded by the blockchain.
IX. Staking Metrics
The important Staking metrics are:
Annualized Staking Yield
Real Annualized Staking Yield
Tokens Staking
Percentage Network Staking
Staking Minimum
1. Annualized Staking Yield
Annualized Staking Yield is the annualized yield for staking at current supply levels of the crypto.
2. Real Annualized Staking Yield
Real Annualized Staking Yield is the annual yield expected from staking, after accounting for the blockchain's circulating supply inflation.
3. Tokens Staking
Tokens Staking is the number of tokens currently staking on the blockchain.
4. Percentage Network Staking
This is the percentage of the Current Supply that is currently staking.
5. Staking Minimum
Staking Minimum is the minimum number of tokens required for staking.
X. Mining Metrics
The important Mining metrics are:
Hash Rate
Percentage on Nicehash
Attack Cost (1H)
Attack Cost (24H)
Next Halving Date
1. Hash Rate
This is the total hash rate of the blockchain. It must be remembered that different mining algorithms require very different computational resources per hash.
2. Percentage on NiceHash
NiceHash is a market for crypto mining power that enables users to buy or sell mining compute power. Percentage on Nicehash is the fraction of a 51% attack's hash rate that is currently available for rent on NiceHash.
3. Attack Cost (1H)
Attack Cost (1H) is the cost of renting hash-power on NiceHash to carry out a 51% attack on the blockchain for 1 hour.
4. Attack Cost (24H)
Attack Cost (24H) is the cost of renting hash-power on NiceHash to carry out a 51% attack on the blockchain for 24 hours.
5. Next Halving Date
The Next Halving Date is the estimated date when the block reward of a proof-of-work blockchain will be reduced in half.
Sources of metrics: Coin MarketCap, DeFi Llama, Future Money Wallet, Messari, and Token Terminal