Skip to main content

Overview

In the crypto industry, there is no universal standard for defining supply metrics. Terms like “Circulating Supply” can mean different things on different platforms, leading to confusion and making it difficult to perform accurate, apples-to-apples comparisons. Tokenomist resolves this by establishing a standardized framework for supply metrics ensuring that you have a reliable and unambiguous data.

Methodology

Definitions

Example Case

Imagine “Token X” has a Total Supply of 100 million. A snapshot might look like this:
  • Locked Supply: 40M (Team tokens vesting over 4 years)
  • TBD Locked Supply: 20M (In a DAO treasury awaiting a vote)
  • Released Supply: 40M (The remaining tokens are unlocked and claimable)
  • Circulating Supply: 30M (Of the 40M unlocked, 30M have been moved out of stakeholder wallets to the open market, while 10M are still held by the project/investors).

Access

These core metrics are the foundation of our platform and can be found across the website:
  • On the main dashboard for every token.
  • In the detailed charts and tables on each token page.

Using Supply Metrics for Insights

By combining these metrics, you can uncover deeper insights:
  • Gauge Inflation Potential: Compare the Circulating Supply to the Total Supply. A large difference indicates significant future inflation is scheduled.
  • Identify “Unclaimed Overhang”: Compare the Released Supply to the Circulating Supply. A large gap means insiders are holding a significant amount of claimable tokens that could enter the market at any time.

FAQs

What is the most important difference between Released Supply and Circulating Supply? Released Supply is the total amount of tokens that are no longer vesting, including those still held by the team or investors. Circulating Supply only includes the portion of unlocked tokens that have left these “stakeholder” wallets and are available on the open market. Why do you separate Locked Supply and TBD Locked Supply? Locked Supply has a predictable, time-based release schedule that we can chart out. TBD Locked Supply has no schedule and is event-based, representing a more uncertain future supply. Separating them allows users to distinguish between predictable inflation and potential supply shocks. Does your FDV calculation use Max Supply or Total Supply? As stated in our formula, we use Total Supply for our FDV calculation. This represents the value after all currently planned tokens are issued, which we believe is a more practical metric than a theoretical and potentially infinite Max Supply.