Circulating Supply

Circulating Supply is the best approximation of the number of assets that are circulating in the market and in the general public's hands. We have found that Circulating Supply is a much better metric than Total Supply for determining the market capitalization. The method of using the Circulating Supply is analogous to the method of using public float to determine the market capitalization of companies in traditional investing.
Assets that are locked (via smart contracts or legal contracts), allocated to the team or private investors, or not able to be sold on the public market, cannot affect the price and thus should not be allowed to affect the market capitalization as well. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. Private sale - Assets that were earmarked for a subset of investors and not available to the public through open bidding/balloting.
2. Ecosystem/Bounty/Marketing/Operations/Airdrops - Assets that have been earmarked for activities to grow the project’s ecosystem. For example, airdropped tokens are generally excluded from circulating supply unless the project is able to furnish evidence that there was active demand for the asset (e.g. users had registered/KYCed for the airdrop).
3. Masternodes/Staking - Assets that have been ‘staked’ in masternodes are evaluated on a case-by-case basis - Factors such as masternode distribution, ownership, and lock-up periods are also taken into consideration.
4. Team/Foundation/Treasury/Escrow - Assets held by project members or major ecosystem participants. Such holdings can constitute a significant percentage of the supply.
Circulating Supply is verified by our team through communication with the project’s team. We ask for details including but not limited to the initial distribution, private allocations, locked addresses, team-controlled addresses, and addresses containing portions of the supply allocated for future use.
We examine the project’s blockchain and distribution table to determine the best approximation of what is freely circulating in the market based on the information provided.
After the information is verified, the circulating supply is usually updated in real-time by (i) referencing deductible wallet balances or (ii) using relevant block explorer APIs if there is scrutability and reproducibility.
It is in every project’s interest to provide accurate and well-documented information in good faith. Most well-run projects are able to account for the distribution of their assets across different addresses. If a project has difficulties furnishing the requisite documentation or if there are irregularities in their submission, we would not able to verify their CS data.
Projects that attempt to manipulate or artificially inflate their supply figures will be permanently disqualified from the rankings.

Total Supply

We define Total Supply as the total amount of coins in existence right now, minus any coins that have been verifiably burned.

Max Supply

The best approximation of the maximum amount of coins that will ever exist in the lifetime of the cryptocurrency. This is also known as the theoretical max number of coins that will ever be minted.

You are leaving Coins Rating

How do Supply metric is calculated?