Metrics
Market cap vs FDV
Market cap prices the tokens in circulation today; fully diluted valuation prices a larger supply, and data providers disagree on which supply that is.
Le Coin / Field Guide
Field Guide
How to read the numbers people quote about crypto: what each one counts, and what it leaves out. No live prices.
01 Mechanics only. No prices.
02 Every claim sourced.
03 Versioned with a changelog.
All guides
Metrics
Total value locked
TVL adds up the market value of tokens deposited in a protocol's contracts, and what counts depends on choices each data provider makes.
Metrics
MVRV
MVRV divides a coin's market value by its realized value, a tally of every coin at the price when it last moved on the blockchain.
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Supply and unlocks
A supply schedule sets when tokens are created or become transferable, and data providers model and label those releases in different ways.
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Attestation vs audit
Issuers often publish an accountant's report on their reserves. Whether it is an attestation or an audit decides what it covers, for which moment and with how much assurance.
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ETF flows and basis
A bitcoin fund's flows show up as changes in its share count, and the basis is the gap between futures and spot prices.
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Realized cap
Realized cap adds up a cryptocurrency's coins at the price each one last moved on its blockchain, not at today's price.
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Dominance
Bitcoin dominance divides bitcoin's market value by the value of every coin a data provider tracks, so the answer depends on what that provider counts.
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Funding rates
A funding rate is the regular payment between buyers and sellers of a perpetual futures contract, and each exchange sets its own formula for it.
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Open interest
Open interest counts the derivatives contracts that traders have opened and not yet closed, and the CFTC and Bybit count and label it differently.
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NUPL and SOPR
NUPL estimates how much of a cryptocurrency's market value is unrealized profit or loss, while SOPR shows whether coins actually spent were moved at a gain or a loss.
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Long/short ratios
Every futures contract has a buyer and a seller, so a long/short ratio always describes a chosen group of traders or accounts, never the whole market.
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Macro transmission
Monetary policy reaches the economy through several channels, from short-term rates to credit and the dollar, and official frameworks do not include crypto.
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Moving averages and oscillators
Moving averages smooth a price series to show its direction, and oscillators such as RSI and MACD turn recent moves into a momentum score.
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Fees vs revenue
Fees are what users pay to use a protocol, revenue is the share it keeps after paying suppliers such as lenders or validators, and data providers draw that line differently.
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Hash rate and difficulty
Difficulty is a number the Bitcoin protocol resets every 2,016 blocks, and hash rate is an estimate worked back from it over windows that differ by provider.
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Staking yield
An ETH staking rate adds new issuance, transaction tips and MEV payments, then subtracts penalties and fees. Issuance shrinks as more ETH is staked.
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Active addresses
Active addresses count the distinct addresses that took part in on-chain activity over a day or longer, and providers disagree on what counts as activity.
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Exchange net flows
Exchange net flow subtracts coins leaving exchange wallets from coins arriving, and every figure depends on which addresses a provider has labeled as an exchange's.