When evaluating a cryptocurrency's price potential, looking only at its current token price is a beginner's mistake. Supply metrics add important context.
Circulating Supply
The number of coins or tokens that are currently publicly available and circulating in the market. This is the metric used to calculate Market Capitalization.
Total Supply
The total amount of tokens that currently exist, including those locked in staking smart contracts, reserved for the team, or held in treasury wallets.
Maximum Supply
The absolute hard cap on the number of tokens that will ever exist (e.g., Bitcoin's 21 million). Not all cryptocurrencies have a fixed maximum supply.
Why the Gap Matters
A large gap between circulating and total supply indicates that more tokens may become transferable later, but it does not prove that holders will sell them. TokenRadar compares available supply fields and FDV; it does not currently track project-level emission or vesting schedules. Verify unlock dates and allocation terms in current project documentation.
The Three Supply Numbers
Circulating supply is the amount available in the market today. Total supply is the amount that currently exists. Maximum supply is the hard cap, if one exists. These numbers answer different questions, so they should not be treated as interchangeable.
| Supply metric | Best use |
|---|---|
| Circulating supply | Current market cap and live valuation. |
| Total supply | Existing tokens, including locked or reserved allocations. |
| Maximum supply | Long-term dilution ceiling, if the protocol has one. |
| Emission schedule | Timing of future supply entering the market. |
Why Unlock Timing Matters
The market does not only care how many tokens exist. It cares when locked tokens become sellable and who receives them. Team, investor, ecosystem, and staking allocations can behave very differently. A large unlock to long-term ecosystem incentives may be less bearish than a large unlock to early investors who are already deeply in profit.
How TokenRadar Applies This
TokenRadar evaluates supply gaps with valuation, liquidity, and category context. A token with a large locked supply and shallow liquidity deserves more caution because future emissions can overwhelm demand. A token with most supply circulating may still be risky, but the dilution question is clearer.
Practical Checklist
Before comparing two tokens, normalize by market cap and FDV rather than unit price. Then check the next unlock date, unlock size as a percentage of circulating supply, and whether the project has real usage that could absorb new tokens. Supply analysis is most useful when it is tied to timing.