Clear DefinitionsCirculating Supply
1 min read
Pronunciation
[sur-kyuh-ley-ting suh-plahy]
Analogy
For the collectible card set (Max Supply 10,000, Total Supply 7,000): the 'Circulating Supply' is the number of cards actually available for buying and selling among collectors right now. If the manufacturer holds 500 cards in reserve and another 1,500 are locked away by early investors, the Circulating Supply might only be 5,000 (7,000 total - 500 reserve - 1,500 locked).
Definition
The number of coins or tokens that are actively available to the public and circulating in the open market. It excludes locked tokens (e.g., held by founders/team, reserved for staking rewards, in vesting contracts) and burned tokens.
Key Points Intro
Circulating supply represents the tokens readily available for trading and use in the market.
Key Points
The subset of Total Supply that is accessible to the general public.
Excludes tokens locked in smart contracts, held in team/foundation reserves, subject to vesting schedules, or burned.
Often used to calculate a cryptocurrency's market capitalization (Circulating Supply x Current Price).
Provides a better estimate of a token's immediate liquidity and market availability than Total Supply.
Example
CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko typically report the Circulating Supply for cryptocurrencies. If a token has a Total Supply of 1 billion but 300 million are locked for team vesting and 100 million are reserved for future ecosystem grants, the Circulating Supply would be 600 million.
Caveat
The exact definition and calculation of Circulating Supply can sometimes vary slightly between different data providers. It's important to understand how a specific source calculates this metric.
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