Circulating Supply
The estimated number of tokens currently public and actively circulating — held by retail/institutional investors, exchanges, market makers, and public staking pools/DeFi protocols. It generally excludes locked vesting tokens, unreleased treasury, unminted tokens, permanently burned tokens, and transfer-restricted tokens. It's used for market cap = price × circulating supply.
Unlike a public company's share count, crypto circulating supply is an estimate — providers must decide whether foundation, treasury, staked, bridged, exchange-held, or unmoved-but-unlocked tokens count as circulating, and different providers classify them differently. Verify against the blockchain and official docs when it matters.
Total Supply and Maximum Supply
Total supply is generally all tokens that currently exist minus permanent burns — circulating tokens plus locked team/investor tokens, treasury reserves, ecosystem allocations, and unclaimed rewards. Maximum supply is the highest number of tokens that can ever exist under current protocol rules; not every token has one (some have perpetual issuance to fund security), and a stated cap can sometimes be changed via governance votes, protocol upgrades, or contract-owner permissions — verify whether it's technically enforceable or just current policy.
Example: 200 million circulating, 700 million total, 1 billion maximum → 500 million existing-but-not-circulating tokens, plus 300 million more that could still be created.
Minted and Burned Supply
Minted supply is the total created by the token contract — some circulating, some locked, staked, treasury-held, or burned; a contract may mint the full supply at launch or issue gradually. Burned supply is tokens permanently removed by sending them to an inaccessible wallet, a designated burn address, or a contract that destroys them — verify the destination is genuinely irreversible rather than just labeled "dead."
Why Low Circulating Supply Can Be Misleading
Example: $5 price, 20 million circulating, 1 billion max → $100 million circulating market cap, but $5 billion FDV. Only 2% of maximum supply is circulating (20 million ÷ 1 billion × 100). The project can look like a small $100 million asset while the market implicitly prices the full supply at $5 billion — as more tokens enter circulation, demand must grow substantially just to hold the price steady.
Supply Maturity Screening Framework
| Circulating % | Read |
|---|---|
| More than 80% | Relatively mature supply; ongoing inflation still worth reviewing. |
| 50%–80% | Meaningful portion still outside circulation, but past the most aggressive dilution stage. |
| 20%–50% | Future dilution may be significant — study unlocks and emissions closely. |
| Less than 20% | Potentially high dilution risk — determine when and to whom the remainder unlocks. |
These are screening guidelines, not buy/sell signals.
Does a Small Supply Make a Token More Valuable?
No — price must be evaluated alongside supply. A $100 price with 1 million circulating ($100 million market cap) and a $0.10 price with 1 billion circulating ($100 million market cap) have identical market caps; the lower nominal price of the second doesn't make it "cheaper." Watch for supply-manipulation framing: emphasizing a low price, small circulating supply, a large burn, or a distant max-supply cap, while quietly excluding treasury or "locked" holdings that could eventually circulate.
Supply Analysis Checklist
- Current circulating, total, and maximum supply, and the circulating percentage.
- Minting and burn authority — who controls it, and can the cap change?
- Unissued, locked, treasury, and team supply.
- Annual issuance and the next major unlock date.
Supply FAQs
Is circulating supply the same as available supply?
Not always — circulating supply estimates publicly available tokens, but some circulating tokens are held long-term and rarely traded.
Is maximum supply always fixed?
No. Some maximum-supply rules can change through governance, contract permissions, or protocol upgrades.
Why do different websites show different supply numbers?
Providers may classify treasury, locked, bridged, staked, or foundation-controlled tokens differently.
Is a low circulating supply bad?
Not automatically — it's a concern when large amounts of supply may enter circulation faster than demand grows.