Asset Metrics and Definitions

Explanations of the available metrics and definitions for assets listed on Messari.

The metrics below are available on Project Pages in the Messari Terminal.

Markets

Metric CategoryDefinition
PriceThe price metrics refer to the asset's recent trading price. The price is calculated using a VWAP across the exchanges included in the Messari Real Volume Methodology. The 1H & 24H ranges refer to the low and high price of the asset over those timeframes.
VolumeReal Volume is the trading volume of the asset over the selected timeframe from the exchanges Messari includes in its Real Volume methodology. Reported Volume is the trading volume of the asset over the selected timeframe from all exchanges covered by Messari.
ROI By YearThe ROI By Year metrics provide the raw percentage return on the asset from the beginning of the year to the end.
Risk MetricsThe Sharpe ratio (also known as the Sharpe index) measures the performance of an investment compared to a risk-free asset, after adjusting for its risk. Volatility is measured by calculating the standard deviation of the daily returns over a given period of time. Both are available on different timeframes (30 days, 90 days, 1 year, 3 years).
Market CapThere exist different ways to calculate Marketcap for cryptoassets. Reported Marketcap is calculated using the circulating supply commonly reported in the industry. Liquid Marketcap is calculated using the supply that exists on-chain, and which is not known to be encumbered by any contracts (programmatic or legal). Outstanding Marketcap is calculated using the entirety of the supply that exists on-chain. Realized Marketcap is defined as the sum of USD value based on the USD closing price on the day that a native unit last moved. Projected Marketcaps (Y+10, Y2050) is defined as the Marketcap accounting for known issuance X years into the future. Altogether, these metrics allow us to have a precise picture of the asset capitalization.
Return on InvestmentROI metrics refer to the price performance (ROI) of the asset over different timeframes, against the selected currency, sector, or tag. This allows us to compare the performance of the asset against USD, but also against the average DeFi ecosystem for example.
All-time Highs & Cycle LowsThe All-Time-High ('ATH') trading price for an asset, in USD is computed using the highest hourly open. Cycle Low is the lowest trading price (in USD) of the asset since its All-Time-High

Supply

Metric CategoryDefinition
Current SupplyThere exist different ways to measure Supply for cryptoassets. Reported Supply refers to the circulating supply commonly reported in the industry. Liquid Supply refers to the supply that exists onchain, and which is not known to be encumbered by any contracts (programmatic or legal). Outstanding Supply refers to the entirety of the supply that exists on-chain. Altogether, these metrics allow us to have a precise picture of the Supply of an asset
Active SupplyActive supply is defined as the sum of unique native units that transacted at least once in the trailing X years/months/days. Native units that transacted more than once are only counted once.
Issuance & InflationIssuance and Inflation metrics both measure how the supply of an asset will evolve in the future. Issuance metrics are calculated based on the current outstanding supply and the number of coins that will be issued onchain. The Annual Inflation Rate, when available, is calculated by taking the projected 12-month increase in Liquid Supply and dividing it by the Liquid Supply today. Projected Supply metrics (Y+10, Y2050), when available, represent the liquid supply of an asset accounting for known issuance X years into the future. Altogether, these metrics give a good estimate of dilution that an investor will likely suffer in the future.
Supply Distribution

Mining

Metric CategoryDefinition
Miner HashrateHashrate is the mean rate at which miners are solving hashes. The miner revenue per hash metric refers to the miner reward per estimated hash unit performed during the period, also known as hash price.
Miner DifficultyThe average difficulty of finding a hash that meets the protocol-designated requirement (i.e., the difficulty of finding a new block) that interval. The requirement is unique to each applicable cryptocurrency protocol.

Addresses

Metric CategoryDefinition
Address DistributionThis is the sum of all native units being held in addresses whose balance was at least one in X of the current supply, or greater than X USD / Native units, or in the Top X addresses, at the end of the day. Only native units are considered (e.g., an address with less than X ETH but with more than X in ERC-20 tokens would not be considered). Data sourced from coinmetrics.io.
Active AddressesThe sum count of unique addresses that were active in the network (either as a destination or source of a ledger change) that day. All parties in a ledger change action (source and destination) are counted. Individual addresses are not double-counted if previously active. Data Provided by Coinmetrics.

Exchange Flows

Metric CategoryDefinition
Exchange Net FlowsThis is the net flow (supply received minus supply sent) for a given exchange in a given timeframe. It can be denominated in USD or Native Units. Data sourced from Coinmetrics.
Exchange WithdrawalsThis is the sum withdrawn from exchanges that day, including or excluding exchange-to-exchange activity. It can be denominated in USD or Native Units. Data sourced from Coinmetrics.
Exchange DepositsThis is the sum deposited to exchanges that day, including or excluding exchange-to-exchange activity. It can be denominated in USD or Native Units. Data sourced from Coinmetrics.
Exchange SuppliesThe sum of all native units held in hot or cold exchange wallets that day. It can be denominated in USD or Native Units. Data sourced from Coinmetrics.

Fees and Revenue

Metric CategoryDefinition
FeesVarious metrics about fees paid to miners, transaction validators, stakers, and/or block producers over the selected timeframe. They can be denominated in USD or Native Units. Data sourced from Coinmetrics.
RevenueThis is the value of all miner revenue, which constitutes fees plus newly issued native units, represented either as the US dollar amount earned if all native units were sold at the closing price on the same day, or in native units. Data sourced from coimetrics.io.
GasGas refers to the unit that measures the amount of computational effort required to execute specific operations on the network. Data sourced from coinmetrics.io.

Network Activity

Metric CategoryDefinition
TransactionsTransaction data sourced from coinmetrics.io.
BlocksVarious metrics on blocks sourced from coinmetrics.io
ContractsVarious metrics on contracts sourced from coinmetrics.io.

Miscellaneous

Metric CategoryDefinition
Developer ActivityDeveloper Activity Metrics are sourced from Github. Note that there are often many repositories associated with a given asset or project, but Github stats shown here are pulled from what we consider the 'primary' repository for an asset. Occasionally it's not straightforward to determine which repository should be considered the primary one (or the project/asset is such that there just isn't a primary repo). In such cases, we select the repo that most closely defines the unique aspects of the project. This is usually a repo that defines the core node client for the asset, or a set of smart contracts.

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