TokenTrail guides
Read the on-chain guides
Cost basis, holder cohorts, exchange flows and the limits of address clustering, in long form.
On-chain analysis
TokenTrail metrics
The metrics behind on-chain analysis, explained
Plain-English profiles of the indicators analysts quote most — what each one measures, who introduced it, how to read it, and where it fails.
Education only. No metric on this site is a trading signal.
Six families, two kinds of data
Derivatives metrics come from exchanges. Everything else is reconstructed from the blockchain’s own record — which means it inherits the blind spots of address clustering.
- 16profiles
- 6families
- 13original authors cited
Off-chain
Derivatives
Funding and positioning data published by futures venues.
On-chain
Network & flows
Activity, security and movement of coins between wallets and exchanges.
Cost basis & holders
Valuation, profit and loss, and how long coins sit still.
- Realized cap: valuing coins at the price they last moved
- Realized price: the average price coins last moved at
- MVRV ratio: market value compared with realized value
- NVT ratio: network value compared with on-chain volume
- NUPL: how much paper profit or loss the network holds
- SOPR: are coins being spent at a profit or a loss?
- Percent supply in profit: how many coins are above water
- HODL waves: reading Bitcoin’s supply by coin age
- Coin Days Destroyed: measuring when old bitcoin starts to move
Metric catalog
Pick a family, filter by name, and open any profile. Every profile lists its formula, its original author and its limits.
Families
Metrics
Valuation & cost basis
- Realized cap: valuing coins at the price they last moved — Every coin valued at the price it last moved on-chain — a rough gauge of what holders paid.
- Realized price: the average price coins last moved at — Realized cap divided by supply: the average price at which coins last moved on-chain.
- MVRV ratio: market value compared with realized value — Market cap divided by realized cap: how far today’s value sits above or below on-chain cost.
- NVT ratio: network value compared with on-chain volume — Network value divided by on-chain transfer volume — crypto’s rough answer to a P/E ratio.
Profit & loss
- NUPL: how much paper profit or loss the network holds — Net paper profit or loss of all coins as a share of market cap — above zero, the network is in profit.
- SOPR: are coins being spent at a profit or a loss? — Value of coins when spent divided by their value when created: above 1, spenders realize profit.
- Percent supply in profit: how many coins are above water — Share of all coins whose price today is above the price when they last moved on-chain.
Holder behaviour
- HODL waves: reading Bitcoin’s supply by coin age — Bitcoin’s supply split into age bands by when coins last moved — a picture of holding and spending.
- Coin Days Destroyed: measuring when old bitcoin starts to move — Coins spent × days they sat unmoved — on-chain activity weighted towards old, long-held coins.
Network activity & security
- Hash rate: how much work is securing Bitcoin — How much proof-of-work miners perform per second — estimated, never directly observed.
- Active addresses: counting who used the chain — roughly — How many unique addresses sent or received coins in a period — a rough, easily distorted proxy for users.
- Puell Multiple: is miner income high or low compared with the past year? — Today’s dollar value of newly mined bitcoin divided by its one-year average — a gauge of miner income.
Capital flows
- Exchange netflow: coins in minus coins out — Coins sent to labelled exchange addresses minus coins withdrawn from them — only as good as the labels.
- Stablecoin supply ratio (SSR): Bitcoin’s size against the stablecoin pile — Bitcoin’s market cap divided by the market cap of tracked stablecoins — a rough gauge of dollar “dry powder”.
Derivatives
- Funding rate: the price of staying long or short in perpetual futures — The periodic payment between longs and shorts that keeps perpetual futures near spot — a gauge of positioning.
- Open interest: how much leveraged exposure is open right now — The total size of derivative positions still open — a snapshot of how much leveraged exposure exists.
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What every profile includes
Formula in words
Each formula is written out, then worked through with numbers computed in code.
Original author
Who introduced the metric, when, and where — linked to the original publication where it is reachable.
How analysts read it
The levels and patterns people watch, presented as conventions rather than rules.
How it misleads
Clustering errors, exchange wallets, lost coins and changing market structure.
Linked vocabulary
Every technical word links to a glossary entry written for beginners.
Four honest ways to use on-chain metrics
Orientation, not prediction
Cost-basis metrics tell you where the average holder stands. They describe the present; they do not forecast price.
Compare like with like
A metric’s history on one asset is the only fair benchmark. Thresholds that held for Bitcoin do not transfer to other coins.
Combine independent signals
Two metrics built from the same input (for example, realized cap) are not independent confirmation.
Check the plumbing
Exchange-flow and holder metrics depend on how a provider labels addresses. Read the provider’s methodology before trusting a spike.
From the Bitcoin whitepaper
We define an electronic coin as a chain of digital signatures.
Suggest a metric or report an error
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Where to go after a metric profile
TokenTrail glossary
Look up a term
Every word used in a metric profile has a plain-English entry with an example.
Open the glossary
TokenTrail tools
Run the numbers
Cost basis and drawdown calculators that show the same arithmetic the metrics use.
Use the calculators