Key Metrics Cheatsheet
Quickly find which metrics are available on Token Terminal. You will also find brief What, How, Why explanations of each metric.
Market Data
Data relating to the protocol's governance token
| Metric name | What is this metric? | How is it calculated? |
|---|---|---|
| Fully diluted market capitalization | Valuation of the protocol based on the maximum supply of its governance token | Maximum supply * token price |
| Circulating market capitalization | Valuation of the protocol based on the circulating supply of its governance token | Circulating supply * token price |
| Token trading volume | Trading volume of the protocol's governance token across CEXs and DEXs | Trading volume on supported CEXs & DEXs, sourced from Coingecko |
| Tokenholders | Number of unique governance tokenholders | Number of unique addresses with a governance token balance greater than 0, sourced from onchain data |
| Circulating supply | Number of tokens in circulation | Total token supply - all tokens that are held by insiders. We consider tokens held by the team, treasury, early investors and foundations as non-circulating |
| Maximum supply | Maximum amount of tokens that will ever exist | Calculated either by looking at the total onchain supply or referring to the projects' documentation |
GMV data
Data relating to the usage of the protocol
| Metric name | What is this metric? | How is it calculated? |
|---|---|---|
| Total value locked | User deposits to the protocol's smart contracts (these assets are not owned by the protocol) | Value of funds held across a protocol's smart contracts |
| Trading volume | Trading volume on a DEX / NFT marketplace | Value of tokens being exchanged at a DEX / NFT marketplace |
| Active loans | Outstanding loans on a lending protocol | Value of funds owed by borrowers to lenders |
| Assets staked | User deposits staked by a liquid staking protocol | Value of funds staked across the protocol's smart contracts |
| Transfer volume | Tokens transferred through a cross-chain bridging protocol | Value of tokens transferred through a cross-chain bridge |
| Outstanding supply | The USD value of stablecoins outstanding | We track all stablecoin mints and burns |
| Net deposits | Net deposits to a protocol | User deposits - user withdrawal |
Financial data
Data relating to the usage of the protocol
| Metric name | What is this metric? | How is it calculated? |
|---|---|---|
| Fees | Fees paid by end users | Value of the aggregate fees paid by end users, sourced from onchain data |
| Supply-side fees | Portion of fees paid to service providers | Value of the fees paid to service providers (LPs, lenders, creators, etc.), sourced from onchain data |
| Revenue | Portion of fees kept by the protocol (and its tokenholders) | Value of the fees kept by the protocol (and tokenholders), sourced from onchain data |
| Expenses | Total onchain expenses paid by the protocol (currently includes only token incentives for most protocols) | Sum of all expenses paid by the protocol, sourced from onchain data |
| Cost of revenue | All onchain expenses directly related to the revenue generating service or product. | Sum of all expenses directly related to the revenue-generating service/product. This could include L1 settlement costs for L2s or fee splits with service providers (e.g., node operators for a liquid staking protocol). This metric excludes token incentives (rewards) and operating expenses. |
| Operating expenses | All onchain expenses paid by the protocol, excluding token incentives | Sum of all expenses related to the operations of the protocol. This can include core team salaries, cost of goods sold, marketing expenses & partnership costs, sourced from onchain data. This metric excludes token incentives (rewards) |
| Token incentives | Governance tokens distributed to users (token-based compensation) | Value of a protocol’s governance tokens that have been claimed by users, sourced from onchain data |
| Gross profit | Gross profit is a protocol’s revenue minus its cost of revenue. | Revenue - Cost of revenue, sourced from onchain data. |
| Earnings | Net income of a protocol (excl. off-chain operating expenses). | Revenue - expenses, sourced from onchain data. |
Valuation multiples
Financial metrics used to assess the relative valuation of a protocol.
| Metric name | What is this metric? | How is it calculated? |
|---|---|---|
| P/F ratio (fully diluted) | Valuation multiple, based on the fees paid by end users | Fully diluted market capitalization / annualized fees. The annualized fees are calculated based on the past 30d sum. |
| P/F ratio (circulating) | Valuation multiple, based on the fees paid by end users | Circulating market capitalization / annualized fees. The annualized fees are calculated based on the past 30d sum. |
| P/S ratio (fully diluted) | Valuation multiple, based on the revenue earned by the protocol | Fully diluted market capitalization / annualized revenue. The annualized revenue is calculated based on the past 30d sum. |
| P/S ratio (circulating) | Valuation multiple, based on the revenue earned by the protocol | Circulating market capitalization / annualized revenue. The annualized revenue is calculated based on the past 30d sum. |
Treasury data
Protocol treasury related data
| Metric name | What is this metric? | How is it calculated? |
|---|---|---|
| Treasury | Assets in the protocol's treasury (incl. unallocated governance tokens) | Value of the tokens held across a protocol's treasury contracts, sourced from onchain data |
| Net treasury | Assets in the protocol's treasury (excluding unallocated governance tokens) | Value of the tokens held across a protocol's treasury contracts excluding unallocated governance tokens, sourced from onchain data |
Developer activity
Metrics related to the level of engagement and contributions made by protocol developers.
| Metric name | What is this metric? | How is it calculated? |
|---|---|---|
| Core developers | Core developers that contribute to the protocol's public GitHub repositories | Number of distinct users that made 1+ commits to the protocol's public repositories during the past 30 days, sourced from GitHub |
| Code commits | New commits to the protocol's public GitHub repositories | Number of commits to the protocol's public repositories, sourced from GitHub |
Alternative data
Alternative KPIs used to track the performance of protocols
| Metric name | What is this metric? | How is it calculated? |
|---|---|---|
| Active users (daily) | Unique addresses that use the protocol's service on a daily basis | Number of unique addresses interacting with the protocol's business relevant smart contracts, sourced from onchain data |
| Active users (weekly) | Unique addresses that use the protocol's service on a weekly basis, based on a 7-day rolling window | Number of unique addresses interacting with the protocol's business relevant smart contracts, sourced from onchain data |
| Active users (monthly) | Unique addresses that use the protocol's service on a monthly basis, based on a 30-day rolling window | Number of unique addresses interacting with the protocol's business relevant smart contracts, sourced from onchain data |
| AFPU - Average Fees Per User | AFPU (Average Fees Per User) is a measurement of how much daily fees the average user generates. | AFPU is calculated as daily fees divided by daily number of users, sourced from onchain data. The definition of 'user' varies depending on the market sector. You can find it on the project-specific dashboard in the 'definition' section. |
| ARPU - Average Revenue Per User | ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) is a measurement of how much daily revenue the average user generates. | ARPU is calculated as daily revenue divided by number of users, sourced from onchain data. The definition of 'user' varies depending on the market sector. You can find it on the project-specific dashboard in the 'definition' section. |
| Average trading volume (per trade) | Average trading volume (per trade) is a measurement of how much daily trading volume, on average, is generated by one trade. | Average trading volume (per trade) is calculated as trading volume divided by trade count, sourced from onchain data. |
| Average trading volume (per user) | Average trading volume (per user) is a measurement of how much daily trading volume, on average, is generated by one user. | Average trading volume (per user) is calculated as trading volume divided by number of active users, sourced from onchain data. For exchanges, users are defined as daily distinct traders. |
| Average transaction fee | Average fee per transaction. | Transaction fees divided by transaction count. |
| Core developers | Core developers that contribute to the protocol's public GitHub repositories | Number of distinct users that made 1+ commits to the protocol's public repositories during the past 30 days, sourced from GitHub |
| Block time | Average time elapsed between the addition of successive blocks to a blockchain | Block timestamps are sourced from onchain data, and the time elapsed between successive blocks is calculated and averaged during a specified time period (e.g. a day) |
| Code commits | New commits to the protocol's public GitHub repositories | Number of commits to the protocol's public repositories, sourced from GitHub |
| Contracts deployed | Number of smart contracts deployed on the network. | Number of distinct smart contracts that are successfully deployed through contract creation transactions, sourced from onchain data. |
| Contract deployers | Number of externally-owned accounts (EOAs) that initiate transactions where contract creations occur | Number of distinct EOAs initiating transactions where contract creations occur, sourced from onchain data |
| Liquidity turnover | Liquidity turnover is a measurement of how much trading volume a DEX facilitates relative to its total value locked. | Trading volume divided by total value locked, sourced from onchain data. |
| Stablecoin transfer volume | Stablecoin transfer volume represents the total value of onchain transactions conducted with a specific stablecoin within a specified time period, measured in USD. | The Stablecoin transfer volume aggregates the USD value of all onchain transfers made with the stablecoin during the specified time period. This data is purely sourced from onchain transactions. |
| Stablecoin holders | Stablecoin holders is a metric that counts the number of unique wallet addresses holding a token balance greater than 0 of the project’s stablecoin. | The Stablecoin holders metric adds the number of unique wallet addresses that have a balance greater than zero of a stablecoin issued by the stablecoin issuer. If the issuer has multiple stablecoins, the aggregated values are summed. This data is purely sourced from onchain transactions. |
| Tradeable assets | Tradeable assets is a metric for DEXs (Decentralized Exchanges). It measures the number of tradable tokens in deployed liquidity pools. | The calculation process involves determining the cumulative count of unique token addresses derived from trading pair creation events. Token liquidities are then summed up based on net deposits, and the tokens are categorized into liquidity cohorts. |
| Tradeable pairs | Tradable pairs is a metric for DEXs (Decentralized Exchanges). It measures the number of deployed trading pairs. | This metric is calculated by determining the cumulative count of unique account addresses from trading pair creation events. Pair liquidities are obtained from net deposits, and pairs are then categorized into liquidity cohorts for analysis. |
| Transaction count | Number of onchain transactions | Number of unique transactions on the protocol in a given time period |
| Transactions per second | Number of transactions added to blockchains, per second | We count the number of transactions added to a blockchain during a specified time period (e.g. a day) and divide it by the number of seconds elapsed during that period |
Updated about 1 month ago