Key Metrics Cheatsheet

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
P/F ratio (circulating)	Valuation multiple, based on the fees paid by end users	Circulating market capitalization / annualized fees
P/S ratio (fully diluted)	Valuation multiple, based on the revenue earned by the protocol	Fully diluted market capitalization / annualized revenue
P/S ratio (circulating)	Valuation multiple, based on the revenue earned by the protocol	Circulating market capitalization / annualized revenue

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
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
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.
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
Voting incentives	Voting incentives is a metric exclusively for DEXs with a ve(3,3) model. It measures all voting rewards received by vote-escrowed governance token holders.	Sum of all voting rewards received by vote-escrowed governance token holders.