Market Cap (Market Capitalization)

Token Unlock Events

Token unlocks are scheduled releases of previously locked tokens — typically from team, investor, or ecosystem allocations — that increase circulating supply. Large unlock events create predictable selling pressure as early holders realize gains. Tools like Token Unlocks track upcoming releases across hundreds of protocols.

Volatility

Volatility measures how much an asset's price fluctuates over time. Crypto is significantly more volatile than traditional assets — Bitcoin's annualized volatility typically ranges from 45-65% compared to 15-20% for the S&P 500 — meaning larger potential gains but also substantially larger potential losses.

Circulating Supply

Circulating supply is the number of cryptocurrency tokens currently available and tradeable on the open market, excluding locked, reserved, or not-yet-minted tokens. Market cap is calculated as price times circulating supply. The median altcoin has only 45% of its total supply in circulation according to Messari, meaning significant future dilution.

Stock-to-Flow Model

The stock-to-flow (S2F) model measures scarcity by dividing an asset's existing supply (stock) by its annual production rate (flow). Applied to Bitcoin by PlanB in 2019, the model predicted price based on Bitcoin's increasing scarcity after each halving event.

Metcalfe's Law in Crypto

Metcalfe's Law states that the value of a network grows proportional to the square of its users. Applied to crypto, it suggests that a protocol with 2x the active addresses of a competitor should be worth roughly 4x as much — making user growth the primary long-term value driver.

Crypto ETF

A crypto ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) is a regulated investment fund traded on traditional stock exchanges that provides exposure to cryptocurrency prices without requiring investors to directly hold, store, or manage crypto assets. Bitcoin spot ETFs were approved in the US in January 2024.

Crypto Index Fund

A crypto index fund provides diversified exposure to a basket of cryptocurrencies through a single investment product, similar to how an S&P 500 index fund tracks the stock market. Crypto indexes can be weighted by market cap, equally weighted, or thematically weighted around sectors like DeFi or Layer 1s.