Circulating supply is an estimate of the number of cryptoasset units considered to be in circulation and available to the market at a particular point in time.

The metric is commonly used to calculate market capitalization. In its simplest form, market capitalization equals the asset price multiplied by circulating supply.

What may be excluded

Depending on the methodology, circulating supply may exclude locked team allocations, reserves, unreleased tokens, certain contract-held assets, or other units that are not considered freely circulating.

As a result, circulating-supply figures can differ between data providers.

Supply changes

Circulating supply can increase when new units are issued or previously locked tokens are unlocked. It can decrease through token burns or depending on the accounting methodology.

It should not be confused with total supply or max supply.