Crypto market guides
Timeless explainers that help you understand market cap, volume, dominance, supply and how to read cryptocurrency market data.
These guides focus on reading market data — the numbers behind every price screen. Learn exactly what market capitalization, trading volume, Bitcoin dominance and circulating supply actually mean, then apply them on the live market and trends pages. Want concepts and coins explained instead of metrics? Head to Learn.
What Is Liquidity in Crypto Markets and Why It Matters
Liquidity in crypto is how easily an asset can be bought or sold without significantly moving its price — it directly affects your trading costs and risk.
Market Cap vs Price: Which Matters More in Crypto?
Price tells you what one token costs; market cap tells you what the whole project is worth. In crypto, market cap is almost always the more meaningful comparison tool.
How to Read 1h, 24h, and 7d Crypto Price Changes
The 1h, 24h, and 7d columns show how much a coin's price has moved over each time window — each serves a different analytical purpose.
How to Research a Cryptocurrency Before Buying: Step-by-Step
Researching a crypto project before buying means checking market metrics, tokenomics, team credibility, on-chain activity, and potential red flags in a structured order.
What Is Ethereum Dominance and Why It Matters
Ethereum dominance is ETH's percentage share of total crypto market cap — a useful signal for market cycle positioning and altcoin rotation.
Circulating vs Total vs Max Supply in Crypto Explained
Circulating supply is coins in active use, total supply includes all minted coins, and max supply is the hard cap. The differences have real price and inflation implications.
How Crypto Market Data and APIs Work: A Clear Explanation
Crypto market data flows from exchange matching engines through aggregation layers to dashboards — understanding this chain explains why prices differ across platforms.
What Is Altcoin Season and How to Spot It
Altcoin season is a phase when altcoins broadly outperform Bitcoin in percentage gains, often following a strong BTC rally.
Why Is Cryptocurrency So Volatile?
Crypto is more volatile than most assets because of thin liquidity, speculative demand, 24/7 trading, and the absence of stabilizing fundamentals.
How to Track Top Crypto Gainers and Losers
Gainers and losers lists rank crypto assets by % price change over 1h, 24h, or 7d — a fast way to spot momentum and potential volatility.
How to Read Cryptocurrency Market Trends: A Practical Guide
Reading crypto market trends means combining price direction, volume, dominance shifts, and sentiment — this guide shows you how to do it step by step.
How Crypto Market Cap Rankings Work
Crypto market cap rankings sort assets by circulating supply × price — the most widely used measure of a project's relative size in the market.
What Is Fully Diluted Valuation in Crypto?
FDV is a crypto project's market cap calculated as if every token — including locked and unissued ones — were already in circulation.
How Are Cryptocurrency Prices Determined
Crypto prices emerge from real-time supply and demand on exchanges via order books — no central authority sets them. Here's exactly how the mechanism works.
How Do Stablecoins Stay Pegged to the Dollar?
Stablecoins hold a fixed value (usually $1) through reserves, collateral, or algorithms — each method carrying different risks.
How to Use a Crypto Market Dashboard: A Complete Guide
A crypto market dashboard puts prices, volume, market cap, and trends in one place — here's how to navigate every key feature effectively.
What Factors Move the Cryptocurrency Market
Crypto prices move because of supply and demand forces shaped by news, macro trends, whale activity, and market sentiment.
What Is Bitcoin Dominance & Why It Matters for Crypto Investors
Bitcoin dominance tracks BTC's share of total crypto market cap — a key macro signal that reveals whether capital is flowing into Bitcoin or spreading into altcoins.
What Does 24-Hour Trading Volume Mean in Crypto
24-hour trading volume is the total dollar value of a crypto asset traded across all exchanges in the past day — a key signal of market activity and liquidity.
What Is Cryptocurrency Market Cap & How Is It Calculated
Market cap is the single most-used metric for comparing cryptocurrencies by size — here's the formula, why it matters, and its limitations.
Read the market like a pro
Every price screen is built from a handful of core numbers. These evergreen guides break each one down in plain English so you can tell a healthy move from noise, compare assets fairly, and spot what the market is really doing. Work through the themes below, then apply them on the live market and trends pages.
Market cap & valuation
Size is measured by market capitalization, not price. Learn what market cap is and how it's calculated, why market cap matters more than price, and how fully diluted valuation (FDV) changes the picture once future supply is counted.
Volume & liquidity
Activity and the ability to trade without moving the price are everything. Understand 24-hour trading volume and market liquidity, then see why crypto is so volatile.
Dominance, supply & trends
Zoom out to market structure with Bitcoin dominance and altcoin season, get supply right with circulating vs total vs max supply, and learn how to read market trends. Want concepts and coins explained instead of metrics? Visit Learn.
Putting the metrics together: a data-reading workflow
No single number tells the whole story — the skill is reading them in order and letting each one frame the next. A simple routine: start by sizing the asset with its market capitalization, since a high or low coin price means little until you multiply it by supply. Then check how actively it changes hands using daily trading volume and how easily you could enter or exit a position — its market liquidity. Thin volume on a large-cap name is a warning the headline figure may be stale.
Next, sanity-check the supply side. Knowing the difference between circulating, total and max supply shows how many coins are yet to unlock, and comparing today's cap with the fully diluted valuation reveals how much future dilution is already priced in. Finally, zoom out to market structure: a quick read of Bitcoin dominance tells you whether capital is rotating into Bitcoin or out across altcoins.
Used together — size, activity, supply, then structure — these metrics turn a wall of figures into a coherent read of where an asset stands. See how to line them up side by side in our guide on using a crypto dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
Which crypto market metrics should I learn first?+
Start with market capitalization, 24-hour trading volume and circulating supply. Together they tell you how big an asset is, how actively it is traded, and how many coins are actually in circulation — the three numbers behind almost every price screen.
What is the difference between market cap and price?+
Price is the value of a single coin; market cap is price multiplied by circulating supply, which reflects the total size of the asset. A low price does not mean a coin is cheap or undervalued — market cap gives the fuller picture. Our market cap vs price guide explains why.
How do I apply these metrics in practice?+
Once you understand a metric, see it live: compare assets on the market page, watch momentum on the trends page, and open any coin page to view its market cap, volume and supply side by side. The guides explain the theory; those pages show it in real time.
How are Guides different from the Learn section?+
Guides focus on reading market data — cap, volume, dominance, supply and trends. The Learn section covers using crypto itself: wallets, security, stablecoins and trading concepts. Use Guides to interpret the numbers, and Learn to understand the technology behind them.