Quick answer
Circulating supply is an estimate of the units currently available to the market under a provider’s methodology.
What is Circulating supply?
Circulating supply attempts to count tokens that are publicly available and not locked, vested, or otherwise excluded. Different data providers can classify wallets and contracts differently.
The useful way to approach this term is to separate its definition from the assumptions people often attach to it. In crypto, the same word can appear in a protocol rule, a user interface, a market-data label, or a marketing claim. Check which layer the explanation is describing.
Why does circulating supply matter?
Market capitalization is often calculated as price multiplied by circulating supply. If the supply estimate is incomplete or inconsistent, comparisons can be misleading.
Concrete example
See it in a real situation
A project reports 100 million tokens created but only 60 million unlocked and available. A market-data provider may use an estimate near the circulating amount, subject to its methodology.
Common misconceptions
What this term does not mean
- Circulating supply is not always a perfect on-chain count.
- A token held by a large treasury may be technically transferable but still treated differently by a data provider.
Related terms
Sources and further reading
Definitions are written for education and checked against the sources below where relevant. A source can explain a protocol or rule without endorsing every product built around it.