Circulating supply

Circulating supply is the number of coins or tokens that are publicly available and moving in the market. It excludes tokens that are locked, unvested, reserved for a team or foundation, or otherwise not yet released.

For Bitcoin, circulating supply is simply every coin mined so far, a figure anyone can verify from the blockchain. For many newer tokens the number depends on the project's disclosures about vesting and treasury wallets, and data providers sometimes disagree.

Watch for scheduled "token unlocks". When large amounts of team or investor tokens vest, circulating supply rises, and if the recipients sell, that adds selling pressure. Comparing circulating supply with total and maximum supply shows how much future issuance is still to come.