Circulating supply

Every token has up to three supply figures. Maximum supply is the hard cap that can ever exist, total supply counts all tokens created so far minus those burned, and circulating supply counts only those actually in the market. Tokens held by the team or investors under vesting, locked in a treasury or reserved for future rewards are usually excluded.

Circulating supply multiplied by price gives market capitalization, the figure used to rank cryptocurrencies. For bitcoin the number is close to total supply, since new coins enter circulation only through mining and the cap is 21 million.

For newer tokens the gap between circulating and maximum supply can be large. As vesting ends and tokens are unlocked, circulating supply grows and can dilute holders if demand does not keep pace. Data providers sometimes disagree on what counts as circulating, so figures can differ between sites.