Total Supply refers to the total amount of coins or tokens of a specific cryptocurrency that have been created or mined, that are in circulation, including those that are locked or reserved.
Coins that have been burned or destroyed should be subtracted from this amount.
If you can trade them, the coins or tokens are considered in circulation.
Crypto ICO’s and private sales of coins and tokens often utilize a lockup or vesting period where the asset isn’t allowed to circulate to the open market until sometime in the future.
Some blockchains burn coins or tokens as part of their tokenomics design, such as when Binance performs quarterly coin burns of Binance Coin (BNB).
Total supply can’t be used to determine a cryptocurrency’s market capitalization.
You would need to use the circulating supply metric to perform the calculation.
Total supply and circulating metrics can be used together to gauge a cryptocurrency’s future profitability.
Investors would look for gaps between circulating supply and the total supply, as large gaps would indicate that new coins or tokens will still be added to the open market, resulting in downward pressure on cryptocurrency prices.
Total supply shouldn’t be confused with Circulating Supply or Max Supply.
