Crypto Basics

Coin Market Cap: A Complete Guide for Smarter Crypto Investing in 2025

Learn how to use coin market cap to compare cryptocurrencies, assess opportunities, and make smarter investment decisions in 2025 with AI-powered insights.
Token Metrics Team
6 min
MIN

Introduction to Coin Market Cap

In the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency investing, market capitalization, often called market cap, is one of the most essential metrics for evaluating projects. It helps investors quickly gauge a coin’s size, value, and growth potential, making it a cornerstone for portfolio allocation and risk management.

Whether you’re a beginner trying to understand which cryptocurrencies to buy or an experienced trader managing a complex portfolio, understanding coin market cap is critical. In this guide, we’ll break down what market cap is, how to use it effectively, its limitations, and how platforms like Token Metrics can enhance your analysis with advanced data insights.

What Is Coin Market Cap?

Market capitalization refers to the total value of a cryptocurrency in circulation. It’s calculated using a simple formula:

Market Cap=Current Price×Circulating Supply\text{Market Cap} = \text{Current Price} \times \text{Circulating Supply}

For example, if a cryptocurrency is priced at $20 and has 50 million coins in circulation, its market cap would be $1 billion. This figure provides a snapshot of the project’s relative size and its standing in the broader crypto market.

Market cap is an invaluable metric for quickly comparing projects, identifying potential opportunities, and understanding the level of risk associated with an investment.

Why Market Cap Matters in Crypto

Market cap plays a crucial role in crypto investing for several reasons:

  1. Assessing Project Size:
    It indicates whether a cryptocurrency is large-cap (established and relatively stable), mid-cap (moderate growth potential), or small-cap (high risk and high reward).

  2. Determining Growth Potential:
    Comparing market caps across similar projects can highlight undervalued assets with room to grow.

  3. Portfolio Allocation:
    By understanding the market cap of various assets, you can balance your portfolio between high-risk small caps and more stable large caps.

  4. Benchmarking Performance:
    Market cap allows you to compare assets within the same category—for example, evaluating competing layer 1 blockchains or AI tokens.

Types of Cryptocurrencies by Market Cap

Cryptocurrencies are typically categorized by their market cap:

  • Large-Cap Cryptos (>$10 Billion):
    These are well-established, widely adopted coins like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Binance Coin (BNB). They tend to be less volatile and serve as the “blue chips” of crypto.

  • Mid-Cap Cryptos ($1–10 Billion):
    These include projects like Polygon (MATIC), Arbitrum (ARB), and Chainlink (LINK). They balance growth potential with relatively lower risk than small caps.

  • Small-Cap Cryptos (<$1 Billion):
    These high-risk, high-reward tokens often include emerging narrative-driven coins like Token Metrics AI (TMAI) or experimental DeFi projects. They can deliver significant returns but also carry a higher chance of failure.

How to Use Market Cap in Investment Decisions

While market cap is only one part of the puzzle, it’s a powerful tool when used correctly. Here’s how to incorporate it into your strategy:

  1. Identify Undervalued Assets:
    Look for coins with strong fundamentals and low market caps relative to competitors. For example, an innovative AI project like TMAI with a market cap significantly lower than its peers could signal untapped potential.

  2. Balance Risk and Reward:
    Allocate funds across large-, mid-, and small-cap assets. Large caps bring stability, while mid- and small caps provide growth opportunities.

  3. Track Sector Trends:
    Monitor market caps by category (e.g., AI tokens, DeFi protocols, Layer 2 scaling solutions) to identify which sectors are gaining traction.

  4. Compare Projects:
    Use market cap to evaluate competitors within the same niche. For instance, comparing Polygon and Arbitrum can help assess which layer 2 solution has more market trust.

Limitations of Using Market Cap

Although market cap is a useful metric, it has its shortcomings:

  1. No Liquidity Insights:
    A high market cap doesn’t always mean easy liquidity. Some tokens with large caps may have thin trading volumes, making them hard to buy or sell.

  2. Doesn’t Reflect Token Distribution:
    Market cap doesn’t account for how tokens are distributed. A project with concentrated ownership may have inflated prices that don’t reflect real demand.

  3. Ignores Project Fundamentals:
    Market cap alone won’t tell you if a project has strong technology, an active user base, or real-world utility.

This is why market cap analysis should always be combined with other key metrics and qualitative research, which is where Token Metrics becomes invaluable.

Enhancing Market Cap Analysis with Token Metrics

While traditional market cap data offers a snapshot, Token Metrics goes deeper by analyzing:

  • On-Chain Metrics: Active wallets, transaction volumes, and network growth.
  • Technical Analysis: AI-driven price predictions based on historical and real-time data.
  • Fundamental Analysis: Project utility, team credibility, and adoption potential.
  • Token Grades: Proprietary scoring that evaluates over 80 data points per token.

This AI-powered approach allows investors to identify truly undervalued projects that might be overlooked by simply glancing at market cap.

Market Cap vs. Other Key Metrics

Market cap is most powerful when used alongside:

  • Trading Volume: Indicates liquidity and investor interest.
  • Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV): Projects with low circulating supply but high FDV might face inflationary pressures.
  • Total Value Locked (TVL): For DeFi tokens, TVL shows how much capital is actively being used in protocols.

Combining these insights with market cap offers a more complete view of a project’s health and potential.

Practical Steps for Using Market Cap in 2025

  1. Start with Large Caps:
    Anchor your portfolio with stable large-cap assets like BTC and ETH.

  2. Explore Mid- and Small-Caps:
    Use Token Metrics to identify emerging projects with strong fundamentals and room for growth.

  3. Diversify by Sector:
    Allocate to different narratives—AI tokens like TMAI, DeFi coins, and scaling solutions—to spread risk.

  4. Reassess Regularly:
    Crypto markets move quickly. Track changing market caps to adjust your allocations proactively.

Conclusion

Coin market cap remains one of the most fundamental metrics for analyzing cryptocurrencies. It provides a clear picture of project size and helps investors allocate capital effectively.

However, market cap alone isn’t enough. To make smarter, data-driven decisions, investors should combine market cap insights with on-chain data, technical analysis, and AI-driven insights from Token Metrics.

In 2025, using market cap alongside advanced analytics can help you identify undervalued opportunities, manage risk effectively, and build a balanced, growth-oriented crypto portfolio.

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Token Metrics Team
Token Metrics Team

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Research

Python Quick-Start with Token Metrics: The Ultimate Crypto Price API

Token Metrics Team
10 min
MIN

If you’re a Python developer looking to build smarter crypto apps, bots, or dashboards, you need two things: reliable data and AI-powered insights. The Token Metrics API gives you both. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to quickly get started using Token Metrics as your Python crypto price API, including how to authenticate, install the SDK, and run your first request in minutes.

Whether you’re pulling live market data, integrating Trader Grades into your trading strategy, or backtesting with OHLCV data, this guide has you covered.

🚀 Quick Setup for Developers in a Hurry

Install the official Token Metrics Python SDK:

pip install tokenmetrics

Or if you prefer working with requests directly, no problem. We’ll show both methods below.

🔑 Step 1: Generate Your API Key

Before anything else, you’ll need a Token Metrics account.

  1. Go to app.tokenmetrics.com/en/api
  2. Log in and navigate to the API Keys Dashboard
  3. Click Generate API Key
  4. Name your key (e.g., “Development”, “Production”)
  5. Copy it immediately — keep it secret.

You can monitor usage, rate limits, and quotas right from the dashboard. Track each key’s status, last used date, and revoke access at any time.

📈 Step 2: Retrieve Crypto Prices in Python

Here’s a simple example to fetch the latest price data for Ethereum (ETH):

import requests

API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"

headers = {"x-api-key": API_KEY}

url = "https://api.tokenmetrics.com/v2/daily-ohlcv?symbol=ETH&startDate=<YYYY-MM-DD>&endDate=<YYYY-MM-DD>"

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

data = response.json()

for candle in data['data']:

    print(f"Date: {candle['DATE']} | Close: ${candle['CLOSE']}")

You now have a working python crypto price API pipeline. Customize startDate or endDate to get specific range of historical data.

📊 Add AI-Powered Trader Grades

Token Metrics’ secret sauce is its AI-driven token ratings. Here’s how to access Trader Grades for ETH:

grade_url = "https://api.tokenmetrics.com/v2/trader-grades?symbol=ETH&limit=30d"

grades = requests.get(grade_url, headers=headers).json()['data']

for day in grades:

    print(f"{day['DATE']} — Trader Grade: {day['TA_GRADE']}")

Use this data to automate trading logic (e.g., enter trades when Grade > 85) or overlay on charts.

🔁 Combine Data for Backtesting

Want to test a strategy? Merge OHLCV and Trader Grades for any token:

import pandas as pd

ohlcv_df = pd.DataFrame(data['data'])

grades_df = pd.DataFrame(grades)

combined_df = pd.merge(ohlcv_df, grades_df, on="DATE")

print(combined_df.head())

Now you can run simulations, build analytics dashboards, or train your own models.

⚙️ Endpoint Coverage for Python Devs

  • /daily-ohlcv: Historical price data
  • /trader-grades: AI signal grades (0–100)
  • /trading-signals: Bullish/Bearish signals for short and long positions.
  • /sentiment: AI-modeled sentiment scores
  • /tmai: Ask questions in plain English

All endpoints return structured JSON and can be queried via requests, axios, or any modern client.

🧠 Developer Tips

  • Each request = 1 credit (tracked in real time)
  • Rate limits depend on your plan (Free = 1 req/min)
  • Use the API Usage Dashboard to monitor and optimize
  • Free plan = 5,000 calls/month — perfect for testing and building MVPs

💸 Bonus: Save 35% with $TMAI

You can reduce your API bill by up to 35% by staking and paying with Token Metrics’ native token, $TMAI. Available via the settings → payments page.

🌐 Final Thoughts

If you're searching for the best python crypto price API with more than just price data, Token Metrics is the ultimate choice. It combines market data with proprietary AI intelligence, trader/investor grades, sentiment scores, and backtest-ready endpoints—all in one platform.

✅ Real-time & historical data
✅ RESTful endpoints
✅ Python-ready SDKs and docs
✅ Free plan to start building today

Start building today → tokenmetrics.com/api

Looking for SDK docs? Explore the full Python Quick Start Guide

Research

Crypto API to Google Sheets in 5 Minutes: How to Use Token Metrics API with Apps Script

Token Metrics Team
6 min
MIN

If you're a trader, data analyst, or crypto enthusiast, chances are you've wanted to pull live crypto data directly into Google Sheets. Whether you're tracking prices, building custom dashboards, or backtesting strategies, having real-time data at your fingertips can give you an edge.

In this guide, we'll show you how to integrate the Token Metrics API — a powerful crypto API with free access to AI-powered signals — directly into Google Sheets in under 5 minutes using Google Apps Script.

📌 Why Use Google Sheets for Crypto Data?

Google Sheets is a flexible, cloud-based spreadsheet that:

  • Requires no coding to visualize data
  • Can be shared and updated in real time
  • Offers formulas, charts, and conditional formatting
  • Supports live API connections with Apps Script

When combined with the Token Metrics API, it becomes a powerful dashboard that updates live with Trader Grades, Bull/Bear Signals, historical OHLCV data, and more.

🚀 What Is Token Metrics API?

The Token Metrics API provides real-time and historical crypto data powered by AI. It includes:

  • Trader Grade: A score from 0 to 100 showing bullish/bearish potential
  • Bull/Bear Signal: A binary signal showing market direction
  • OHLCV: Open-High-Low-Close-Volume price history
  • Token Metadata: Symbol, name, category, market cap, and more

The best part? The free Basic Plan includes:

  • 5,000 API calls/month
  • Access to core endpoints
  • Hourly data refresh
  • No credit card required

👉 Sign up for free here

🛠️ What You’ll Need

  • A free Token Metrics API key
  • A Google account
  • Basic familiarity with Google Sheets

⚙️ How to Connect Token Metrics API to Google Sheets

Here’s how to get live AI-powered crypto data into Sheets using Google Apps Script.

🔑 Step 1: Generate Your API Key

  1. Visit: https://app.tokenmetrics.com/en/api
  2. Click “Generate API Key”
  3. Copy it — you’ll use this in the script

📄 Step 2: Create a New Google Sheet

  1. Go to Google Sheets
  2. Create a new spreadsheet
  3. Click Extensions > Apps Script

💻 Step 3: Paste This Apps Script

const TOKEN_METRICS_API_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE';

async function getTraderGrade(symbol) {

  const url = `https://api.tokenmetrics.com/v2/trader-grades?symbol=${symbol.toUpperCase()}`;

  const options = {

    method: 'GET',

    contentType: 'application/json',

    headers: {

      'accept': 'application/json',

      'x-api-key': TOKEN_METRICS_API_KEY,

    },

    muteHttpExceptions: true

  };

  

  const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, options);

  const data = JSON.parse(response.getContentText() || "{}")

  

  if (data.success && data.data.length) {

    const coin = data.data[0];

    return [

      coin.TOKEN_NAME,

      coin.TOKEN_SYMBOL,

      coin.TA_GRADE,

      coin.DATE

    ];

  } else {

    return ['No data', '-', '-', '-'];

  }

}

async function getSheetData() {

  const sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet();

  const symbols = sheet.getRange('A2:A').getValues().flat().filter(Boolean);

  const results = [];

  results.push(['Name', 'Symbol', 'Trader Grade', 'Date']);

  for (const symbol of symbols) {

    if (symbol) {

      const row = await getTraderGrade(symbol);

      results.push(row);

    }

  }

  sheet.getRange(2, 2, results.length, results[0].length).setValues(results);

}

🧪 Step 4: Run the Script

  1. Replace 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE' with your real API key.
  2. Save the project as TokenMetricsCryptoAPI.
  3. In your sheet, enter a list of symbols (e.g., BTC, ETH, SOL) in Column A.
  4. Go to the script editor and run getSheetData() from the dropdown menu.

Note: The first time, Google will ask for permission to access the script.

✅ Step 5: View Your Live Data

After the script runs, you’ll see:

  • Coin name and symbol
  • Trader Grade (0–100)
  • Timestamp

You can now:

  • Sort by Trader Grade
  • Add charts and pivot tables
  • Schedule automatic updates with triggers (e.g., every hour)

🧠 Why Token Metrics API Is Ideal for Google Sheets Users

Unlike basic price APIs, Token Metrics offers AI-driven metrics that help you:

  • Anticipate price action before it happens
  • Build signal-based dashboards or alerts
  • Validate strategies against historical signals
  • Keep your data fresh with hourly updates

And all of this starts for free.

🏗️ Next Steps: Expand Your Sheet

Here’s what else you can build:

  • A portfolio tracker that pulls your top coins’ grades
  • A sentiment dashboard using historical OHLCV
  • A custom screener that filters coins by Trader Grade > 80
  • A Telegram alert system triggered by Sheets + Apps Script + Webhooks

You can also upgrade to the Advanced Plan to unlock 21 endpoints including:

  • Investor Grades
  • Smart Indices
  • Sentiment Metrics
  • Quantitative AI reports
  • 60x API speed

🔐 Security Tip

Never share your API key in a public Google Sheet. Use script-level access and keep the sheet private unless required.

🧩 How-To Schema Markup (for SEO)

{

  "@context": "https://schema.org",

  "@type": "HowTo",

  "name": "Crypto API to Google Sheets in 5 Minutes",

  "description": "Learn how to connect the Token Metrics crypto API to Google Sheets using Google Apps Script and get real-time AI-powered signals and prices.",

  "totalTime": "PT5M",

  "supply": [

    {

      "@type": "HowToSupply",

      "name": "Google Sheets"

    },

    {

      "@type": "HowToSupply",

      "name": "Token Metrics API Key"

    }

  ],

  "tool": [

    {

      "@type": "HowToTool",

      "name": "Google Apps Script"

    }

  ],

  "step": [

    {

      "@type": "HowToStep",

      "name": "Get Your API Key",

      "text": "Sign up at Token Metrics and generate your API key from the API dashboard."

    },

    {

      "@type": "HowToStep",

      "name": "Create a New Google Sheet",

      "text": "Open a new sheet and list crypto symbols in column A."

    },

    {

      "@type": "HowToStep",

      "name": "Add Apps Script",

      "text": "Go to Extensions > Apps Script and paste the provided code, replacing your API key."

    },

    {

      "@type": "HowToStep",

      "name": "Run the Script",

      "text": "Execute the getSheetData function to pull data into the sheet."

    }

  ]

}

✍️ Final Thoughts

If you're serious about crypto trading or app development, integrating live market signals into your workflow can be a game-changer. With the Token Metrics API, you can get institutional-grade AI signals — right inside Google Sheets.

This setup is simple, fast, and completely free to start. Try it today and unlock a smarter way to trade and build in crypto.

👉 Get Your API Key & Start for Free

Announcements

🚀Put Your $TMAI to Work: Daily Rewards, No Locks, Up To 200% APR.

Token Metrics Team
5 min
MIN

Liquidity farming just got a major upgrade. Token Metrics AI ($TMAI) has launched its first liquidity incentive campaign on Merk — and it’s designed for yield hunters looking to earn fast, with no lockups, no gimmicks, and real rewards from Day 1.

📅 Campaign Details

  • Duration: June 5 – June 19, 2025
  • Rewards Begin: 17:00 UTC / 1:00 PM ET
  • Total TMAI Committed: 38 million+ $TMAI
  • No Lockups: Enter or exit at any time
  • APR Potential: Up to 200%

For two weeks, liquidity providers can earn high daily rewards across three different pools. All rewards are paid in $TMAI and distributed continuously — block by block — through the Merkl platform.

💧 Where to Earn – The Pools (as of June 5, 17:00 UTC)

Pool                                                    Starting APR %               Total Rewards (14 days)                Current TVL

Aerodrome WETH–TMAI        150%                                16.79M TMAI (~$11,000)                   $86,400

Uniswap v3 USDC–TMAI        200%                                14.92M TMAI (~$9,800)                    $19,900

Balancer 95/5 WETH–TMAI    200%                                5.60M TMAI (~$3,700)                       $9,500

These pools are live and actively paying rewards. APR rates aren’t displayed on Merkl until the first 24 hours of data are available — but early providers will already be earning.

🧠 Why This Campaign Stands Out

1. Turbo Rewards for a Short Time

This isn’t a slow-drip farm. The TMAI Merkl campaign is designed to reward action-takers. For the first few days, yields are especially high — thanks to low TVL and full daily reward distribution.

2. No Lockups or Waiting Periods

You can provide liquidity and withdraw it anytime — even the same day. There are no lockups, no vesting, and no delayed payout mechanics. All rewards accrue automatically and are claimable through Merkl.

3. Choose Your Risk Profile

You get to pick your exposure.

  • Want ETH upside? Stake in Aerodrome or Balancer.
  • Prefer stablecoin stability? Go with the Uniswap v3 USDC–TMAI pool.

4. Influence the Future of TMAI Yield Farming

This campaign isn’t just about yield — it’s a test. If enough users participate and volume grows, the Token Metrics Treasury will consider extending liquidity rewards into Q3 and beyond. That means more TMAI emissions, longer timelines, and consistent passive income opportunities for LPs.

5. Built for Transparency and Speed

Rewards are distributed via Merkl by Angle Labs, a transparent, gas-efficient platform for programmable liquidity mining. You can see the exact rewards, TVL, wallet counts, and pool analytics at any time.

🔧 How to Get Started

Getting started is simple. You only need a crypto wallet, some $TMAI, and a matching asset (either WETH or USDC, depending on the pool).

Step-by-step:

  1. Pick a pool:
    Choose from Aerodrome, Uniswap v3, or Balancer depending on your risk appetite and asset preference.

  2. Provide liquidity:
    Head to the Merkl link for your pool, deposit both assets, and your position is live immediately.

  3. Track your earnings:
    Watch TMAI accumulate daily in your Merkl dashboard. You can claim rewards at any time.

  4. Withdraw when you want:
    Since there are no lockups, you can remove your liquidity whenever you choose — rewards stop the moment liquidity is pulled.

🎯 Final Thoughts

This is a rare opportunity to earn serious rewards in a short amount of time. Whether you’re new to liquidity mining or a DeFi veteran, the TMAI Merkl campaign is built for speed, flexibility, and transparency.

You’re still early. The best yields happen in the first days, before TVL rises and APR stabilizes. Dive in now and maximize your returns while the turbo phase is still on.

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