A coin count cannot be compared across years. New coin keeps being issued and the set of tracked venues keeps changing, so a total from an earlier era and one from today are answers to different questions.

Expressing the same holdings as a share of everything in existence clears both problems at once, and that is what makes it possible to rank any day against every other day on record.

What it actually measures

The colour ranks each day against the whole history instead of showing its level. That ranking is drawn from the entire series and not from the window on screen, so a day keeps its colour when the timeframe changes.

When the fraction drops, fewer coins are parked within reach of a sale. What shifts is the amount of supply on offer; nobody has been made to want any of it, and those are separate things.

The reading needs a supply figure to work against. Where the dashboard carries one the view resolves; where it does not, the view says so instead of quietly using a number it has not got.

A share travels across years in a way a count never can

Exchange balances get quoted as coin totals, and a total from a much earlier era reads as though it were comparable to today’s. It is not: the amount of coin in existence has grown, and the venues counted have changed several times over.

The share fixes both at once. It is the version of the number that means the same thing in every year of the record, which is the only basis on which a claim about an unusual reading can be made at all.

What it does not tell you

It is a floor, not a census. The figure counts the exchange balances this dashboard can observe, so anything held somewhere unobserved is simply missing from it.

The ranking depends on the history available. An asset with a short record has few days to be ranked against and correspondingly thin colour.

It is a supply reading on its own. Where the coin sits says nothing about who wants it, which is why it is drawn next to flow and price rather than alone.

How to read it

SCARCE. Remarkably few of the coins ever issued are parked within reach of a quick sale.

TIGHT. Less than usual is positioned on venues, without reaching an extreme.

TYPICAL. The share on venues is close to what it has ordinarily been for this asset.

ABUNDANT. A large share has been moved onto venues, where it can be sold quickly.

Supply Ratio shares the Exchange Holdings dashboard with Balances, Net Flow and Reserves.

Common questions

Why a fraction and not a coin total?

Because a total wanders with new issuance and with how many venues are being watched, which makes an old figure incomparable to a current one. A fraction settles both, and settling them is what lets any day be placed against every other.

What does the shading encode?

Each day’s place in the entire record, not how high the line happens to be. Because the placing is drawn from all of it, a day keeps its colour no matter what window is on screen.

Is a falling line bullish on its own?

No. Fewer coins parked within reach of a sale changes what is on offer and creates no appetite for any of it. This belongs beside the flow and the price line, never ahead of them.

Why is the view blank for some assets?

Because the reading needs a supply figure to work against, and the dashboard carries one for only a couple of assets. Elsewhere the view reports the absence instead of inventing a figure to stand in.

Does coin held for customers elsewhere count?

No. Only the balances this dashboard observes are included, so anything held somewhere unobserved is absent and the reading understates the true figure.