The Circulation Map keeps a set of books on movement: coin graduating into the seasoned bands across the period, set against coin dropping back out of them.

The relationship between the two is the reading. It says whether the illiquid base is building or leaking, which is a question neither side answers alone.

What it actually measures

Maturation is coin ageing quietly into the older bands, and revival is coin that had aged there and has now moved, dropping back to the youngest. They are the two sides of one ledger.

What gets reported is how the two sides stand against each other rather than the difference between them, because raw quantities swell as the network does. Comparing the sides settles whether maturation is ahead, and that holds its meaning across eras in a way a tally of coins never manages.

The most ancient row gets a line to itself. Everyday trading among the fresher bands swamps the headline revival figure and buries everything underneath it, so pulling out the spending of owners who have already sat through an entire cycle is the only way anything meaningful gets through.

Maturation is the quiet half, and it is doing most of the work

Revival is the dramatic side. Old coins moving generates attention, appears in commentary and is easy to build a narrative around, and it is one half of a budget that has two.

Maturation is coin doing nothing, which produces no event to report and no headline to write. It is also the larger flow in most periods, and the illiquid base grows or shrinks on the balance between the two. A view built only on the exciting half would describe a market permanently on the edge of distribution.

What it does not tell you

Maturation is not a decision. Coins age into the older bands by not moving, and supply nobody can reach matures exactly as patient holding does.

Adjusting the period alters the conclusion, not merely how tidy it looks. Tight settings react fast and shout often, wide ones describe a season, and any movement that survives being widened is the one worth believing.

Price is outside what it reports. A base that is building steadily says supply is being removed from circulation and carries no view on what anyone will pay for what remains. Tightening supply is a condition, and a condition is not a forecast.

How to read it

Laminar ageing. Graduation is comfortably outpacing revival, so the hard-to-buy base keeps thickening.

Elevated bleed. Revival has climbed to a serious share of what is graduating.

Haemorrhaging. Revival has overtaken graduation, so the hard-to-buy base is thinning out.

Find The Supply Circulation Map on the Supply dashboard, alongside Where the Supply Sits, Old Money and Apparent Demand.

Common questions

Which coins are treated as revived?

Coin that had graduated into the seasoned bands and has now traded, tumbling back to the fresh end. The outgoing column of the very books graduation fills.

Why a relationship rather than a net figure?

Because raw quantities swell as the network does. Comparing the two sides settles whether maturation is ahead, and that holds its meaning across eras.

Why is the long-dormant row separate?

Because everyday trading swamps the headline revival figure and buries everything underneath. Pulling it out captures the spending of owners who have already sat through an entire cycle.

What does the window change?

How much history each column of the books takes in. Any movement that survives being widened is the one worth believing.

Is maturation a decision?

No. Coins age into the older bands by not moving, and supply nobody can reach matures exactly as patient holding does.