What is Realised cap?
A valuation that prices each coin at the value it last moved at, rather than at current spot.
The idea is genuinely clever: it approximates aggregate cost basis rather than a mark-to-market figure that assumes every coin could sell at spot.
The catch is that useful variants depend on entity-clustering heuristics — guesses about which addresses share an owner — that differ between providers and are rarely published in full. We discuss it in analysis but do not put a number for it on the live board, because we could not defend the number.
Precision is not accuracy. A realised-cap figure quoted to the dollar inherits every assumption of its clustering model.
Related terms
Market capitalisation
Spot price multiplied by circulating supply. A convenient comparison figure, not a measure of money invested.
Lightning & scalingOn-chain
A transaction recorded in a Bitcoin block, as opposed to one settled off-chain in a channel or inside a…
On-chain dataHODL waves
A chart banding the supply by how long each coin has been sitting unmoved.
This definition is part of the Bitcoin Logical glossary. For the fuller explanation, start with Learn, or see the live numbers on The Bitcoin Signal.