Total Supply

Definition

Total supply counts minted tokens, including those not yet circulating. It sits between circulating supply and max supply in most supply frameworks, and burn accounting can change how the figure is reported.

Total supply helps you see how much has been created versus how much is still reserved unminted. It is a midpoint on the dilution map — useful, but easy to misread if burns or locks are handled inconsistently across data sites.

Clarify whether burned tokens are excluded. Some dashboards drop burns from total supply; others keep them visible elsewhere. Separate “destroyed” from “locked” in your own notes. Bribe markets explain governance-token prices better than slogans.

Use total supply with circulating and max to sketch the path: what exists, what trades, what could still be minted. Path beats any single supply headline. Sybil-heavy airdrops create farmer float, not community moats.

Why researchers care

• Clarify whether burned tokens are excluded.
• Use with circulating and max supply for dilution maps.
• Locked minted tokens can still overhang psychologically.
• Provider definitions of total supply are not uniform.

How to use it in research

• Total supply far above circulating because investor tokens are minted but locked — focus on vesting.
• Burn reduces total supply on one site but not another — reconcile before FDV math.
• Unminted treasury allocation means max > total — note future mint authority.

Common mistakes

• Using total supply as if it were circulating float.
• Forgetting burns when comparing historical supply charts.
• Assuming total supply cannot rise if a max exists — mints can still occur under the cap.