Methodology

Price tells you what an asset is worth. It does not tell you what the people holding it paid. We reconstruct an aggregate cost basis from one year of daily price and volume, then measure how much of that traded supply sits at a loss.

CoinMarketCap exposes price and 24h volume but not realised cost basis, so VWAP over the trailing window is used as the proxy for the market's aggregate entry price. A coin is underwater when most of the volume that traded in the last year changed hands above today's price. The marginal holder is holding a loss.

Stablecoins are excluded and assets with fewer than 120 daily observations are dropped. The market series begins 2025-11-13. Snapshot assembled 9/29/2026, 4:15:30 AM.