Five Essential Data Analytics Tools for Crypto: Transactions, On-chain, Charts, and Smart Money
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Five Essential Data Analytics Tools for Crypto: Transactions, On-chain, Charts, and Smart Money
If you can parse certain data in real time and with high quality, you'll uncover a wealth of alpha opportunities.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: William M. Peaster
Compiled by: TechFlow
Even the most powerful analytical tools in traditional industries have their limitations.
The reason is simple—data is proprietary. Whether it comes from Wall Street quarterly reports or data you scrape from Facebook, it's information that companies are willing to disclose.
But in Web3, nearly all data is publicly viewable. On-chain analysis is something anyone can do.
Ethereum and other top smart contract blockchains are overflowing with data. If you can parse this data effectively in real time, you’ll uncover abundant alpha opportunities. Let’s break down five platforms that will help you better research crypto.
1. CoinGecko & GeckoTerminal
A few years ago, it seemed like everyone was using CoinMarketCap to browse cryptocurrency prices, market caps, trading volumes, etc. However, after Binance acquired CoinMarketCap in April 2022, many people felt the platform had been “captured.”
The community began seeking alternatives. In recent years, the most successful platform has been CoinGecko, which quietly surpassed its competitors during the bear market and is now the world’s largest independent cryptocurrency data aggregation website.
Beyond independence, what I love most about CoinGecko is that the platform is always ahead of trends.
Whenever I want to check the price movements or trading volume of some new, obscure token, CoinGecko seems to always be one step ahead of rivals, already providing basic data on that token.
CoinGecko’s coverage is massive—it currently tracks key statistics for over 13,000 different crypto assets across more than 600 cryptocurrency exchanges!
Therefore, if you want to track real-time trends of the hottest projects, new launches, and categories like big gainers and losers, CoinGecko is the most reliable source.
But that’s not all—CoinGecko recently launched GeckoTerminal as well.
GeckoTerminal is a DEX aggregator.
If there’s a token you want to trade, whether it’s on an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain or a non-EVM chain, GeckoTerminal likely provides direct analytical charts and liquidity pool status you’re looking for.
2. DeFi Llama
As a deep user of DeFi, using DeFiLlama is a pleasure.
Why?
Because DeFiLlama accurately and quickly tracks Total Value Locked (TVL) and trading volume data across more than 150 chains and numerous protocols, meaning the platform offers an excellent bird’s-eye view of crypto at any given moment.
DeFiLlama is far more than just a typical DeFi stats hub. The project also offers real-time yield metrics, stablecoin charts, liquidation activity, airdrop opportunities, hacker alerts, and much more.
3. Dune Analytics
Over the past few weeks, Reddit NFTs suddenly emerged.
Yet just a few weeks earlier, I knew nothing about them.
When I noticed activity around these digital collectibles spiking, I knew I needed to write a Metaversal post explaining what was fundamentally happening.
But before teaching others, where did I go to catch up?
The answer: Dune Analytics.
Dune Analytics is a community platform that allows anyone to create cryptocurrency analytics dashboards that others can review using SQL.
For example, I used an analytics dashboard created by user Petertherock to study the Reddit NFTs mentioned above, which covered everything I needed—from the number of NFT holders to sales volume and more.
The coolest thing about Dune is that it covers such statistical data for DeFi and NFT projects across various chains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and others.
4. Nansen
If someone challenged me to earn $1 million in the crypto economy within a year and allowed me to use only one tool, my final choice would be Nansen.
In a June 2022 Metaversal article on Free-to-Mint NFTs, I detailed how I personally used Nansen’s Mint Master tracker to mint WAGDIE NFTs right before their floor price skyrocketed.
"I discovered WAGDIE through Mint Master, noticing nearly 40 'smart money addresses' participating in the mint on Friday. I then bought in before the project blew up. Now, while writing this article, the floor price is 1.5 ETH each, so I’ve already made several multiples on my investment.
Of course, not every mint will be profitable, but Nansen gives me a simpler way to spot these signals."
5. Token Terminal
Token Terminal is one of my favorite crypto analytics platforms because it offers arguably the best fee and revenue statistics available for blockchains and protocols.
Want to know how profitable a specific crypto project is at any given time?
Token Terminal delivers, whether you're researching projects in a particular vertical, such as lending markets, or analyzing entire chains.
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