4. CoinGecko
Doing any research is kind if pointless if you don’t have anywhere to check your prices. That’s where GoinGecko comes in, although they do offer lots of other useful stuff. CoinGecko is available both online and as a mobile application so you can use it anywhere. The most obvious thing to do here is simply create your own portfolio and track it from the app. That way you’re always on top of crypto price movements.
On top of that CoinGecko is the perfect place to start when researching a new crypto. When you click on a crypto, you’ll find it’s market cap, price, volume, supply, exchange listings and a description. All of this is good to know when making up your mind whether the crypto is a s*itcoin or not. If you don’t know how to spot this type of a crypto then Coin Bureau has the perfect video on that. A few additional statistics you can find on CoinGecko are some social statistic, developer statistic and even brief analysis by IntoTheBlock.
Also, if you’re looking for something besides specific cryptocurrencies, you’ll find it here. On CoinGecko you’ll find derivatives, exchanges, DeFi, NFTs, Yield Farming, podcasts, and they have even published a couple of books. So, if there’s anything you’re looking for then steering your ship towards CoinGecko will be helpful. Most of the things they offer are free but they do have two paid plans available. First is the premium plan for roughly $4 a month which gives you an ad free CoinGecko. Then they have the premium+ for roughly $8 which opens up a lot more including access to their books, research reports, chat with their research analysts, and a lot more.
3. Glassnode
To start things off I wanted to go with Glassnode. Glassnode is an on-chain analytics tool and it’s one of my favorite places to visit when the markets turn red and I need to see the bigger picture to regain my confidence. Looking at active wallet addresses rising always helps me sleep at night. But that’s not all. Glassnode offers a variety of different metrics and they support many cryptos including big names Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, as well as many DeFi tokens and ERC-20 tokens.
Last time I gave you a few metrics to look for and those were total active address and NUPL (Net unrealized profits/losses). However, Glassnode offers a lot more. The problem is that if you don’t know what to look for, or how to interpret the metrics and charts, it’s kind of useless. That’s why I want to redirect you to Glassnodes weekly on-chain analysis. You can read through these yourself or watch via YouTube, and I highly recommend you to do that. Watching those have helped me a lot in understanding the benefits of on-chain analysis as well as how I can do that analysis on my own. They also give you a sense of where we are in the market cycle which is often times helpful when managing your portfolio. Another place to really learn about on-chain analysis is from the Glassnode academy.
And do you know the best part of all of the learning opportunities at Glassnode? They’re both free. No need to pay for anything before you know how to use these metrics. Then when you have learnt everything and want to start doing your own research, I suggest you opt for the $29 a month plan. They do offer one higher plan too but that costs $799 a month so I don’t think it’s relevant to many of us.
2. CryptoQuant
Again, a site filled with extremely important metrics. CryptoQuant offers data on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stablecoins, and then generally on Altcoins. This data consists of market data, on-chain data, and exchange flows.
Getting right into certain picks here, one metric suited for the current situation is all exchanges estimated leverage. In the recent crash (December 2021) that took Bitcoin all the way down to $42k we saw the leverage drop significantly due to liquidations. Now, the price has started to rebound while the leverage has stayed relatively low. I would argue that this is extremely bullish since the leverage was rising constantly for a longer time and now we’ve shaken out a lot of over leveraged people, the rise in prices is on more sustainable ground I would say.
Another thing to look at is all exchanges reserves. You’ve probably heard Guy on Coin Bureau mention that we’ll see high volatility in the markets due to low liquidity on exchanges and this is true. However, now you don’t have to wait for Guy to say this since you can check this yourself on CryptoQuant. If you don’t now have the time to check I can quickly tell you that it’s extremely low, so, expect volatility.
Lastly, if you’re wondering on the cost, I’ll be happy to tell you that to access those statistics I mentioned plus lots more it’s completely free. You just have to create an account. If you need more, then they have an advanced plan for $39 a month (if billed monthly) that includes more accurate on-chain indicators. On top of that there’s the professional plan for $109 a month and a premium plan for $799 a month. I would argue that the best way to go is starting free and then if you feel that it’s necessary upgrade to the advanced plan. Those other two might be a bit too expensive, especially if you want to get some other tools on this list.
1. Coin Metrics
Here’s a tool that doesn’t run out of things to look at and use. Coin Metrics is best known for their accurate and up to date on-chain data with over 400 metrics and 100 supported cryptocurrencies. Now what I do have to say is that this tool feels kind of aimed at more experienced people. The site is stylish and simple but I get a sense that Coin Metrics aims more for institutional clients. That’s because they offer some paid plans which you can’t get access to online but have to contact them directly, and when you purchase these plans you gain an access key to an API through which you can get access to more tools and data. That’s why if you’re a retail user doing some on-chain analysis I would go with Glassnode since I find it easier to use, and cheaper besides.
That said, Coin Metrics is still a great site which is why I have listed it here although my personal preferences are for other sites. I’ve come across multiple news sites using Coin Metrics’ research as a reference and you too can get access to those. These are useful since they provide you with important data while teaching you how to do the analysis yourself next time. They usually sum up each quarter with different charts showing a variety of useful statistics. Here you’ll get a good sense of how everything has been going and where we might be heading. On top of that they also sum up each week in shorter reports which are worth checking out.
Bottom Line
As I mentioned with LunarCrush you shouldn’t be relaying on just one of these tools and not even only those mentioned in these lists. There’re tons more useful tools and doing research also includes looking at the project site, including reading the complete whitepaper. These tools are just meant to enhance the analysis and using them in combination which each other makes them more powerful. Naturally, you have a higher chance of picking the right investment if five sites give you a buy impression rather than just one giving that. Also, these sites listed here are in no particular order since all of them are good with different use cases. But, enough said, take the things you learned here and head on out to do your own research.
