What Is Circulating Supply?

Circulating Supply is the number of tokens actively available for trading right now. Unlike max supply (the hard cap) or total supply (all tokens ever minted), circulating supply only counts tokens that aren't locked in vesting schedules, held by the team, or sitting in treasury contracts.

For airdrop farmers, circulating supply directly impacts token price and your farming rewards' real value. When Arbitrum airdropped 625 million ARB tokens, only a portion entered circulation immediately—the rest were subject to vesting schedules. This mattered because early sellers of airdropped ARB tokens influenced price, while vesting schedules meant future supply increases would dilute the circulating supply percentage. If you farmed ARB and received tokens subject to a 4-year vesting cliff, your tokens weren't counted in circulating supply until they unlocked.

Here's why this matters for your strategy: a protocol might claim 1 billion tokens exist, but if only 200 million are circulating, the token price reflects scarcity relative to what's actually tradeable. Jito airdropped 1 billion JTO tokens, but massive portions went to team vesting and ecosystem reserves—the circulating supply started much lower. When you're evaluating which protocol to farm, checking circulating vs. total supply shows you whether the current price is artificially inflated by scarcity or whether massive dilution is coming from unlocks.

Token unlocks directly increase circulating supply. If a protocol has 50 million tokens vesting this quarter, circulating supply jumps 50 million when those cliff dates hit. This predictable inflation often causes price pressure during unlock windows—something experienced airdrop farmers watch closely. You can track upcoming unlocks using sites like Token Unlocks, then plan your exit timing around these supply events. Understanding circulating supply helps you spot when a token's price might be overvalued due to artificial scarcity, versus when sustainable farming APYs actually justify your time investment.