What is crypto market data?

Crypto market data is the collection of quantitative information about how digital assets are trading and being used. It's the raw numbers that describe what's happening in markets at any given moment. In practice it breaks down into a few layers:

• Price & valuation — current spot price, historical price action, market capitalization (price × circulating supply), all-time high/low.
• Trading activity — 24h trading volume, volume by market, buy/sell order splits, order book depth, and for derivatives: funding rates, open interest, and liquidation data.
• Supply metrics — circulating vs. total vs. max supply, inflation/unlock schedules, staking and burn rates.
• On-chain data — transaction counts, active addresses, gas/fees paid, holder counts, liquidity pool reserves and TVL (total value locked), token security flags (liquidity locks, honeypot checks, mint/freeze authority).
• Sentiment & news — funding flows, search interest, social activity, and headlines that move prices.

Different sources specialize in different layers: CoinGecko aggregates price/volume/market cap and rankings, DexScreener covers live DEX pairs and token security, DefiLlama tracks protocol TVL and fee revenue, and block explorers give raw on-chain stats.

One thing worth knowing: no single source is exhaustive, and they don't always agree. Market cap depends on how supply is counted, volume can be inflated by wash trading, and DEX price data only reflects the specific pool it's pulled from. Good research cross-references a couple of independent sources rather than trusting one number.

If you want to see real market data in action, I can pull the current trending coins, check a specific coin's live price and stats, or compare exchanges on their fees and liquidity. What would be useful?