1-Year Total Return

The one-year return compares today's composite price with the price twelve months ago. It is the shortest window commonly used for cross-asset comparison. It remains a price return: staking issuance received over the year, airdrops, and fork distributions are not included.

How it is computed

(price now / price 12 months ago - 1) x 100

Where it misleads

One year rarely spans a full digital-asset cycle, so the number is dominated by where the window happens to begin; a window starting near the late-2021 peak and one starting near the late-2022 trough describe the same asset in opposite terms. Token supply schedules mean the unit measured at the start of the window may have had a materially different issuance rate from the unit measured at the end, as with Ethereum's issuance change at the 2022 Merge. Venue coverage almost always changes over twelve months, and providers restate history inconsistently when it does. A staked position's outcome over a year can differ from this figure by a large margin.

The equity comparison, and why it fails

Trailing twelve-month total return; the equity version includes dividends and is built on a series adjusted for corporate actions, while this omits staking rewards and is unadjusted for supply events.

Reading a high or a low value

A positive figure means the price is above its level a year ago; a negative one means below. Because the result depends strongly on the start date, compare several windows rather than reading one in isolation.