Total Supply

Total supply counts all tokens in existence at the moment of measurement, whether transferable or not, less any that have been provably destroyed. It therefore includes team allocations still vesting, treasury balances, and tokens locked in contracts, all of which circulating supply excludes. On chains with ongoing issuance the figure changes with every block, so any published total supply is a snapshot with a timestamp.

How it is computed

tokens minted since genesis - tokens verifiably burned

Where it misleads

Providers differ on what counts as destroyed: tokens sent to an address with no known private key, tokens stranded in a contract with no withdrawal function, and tokens locked by a bridge on another chain are each subtracted by some sources and counted by others. On a chain with continuous issuance, two figures dated hours apart legitimately disagree, and comparisons drawn from different snapshot times are not meaningful. Where a mint authority has not been revoked, the total is a current reading rather than any kind of bound, because more tokens can be created at will. For assets that exist across several chains, deciding which balances belong in one total is a methodological choice with no correct answer.

The equity comparison, and why it fails

Shares issued, including treasury shares. The analogy fails because issued share counts are recorded in a corporate register under statutory obligation, changed only by authorized corporate action, and disclosed in periodic filings, while token supply changes automatically under code and can be altered by whoever holds an unrevoked mint key.

Reading a high or a low value

Total supply above circulating supply means some tokens exist but are not classified as transferable. The gap between the two is where vesting schedules, treasury balances, and locked allocations sit.