--- title: "What Is On-Chain Data? Reading a Public Ledger as Market Information" term: "On-chain data" type: glossary_term canonical: https://www.moonwire.org/insights/glossary/on-chain-data.html --- # What Is On-Chain Data? Reading a Public Ledger as Market Information > Information taken directly from a blockchain's public record - balances, transfers, fees, the age of coins that have not moved - rather than from an exchange order book. It describes settlement that has already happened, not quotes. **On-chain data** is everything recorded on a blockchain itself: addresses and balances, every transfer with its amount and timestamp, fees paid, and the age of coins that have not moved. Because the ledger is public, crypto is one of the few markets where settlement is visible to everyone in near real time. ## What it measures Raw records get aggregated into metrics. The common families: - **Supply and age.** How much of the supply has not moved in a year or more, and how much sits dormant. - **Flows.** Coins moving into or out of addresses labelled as exchanges. - **Network use.** Active addresses, transaction counts, fees paid. - **Cost basis.** The average price at which a group of holders acquired their coins, compared against spot to show whether that group is above or below water. ## The labelling problem The ledger states that address A sent 500 tokens to address B. It does not state who owns either. So every "exchange inflow" or "long-term holder" metric rests on a vendor's address labels and cohort definitions, which are proprietary and get revised. Two firms can publish different numbers for the same day and both be internally consistent. Carry the provider and the definition alongside the number, or the number means less than it looks. ## In MoonWire analysis We treat on-chain prints as dated measurements with a named source, never as a verdict. In August 2026 we covered an analytics firm publishing two large bitcoin figures and [declining to draw a direction from either](/insights/market-pulse-2026-08-07.html) — the disclaimer was the story. In September 2026 a measured sector print cut against the narrative that had been built around a single token, which we covered in [a Zcash deep-dive](/insights/zcash-bull-case-monetary-not-only-zec.html). Where a figure reaches us only through someone else quoting it, we say so rather than presenting it as first-hand. ## What it is not On-chain data is not order-book data. It shows settlement that has already happened, not resting bids and offers, and it carries no price discovery of its own. It is also not a complete picture of trading: activity inside a centralised exchange moves on that company's internal ledger and never touches a public chain at all. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Blockchain analysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain_analysis) ## Where this appears in MoonWire analysis - [Three Chains Prepped for Quantum Attacks. A Weak Random Number Broke First.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/state-of-market-2026-08.md) — Sep 14, 2026 - [Prognosis daily - 29 Aug: one fresh Solana lean, the rest of the book left running](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/prognosis-daily-2026-08-29.md) — Aug 29, 2026 - [July CPI Printed Exactly on Forecast. The Rotation Talk Was AI Equities.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-08-12.md) — Aug 12, 2026 - [The Bid Came Back in Bitcoin's Options Book, Not Its Futures Book](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-08-08.md) — Aug 8, 2026 - [Glassnode Published Two Big Bitcoin Numbers and Disclaimed Both Readings](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-08-07.md) — Aug 7, 2026 - [890,000 Bitcoin Moved in Seven Days. One Firm Called It a Possible Bottom; an Exchange Called It “the Flip Side of FTX.”](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-08-06.md) — Aug 6, 2026 - [Strategy Sold Bitcoin to Pay a Dividend, and Saylor Separated His Coins From the Company's](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-08-03.md) — Aug 4, 2026 - [Market Pulse - August 1: A Patch Reaches the Firmware, Not the Keys It Already Made. Two Other Stories Saturday Worked the Same Way.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-08-01.md) — Aug 2, 2026 - [Market Pulse - July 30: Bitcoin's Exchanges Spent the Day Listing Oil, the S&P 500 and Event Contracts.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-07-30.md) — Jul 30, 2026 - [Market Pulse — July 27: Strategy Went Five Weeks Without Buying Bitcoin — and Named Coin Sales as a Funding Source for Its Buybacks](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-07-27.md) — Jul 27, 2026 - [Market Pulse — July 23: The Venue That Invented the 100x Perpetual Is Closing. The Perpetual Never Left.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-07-23.md) — Jul 23, 2026 - [MoonWire Crypto Security Tracker (2026): Losses Fell Below $1 Billion Even as Incidents Hit a Record - and the Threat Moved From Stolen Keys to Manipulated Logic](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/crypto-security-tracker-2026.md) — Jul 14, 2026 --- *MoonWire surfaces and summarizes public crypto news.* **General information only — not financial advice.** MoonWire Ltd. is not licensed by ASIC and holds no AFSL. This content does not consider your objectives, financial situation, or needs, and is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. *This analysis is generated by artificial intelligence and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or fabricated. Independently verify before acting.* © 2026 MoonWire Ltd. · [Terms](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/TOS) · [Risk Disclosure](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/RISK_DISCLOSURE) · [Privacy Policy](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/PRIVACY_POLICY)