The "Next Yardstick" for Viewing Crypto Assets—Neither Price nor Speed

Materials introducing crypto asset projects typically highlight the single most impressive metric: TPS for blockchains, TVL for DeFi, user counts for games, or market capitalization for tokens. While these figures are essential for gauging performance and scale, they also reflect how each project chooses to showcase its specific strengths.

Consequently, the leading names shift depending on the yardstick used to measure the crypto market. High-speed blockchains stand out when ranked by processing speed, whereas Bitcoin takes the top spot based on market capitalization. A different set of leaders emerges if the criteria shift to transaction fees, user numbers, or protocol revenue.

Two news stories featured in the July edition of the "Toreo" Note illustrate this dynamic perfectly. Sui recorded approximately 6 million TPS during a public test, while Bitcoin was excluded from a new S&P crypto asset index. One story highlighted a massive new record in technical performance metrics, while the other involved criteria that resulted in the exclusion of the crypto asset with the largest market capitalization.